Читать книгу Intermittent Fasting For Dummies - Janet Bond Brill - Страница 37

You can get reasonably accurate results from fitness centers or universities where specially trained fitness professionals use valid tools ranging from simple measurements to expensive tests to measure your body fat. Some of these techniques include skin fold calipers, underwater weighing tanks, air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pods), and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) equipment.

If you try several of these methods, you may receive different measurements. You basically get what you pay for. Obtaining an estimate of your body fat from unscientific methods (such as scales and untrained fitness professionals) produces notoriously erroneous results. Underwater weighing, magnetic resonance imaging, computerized tomography (CT) scans, and air displacement plethysmography are the most accurate, but they’re also the costliest, unless insurance covers them. If you’re able to use more than one tool, be sure to keep track of changes in your body fat over time in your journal to keep you motivated.

Some people think that the lower the amount of fat in the body, the better. However, that’s not true, because the body needs a minimum percentage of fat, called essential fat that is lower in men (3 percent) and greater for women (12 to 15 percent) for good health. (Only elite athletes ever come close to these extremely low body fat numbers.)