Calculate Body Fat Percent to Monitor Fitness Goals
A few of you may have been told of SMART goal setting.
For those of you who haven’t, SMART is short for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. The concept, within a few words, is that all desired goals need to be SMART if they are going to be useful at all. There is virtually no point setting a goal that lacks even one of these five components. In this write-up, I’m going to go over how you can calculate body fat and how this pertains to the “measurable” portion.
First, I will say a few things about the “specific” component.
A fitness goal should be specific in order for it to become measurable. If your main aim is to “lose weight”, that’s essentially impossible to measure. My main fitness objective for 2010 was to lower my body fat percentage lower than 8% within 6 months and keep it at that point for the remainder of the year. Notice that I utilized body fat ratio, not body weight, as my chosen unit of measurement. I think body fat percentage is a superior indicator of overall human body composition to weight. Someone can be extremely brawny as well as at an incredibly low body fat percentage and still be regarded “overweight” strictly by body mass index, even though they look amazing. On the other hand, an individual can be “skinny fat” with a sensible body weight, but very high body fat percentage that shows once they take their shirt off.
I strongly recommend using body fat percentage for your way of measuring body composition.
In the event your body fat percentage is on point, the body weight will handle itself. The downside of using body fat percentage is that it isn't the simplest thing to measure. To get a truly accurate measurement of body fat percentage, you'll need advanced methods such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) which can be expensive. I measure my body fat percentage every week and I don’t know what you think, but I’m reluctant to pay $50 - $100 a week to determine my body fat percentage.
Exactly what do I use?
I personally use an electronic body composition scale which measures body fat percentage through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). BIA sends a tiny electric current through your body to measure total body water which it utilizes to approximate body fat percentage. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly harmless. The disadvantage: it’s not so accurate. BIA scales are inclined to understate body fat percentage. Nevertheless, I’m okay with this since I’m more interested in the pattern over time than the actual number.
The trick is to keep as many parameters consistent as is feasible.
I try to weigh myself on the same day each week. This doesn’t always happen, but I do usually weigh myself at about the same time of day (in the evening) after working out, taking a shower, and urinating but before eating or drinking anything. When you're tracking measurements with time, it is crucial to manage these variables when using a BIA scale since it utilizes body water to gauge body fat percentage. If I were to chug some glasses of water and after that weigh myself once again, my body fat reading my increase by 1% or more.
Once again, I’m okay with this because I’m not a professional sportsman or bodybuilder who has to find out an exact number. I want to just be sure I’m in the right ballpark (definitely inside the single digits, around 8% +/- 1-2%). The good thing about utilizing a BIA scale is the fact that it’s very inexpensive. This was a one-time cost of about $60. I ordered mine a few years back and technology has improved since then, and so today you can probably get a less expensive, more accurate one.
Now let's talk about the fun part: monitoring how well you're progressing.
As I stated, I usually weigh myself each week… actually, let’s say once every 5-9 days. If my control variables aren’t appropriate for a weigh in (for example, if I forget to weigh myself in advance of eating supper), then I’ll hold off until the next day. I’ve been carrying this out for more than a year now and tracing my statistics within an Excel graph. I can’t stress how vital it is to own some type of visual reinforcement of your success. For me personally, an Excel graph is the most convenient way to make this happen. As I said, my focus is on body fat percentage. I don't really care much about weight. It is just something interesting to track and see how it changes over time as my body fat percentage changes.
I started monitoring my body fat percentage and weight in 2009 (the beginning of my “fitness journey”) and I don’t plan to stop… ever.
The constant visual presentation is probably the best resource you can leverage. The reason behind this is that it increases awareness which is crucial to achieving your goal and then staying on track. There is an unconscious connection with tracking your progress that gives you something concrete that’s forever in the back of your mind. Trust me, it really works. Every time I calculate body fat percentage and check out my spreadsheet, I’m reminded not to let myself go because I don’t want my chart to get out of whack! So, I’m happy to state that I accomplished my body fat goal in 2010.