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weight loss program is not important just because you feel you are overweight. It is also necessary to figure out whether you really need to lose weight or just require some physical activity. For this, it is essential to measure the amount of excess fat in your body.
There are mainly four methods to determine the amount of body fat. These methods aid the measurement of fat and check the progress of your weight loss program. Here we explain two of them.
• B.M.I:
B.M.I or Body Mass Index is an internationally accepted method to calculate body fat of a person. It is a unisex method to find out the body mass of a person based on his/her correlation of the height and weight. It is the most dependable method to find out how fit you are.
Through this method, you can calculate your relative fat in the body to your height and weight to decide whether you need a weight loss program or not.This is how you can calculate your B.M.I:
B.M.I = [weight / (height) (height)] x 703
This is the English B.M.I where weight is in pounds, height in inches
Or
B.M.I = [weight / (height) (height)]
This is the Metric B.M.I where weight is in kilograms and height in meters.
Refer the following chart after you calculate your B.M.I to find out your status:
Underweight Less than or equal to 18.5
Normal 18.6 – 24.9
Overweight 25 - 29.9
Obese 30 - 39.9
Extremely obese 40 or above
This method is an easy way to measure the ratio between your body fat and your height and weight. Regularly calculating your B.M.I can assist you to keep your weight under check and you will know when you need a weight loss program. You can do this sitting at home and all you need to have is a calculator. However, B.M.I method has a few limitations and proves to be wrong in two cases:
I. For bodybuilders and athletes:
As muscles usually weigh more than fat, this method is not useful for persons who have strong muscular bodies like athletes, bodybuilders, etc. Hence, their weight is overestimated.
II. Aged persons:
In the old age the muscles tend to loosen and the muscle mass diminishes. Therefore, the B.M.I method undermines the ratios of persons who are aged.
• Underwater Weighing:
Underwater weighing is another method through which you can check your weight and design a
weight loss program, if needed. This method uses standardized formula to calculate your body density. It is a fact that water is higher in density than fat while muscles and bones are denser than water. The underwater weighing, scientifically known as hydrodensityometry weighing, establishes your body density by measuring your volume. For this, your weight is noted down in normal conditions (out of water). You are then submerged completely in water and measured again.
Hydrostatic method has the same limitations as those of B.M.I. This method overestimates the weight of athletes, other muscular persons, and underestimates that of old persons.
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