Body Fat

body fat percentage - why it's important,
calipers, calculators and MORE!

What is body fat?

Your body fat percentage is exactly what it sounds like... it's the amount of fat on your body. It's what people REALLY want to lose when they say they want to lose weight. See, "weight" can be a lot of things. Weight can be water, weight can be muscle, and weight can be body fat. When you step on a scale, you only see weight. The scale can only tell you whether you gained weight or lost weight, but it can't tell you what that weight was. This is where knowing your body fat percentage comes in handy.

Why should I know what my body fat percentage is?

I'll tell you why... do you have a scale? Do you weigh yourself to track your progress? Ok, that's great. But what if I told you there was a better way of tracking your progress than a scale? Because... there is. Whether your goal is weight loss or weight gain, whether you are looking to lose fat, increase muscle or a combination of both, one of the most important things you need to know is your body fat percentage. People pay so much attention to scales and tape measures, yet they neglect the most accurate way of tracking progress. The way I see it, your weight is like a globe... and your body fat percentage is more like a street map. One will show you a very general direction, but the other will show you exactly where you're going.

For example, let's pretend your goal is weight loss. You started to eat better. You started to workout more. And now, after a certain period of time, you decide to get on your scale and see how much weight you've lost. How much progress have you made? Well let's see what the scale says. According to the scale, you didn't lose a single pound. Now you feel all bad and discouraged and think about changing your diet or workout because it's obviously not working. The thing is though, that scale may be lying to you. Well, maybe not lying... maybe just not telling you the whole truth.

You could have indeed lost fat, but, at the very same time... GAINED muscle. This would cause your weight to stay exactly the same. And since a scale only shows weight, it would appear as though you've made no progress what so ever. However, if you were keeping track of your body fat percentage, it would actually show that you DID lose fat, and then you would be able to realize that if your weight stayed the same, it can only be because you gained muscle. A scale can not show this to you, yet this is probably the only way you (and most people) have been tracking your progress.

The same thing goes for people trying to gain weight. People refer to it as "trying to gain weight" but in reality, they are trying to gain muscle. A scale can only tell you if you are gaining weight. However, your body fat percentage can tell you if what you are gaining is fat or muscle. Maybe the scale says you gained 5 pounds, but how much of it was muscle? Tracking your body fat is the only thing that will give you that answer. You may be gaining too much fat and too little muscle, and it could mean an adjustment needs to be made to your diet or workout. But, you won't know this unless you've been tracking your body fat percentage.

How do I measure my body fat percentage?

There are 2 usual ways people measure their body fat. However, only 1 way actually works and only 1 way is actually accurate. That first way is by using these online calculators that some web sites have. I'm going to recommend you avoid these online calculators because, at best, they just give far off estimates of what your body fat percentage really is. The point of measuring your body fat is so you can track your progress as accurately as possible, and a far off estimate is hardly accurate tracking. You might as well just use a scale then.

There is only one true way to get an accurate measurement of your body fat percentage, and that is by using something called body fat calipers. Calipers are a measurement device used to measure thickness. In this case, it will be the thickness of parts of your body. There are a few specific spots (referred to as "skinfolds") that you measure with the calipers, and then you do some basic math, and... that's it. Within seconds you will know your body fat percentage.

Where can I get body fat calipers?

If you workout at a gym, sometimes if you're really lucky, some gyms offer free body fat caliper tests to it's members. I'd suggest asking someone about it if you are interested in having it done this way. However, if you'd rather not have some stranger at the gym perform this test on you (they will have to see you with your shirt off), you can just buy your own calipers and do it yourself privately. This is what I do and have been doing for quite a while. It's actually really easy. Now whenever I weigh myself, I check my body fat percentage right after. Doing both plus using a tape measure allows me to track my progress as accurately as I possibly can.

So, if you'd like to buy your own body fat calipers relatively cheap, I'd recommend buying this brand here: AccuFitness Body Fat Calipers

AccuFitness now also makes a very cool looking digital version, which looks even simpler than the original. You can see more about it here: Digital Body Fat Calipers

By the way, AccuFitness is the most widely used brand of calipers and are recommended by basically every workout related resource I've come across.

Once you get them you'll know how much progress you're really making, and you'd be surprised just how much it's going to help you.