For men, if you select "Male" to begin, you will not be able to enter anything in the "Hips" field - because that's not an area of measuring male body fat. Males have 3 areas to measure. Females have 4 areas to measure.
Knowing your body fat percentage is extremely important information you need in order to attain your goals. Armed with your true body fat percentage, you will know if you are considered "healthy" or...not. Knowing whether you are gaining or losing fat or muscle will tell you if you are exercising and eating correctly.. The higher your fat mass the harder your entire body has to work - for everything.
A simple test you can do as you are reading this is a "pinch" test. Using your thumb and forefinger of one hand, raise your opposite arm and lightly pinch the back of your arm. When you do that, do you feel anything firm or "not soft"? The soft feeling "skin" is - fat. Where you feel something between your thumb and forefinger, that would be muscle.
If you can pinch just a small spot because there is not enough to grab, that's good. If you can pinch and realize you could grab a large portion of that area hanging down and none of feel solid, just soft, that's fat.
There is no such thing as "saggy skin". It's one of two things - muscle or fat. If you can flex the muscle and still see more than a "pinch" of "extra", that's fat. The longer you refuse to say "fat" the more fat you will continue to add to your body.
High body fat forces your heart (and other bodily functions) to work much harder than is healthy. If you have never "conditioned" your heart (the fact that you are asking yourself what that means indicates you have never conditioned your heart...) you could be putting yourself at risk. Keep your body fat under 20% and your body will thank you. If your body fat is 28% or higher, meaning, anywhere you test you find a fist-full of fat, you can be sure you are well over 28% body fat.
Did you know that 28% body fat is considered "obese"?
Review the "Body Fat Chart" in order to see what percentage is healthy for your age.
Please note: It's impossible to measure your body fat accurately without personal contact. BMI is the only method to check your body fat through a Web site. Yet, it's the "least" accurate method and can be off by as much as 10%. If you would at least like to get an "idea" of where you are with your body fat, knowing it may be an inaccurate measurement, take a look at the BMI body fat calculator.
Simply enter the information for each field, then click on "Calculate" in the following calculator.
- Details
- Written by: Thomas Garrison
- Category: Exercise
- Hits: 2725
Simple Exercise
Exercise encompasses a lot of wives tales and jargon, but you only need to know that it means you are doing "something" other than sitting...doing nothing. Your diet is not the only thing that you need to consider for changing or for maintaining. Exercise must also be what you incorporate with your diet in order to reach your goal(s) or to maintain when you are ready. Anything - quite literally - can be exercise. It's not important for you to perform specific exercises to lose fat or gain muscle. But there are specific methods - except if you just want to lose fat.
- Details
- Written by: Thomas Garrison
- Category: Exercise
- Hits: 3689