Hello my curious readers. I am sure that you already know the importance of setting goals. This helps us to stay focus and track how we are geeing on. My question to myself today was, what was the best way to measure my body fat? I have a bathroom scale which has a B.F faction, however I am not convince that was the best way. I so i went out hunting and here is a list of different methods.
I was piratically interested in the Calipers so that might be my next investment or shall i say my 1st reward of my fist 4 weeks of my INSANITY program. But the question i have for you is, are your goal realistic? Here is a snip bit of information i dag up from bodybuilding.com (btw awesome site for all sorts of training information if you wanna go hardcore like i do ;) )
| Body-Fat Percentage Norms For Men | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Body-Fat Percentage Norms For Women | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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How Low Is Too Low?
It is generally impossible to achieve a body-fat reading of below three-percent. Even under conditions of starvation, the body will maintain a degree of fat to support vital organs (essential fat). It is thought that about three-percent of a man's body-fat is essential.
Women need more essential fat for child bearing and other hormone related functions (the average woman's essential body-fat is around 12-percent). Essential fat is stored in the bone marrow, around the internal organs, and in the brain and spinal cord.
The average male (aged 20-30), according to statistical norms, will hold between 13-16 percent body-fat. Bodybuilders and other fitness adherents, on the other hand, tend to go much lower, but still generally do not go any lower than four-six-percent to achieve their best conditioning.
Like i mentioned before, set yourself realistic, un-fail-able goals. They are there to motivate you to keep pushing, not to set you up to fail!!!! Keep pushing!!!
Signing off for now
Cuppypowers
xxx
Body Fat Calipers are a great way to measure, but they don't work for everyone. The ones I have recommend the "one spot check" method. This gets information from the supralliac area (basically your belly fat) and is considered fairly accurate. I use this method, but have also found that using a measurement calculator helps to "double-check" the caliper readings.
ReplyDeleteEven better is to use the jackson-pollock method, which uses multiple check points. This helps with accuracy, but may be difficult to do by yourself. For whatever reason, I have a really difficult time pinching the skin on my chest and thighs with enough room to take a reading. It's like my skin isn't 'loose' enough.
@ thefatman, Dude, may be you have nothing to pinch!? lol!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation. I will check out the methods you mentioned! ;)
Haha! Maybe I'm just doing it really wrong!
ReplyDelete(changed name from thefatman)
Ha, i know that's your other name :D I checked out the coachtemplar website, but it was empty. Many be "thefatman" ate the content for dinner! heehee
ReplyDeleteCheck it out again, should be up and working and the links to old archives/posts and comments should be functional now. If not, let me know!
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