Losing "weight" as such does not give you any real information. If you are trying to lose fat then your weight is not the most important factor at all. The goal of most people is to lose weight but the real goal should be losing fat and gaining muscle. The only way how you can really know if you are losing fat is to determine your fat to muscle ratio.
Most bodybuilders and fitness models know that muscle is the secret to losing fat. Muscle is like a furnace that burns calories. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. So not only does muscle look good, it also burns a lot of calories. It is easy to lose weight but very hard to lose fat while keeping the muscle.
If you want to be accurate then you have to forget about Height & weight charts and Body Mass Index also because they don't take your body fat into account. To get a real indicator of your current health you have to measure your body fat. If you know your body fat then you also know your fat to muscle ratio. and that is what we want to know.
There are many different methods how do you calculate body fat percentage:
Underwater Weighing (Hydrostatic), Bio- Electric Impedance Analysis, BIA Body Fat Scales and hand grip tests, Infrared, Circumference, Anthropometric and skin-fold measurements. The best way and also a cheap way to measure your body fat is using the skin-fold measuring method. You can do it yourself as well in your own home.
It is good to know your body fat number but by itself it is not very useful. The goal is to separate your total weight into pounds of fat and pounds of muscle.
Here is an example:
The body-weight is 175 pounds
The fat percentage is 21% (0.21)
Then you multiply the body-weight with the fat percentage:
175 * 0.21= 36.75 pounds of fat.
If you subtract pounds of fat from the total weight you get:
175 - 36.75= 138.25 pounds of lean body mass
You can also find out what your ideal weight is.The formula is: Lean mass divided by 1 - ideal body fat percentage.
Lets use this example again.
175 pounds
fat percentage is 21%
36.75 pounds of fat
138.25 pounds of lean body mass
ideal body fat percentage is 14% (1 - 0.14= 0.86)
Using this formula we get:
138.25 : 0.86= 160.75 pounds
So the ideal weight with 14% of body fat would be 160.75 pounds. If you use this method you will get a much more feedback and you can also make changes according to your results.
RELATED: Are You Able To Lose 10 Lbs A Week?
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rando_Meresmaa/242282
Most bodybuilders and fitness models know that muscle is the secret to losing fat. Muscle is like a furnace that burns calories. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. So not only does muscle look good, it also burns a lot of calories. It is easy to lose weight but very hard to lose fat while keeping the muscle.
If you want to be accurate then you have to forget about Height & weight charts and Body Mass Index also because they don't take your body fat into account. To get a real indicator of your current health you have to measure your body fat. If you know your body fat then you also know your fat to muscle ratio. and that is what we want to know.
There are many different methods how do you calculate body fat percentage:
Underwater Weighing (Hydrostatic), Bio- Electric Impedance Analysis, BIA Body Fat Scales and hand grip tests, Infrared, Circumference, Anthropometric and skin-fold measurements. The best way and also a cheap way to measure your body fat is using the skin-fold measuring method. You can do it yourself as well in your own home.
It is good to know your body fat number but by itself it is not very useful. The goal is to separate your total weight into pounds of fat and pounds of muscle.
Here is an example:
The body-weight is 175 pounds
The fat percentage is 21% (0.21)
Then you multiply the body-weight with the fat percentage:
175 * 0.21= 36.75 pounds of fat.
If you subtract pounds of fat from the total weight you get:
175 - 36.75= 138.25 pounds of lean body mass
You can also find out what your ideal weight is.The formula is: Lean mass divided by 1 - ideal body fat percentage.
Lets use this example again.
175 pounds
fat percentage is 21%
36.75 pounds of fat
138.25 pounds of lean body mass
ideal body fat percentage is 14% (1 - 0.14= 0.86)
Using this formula we get:
138.25 : 0.86= 160.75 pounds
So the ideal weight with 14% of body fat would be 160.75 pounds. If you use this method you will get a much more feedback and you can also make changes according to your results.
RELATED: Are You Able To Lose 10 Lbs A Week?
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rando_Meresmaa/242282