How to find out your fat percentage?

One of the most accurate body composition analysis methods (available in the CIS) is skinfold measurement. Body composition analysis shows the distribution of your weight: how much of it is fat, and how much is everything else. Such an analysis can be done in some sports and health centers and fitness clubs. Some methods of performing this test are quite simple, others are much more complex.

Measuring skinfold thickness
This method is quite simple. Using a special instrument resembling a caliper, they pinch your skin fold and immediately find out its thickness using a scale on the instrument itself. “Tucks” are made in the abdomen, upper back, chest and hips. Then the obtained data is substituted into special formulas and the specific percentage of fat accumulation is obtained.

Of course, this technique is much inferior in accuracy to the latest high-tech methods of analysis, for example, computed tomography. Compare, a computed tomograph gives a clear visual image of fatty and non-fatty tissues, so no method can compare with CT in terms of reliability of assessment. However, for the sake of truth, it should be said that the procedure itself is so expensive and so complicated that it is almost never used in sports practice.

The accuracy of measurements by pinching a skin fold largely depends on who is performing the procedure. Of course, it is better that you are in the hands of an experienced person rather than a novice trainee. In any case, measurements must be taken by the same specialist. In the end, even if it is not the best, you will at least get results with the same degree of error. Next, you will have to compare the results of different measurements to understand whether there is real progress in fat loss.

Ultrasound
This method of examination is carried out using special equipment, similar to that found in ultrasound rooms. Ultrasonic waves penetrate deep into the skin and show the thickness of the fat layer on a measuring scale. Typically, ultrasound scanning is performed in several places. The data obtained in this way is used to calculate the total percentage of fat in your body.

Method for measuring bioelectrical impedance (BER)
When using the BES method, a weak electrical current is passed through your body. No more than a tiny pocket battery. The current is supplied through electrodes attached to the arms and legs. Fat tissue, unlike muscle tissue, does not conduct current. It turns out that the faster the current passes through the body, the less fat it contains. The obtained data is substituted into formulas that take into account height, gender and age. This is how the percentage of fat in total body weight is calculated.

Weighing in water
The test goes like this: you sit in a chair suspended from a scale, exhale, and you are immersed in a tank of water. For about 10 seconds, while the underwater weighing is going on, you naturally cannot breathe. The whole procedure is repeated several times. Based on the three maximum results, the average value is displayed. Based on it, the percentage of fat in body weight is calculated using several complex formulas.

Infrared irradiation
This method is based on a simple phenomenon: fabrics with different densities refract light differently. Sensors with miniature sources of infrared rays are attached to certain points on your body. The received data is processed by a computer, and you get the result in 10 seconds.

System "Baud Pod"
The latest computer system, Bod Pod, is something out of science fiction. You enter a special room, and sensors analyze how much air you have “displaced” with your body. A couple more moments, and you get a highly accurate breakdown of fat, muscle, bones and water in your own body!

If you don't have a chance to use any of the described methods for determining body composition, you can do it differently without resorting to any abstruse methods.

Waist/hip ratio assessment
You measure yourself using a regular tailor's meter at the waist and hips. Relationship between