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What is the best way to measure body fat?
The most accurate method is an immersion test. Your buoyancy reveals your density, because
fat is less dense than muscle.
The more you float, the less you gloat.
A doctor could use X-ray absobrptiometry, basically a scan that reveals your percentage
body fat and where it is located.
I know where it’s located. There’s a direct correlation between the extra-large portions
of my body and the fat.
The skin fold test is a standard method. They measure the thickness of a skin fold with
a pair of calipers, to tell you how fat you are.
I wish I could improve the results of that by doing extra chin-ups.
You could eventually improve the overall result by doing chin-ups, and other types of exercise.
I’m shocked there is a correlation between exercise and body fat.
Speaking of shocks, bioelectric impedance is uses electrical conductivity to measure
your percentage of body fat. Fat contains more water, so it conducts electricity better
than muscle.
You can throw those results off by being dehydrated.
True, but you don’t have to get dunked to get a body fat measurement. And there are
scales with the bioelectric impedance sensors in them.
Oh, great, now I can feel guilty over two numbers when I step on the scale instead of
one.
The advantage of measuring body fat is that it can reveal that you’ve lost fast even
if your weight hasn’t budged.
It’ll also reveal if I’m skinny but have a high body fat percentage.
Something the Body Mass Index or BMI won’t reveal.
It would be nice to have a metric that I could say is better than the skinny vegans eating
nothing but white rice and hot sauce, bragging about how healthy they are.
Aim for healthy, and you can be happy.