How a Body Fat Monitor Works
If you are like me, you may have noticed that you look fine in the mirror or the number on your scale hasn’t gone up too much in the past few weeks. But why can’t the pant size I wore a month ago fit the same way it did then? Have the stores changed their sizing policies? This invariably leads to frustration and embarrassment.
Obesity is now identified as a serious health problem, and not only among children. In fact, it’s the fastest growing symptom among senior executives who spend most of their time at desks with little physical activity. Unless you’re a child or a senior executive, how do we know whether we are sitting above or below the “danger” level?
Sure, a scale can tell you how much you weigh and by diarizing your weight over a period of time you can create a pretty trend line. But weight has little to do with your body fat measurement. In some cases, you can look okay in the mirror and your weight might not increase much (or at all) but your health could still be just as much at risk as someone with a serious weight problem. See, when they said it was what is on the inside that counts, they weren’t kidding. Body fat, which resides under the surface, is really what threatens your health and increases your prospect for weight-related health problems.
The way to properly measure body fat is with a body fat monitor. This device can tell us what we need to know.
In the past, you might have had to see a doctor or fitness specialist to properly calculate your body fat content. Over the past twenty-eight years or so, these machines have evolved to the point where they can capture biometric impedance. As high-tech as it sounds, today’s body fat monitors are actually simple to use.
The way the monitor works is that it sends an electrical signal through your body and measures the resistance faced by the signal. For example, a signal will pass quicker through body water than through body fat. People with high fat and muscle composition, then, would have high body water contents. The monitor measures total body water (TBW) and then figures out fat-free mass of the body. Next it will estimate your body fat by calculating the difference and taking body weight into account.
With so many monitors on the market today, how do you choose a body fat monitor? With prices ranging from under forty dollars to over seven hundred, the choices are plenty. Luckily, they are all easy to use for the most part, allowing even children to use their basic features.
The basic features you should consider are whether your body fat monitor can make simple calculations like daily caloric intake and perform basic weight monitoring calculations. You should also look for a model that comes with the option of changing settings (e.g. from child to adult, from athletic to moderately athletic to non-athletic, and so on). While seemingly unimportant when you get started, these features can make a difference in how well the monitor performs over a longer period of time, particularly as your habits shift (our activity levels tend to change over time). As well, the more accurate a reading is, the more it will help you remain focused with your longer-term fitness objectives.
Another vital feature with some monitors is longer term monitoring and storage. You will want to pick a body fat monitor that can save multiple readings. This way, parents and children can share a single unit without the need for manual trending and recording.
What a body fat monitor will not do is help us lose weight just by keeping track of our readings. But by measuring our readings regularly, we may be able to stay on track with our workouts and find satisfaction as the underlying numbers support that we are indeed shaping a better, healthier body. And with that, hopefully, we can eliminate those last-minute frustrating moments of squeezing into a pair of pants that really should fit properly.
Tags: Fitness
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