![]() ![]() Come back skinfolds, all is forgiven: A narrative review of the efficacy of common body composition methods in applied sports practice. Measurement of visceral fat, abdominal circumference and waist-hip ratio to predict health risk in males and females. Obesity, kidney dysfunction and hypertension: mechanistic links. In BMI we trust: Reframing the body mass index as a measure of health. Ethnicity-specific BMI cutoffs for obesity based on type 2 diabetes risk in England: a population-based cohort study. ![]() ![]() Understanding your health and weight: Body mass index (BMI).You drink isotope-rich water and provide a sample of bodily fluids that tell doctors about your body’s performance. X-rays (which move through fat, muscle, and bone at different speeds) are used to calculate body fat percentage. Your weight is measured while you’re immersed in water and compared to your weight on dry land. An electric current is passed through your body to estimate body fat percentage. Folds of skin are pinched and measured at different points around your body. A doctor can run different tests on you to get as accurate a picture as humanly possible. If you want to get serious about your body fat, you might have to take a trip to the lab. While waist circumference alone can help track your fat loss journey, it’s less handy when comparing yourself with others. It doesn’t account for height, age, or other criticisms we fired at BMI. Now, this isn’t a perfect measurement of health either. That will give you a good indicator of how much visceral fat you may have. Waist circumferenceĮven easier than measuring WHR is simply measuring the circumference of your waist. Some limited evidence suggests WHR might be a more accurate predictor of health outcomes than BMI, especially in those who are elderly. The general idea is that your hips should be wider than your waist. Measure around your hips where they’re widest.Measure around your waist where it’s thinnest (usually around your belly button).It’s an accurate way to measure body fat, particularly that extra-harmful visceral fat. WHR measures the circumference of your waist compared to that of your hips. Multiple efforts have been made to set different scoring bands for different ethnic groups, but these still aren’t perfect.ĭecided BMI isn’t giving you the whole picture? There are other ways to measure body fat and get a snapshot of your health. BMI doesn’t account for ethnicityĪs a health metric, BMI can’t account for genetic differences between ethnicities. For postmenopausal women, an underweight BMI might be more serious than for someone who is younger. BMI and ageīeing overweight can have different outcomes as we get older. Fat around your organs (aka visceral fat) poses a greater health risk than that found in your booty and boobs. Women hold fat in different areas of the body than men.Īlso, there’s body fat, and then there’s body fat. People who are anatomically female have a different body fat distribution than those who are anatomically male. Those with significant muscle definition and low body fat percentage might be considered overweight on the BMI scale. Muscle is more dense than fat, so one pound of fat will take up more space than one pound of muscle. It can be particularly inaccurate when we account for: There’s a growing medical opinion that BMI is too simplistic. It’s geared towards averages, so it’s not as accurate for those with above-average heights – tall or short. What are the drawbacks and criticisms of BMI for women?īMI is simple, but it’s far from a perfect measurement of health.
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