Why BMI (Body Mass Index) Is The Worst Calculation To Use as a Guide

1. I’m Fit… But I’m Fat?

Say what now? If you are fit and have some good sexy lean feminine muscle then you will show up as fat on the BMI scale. This is so because it does not take into account you body fat percentage.

Since muscle weights more than fat it will say you have a high BMI. But clearly you are not fat.

What you really need is a calculation that does take into account your body fat percentage… and here’s where the problem is.

2. Calculating Your Body Fat

It is surprisingly a pain in the butt to calculate your body fat percentage. You can use scales, but these are highly inaccurate. You can use calipers which do a great job but you need to get the measurement from different places on your body.

1. Diagonal pinch next to your belly button
2. Under your arm pinch (in line with your arm)
3. Diagonal pinch next to your shoulder blade (impossible to do by yourself)

So while calipers are great… it’s hard to do by yourself.

Finally you can pay tons of money for a submersion test. This is where you get submerged in water and computers can find you body fat percentage. It’s the most accurate, but expensive.

That said you can see that finding your body fat, while possible, can be a pain. So what should you use.

3. My Favorite Fat Test

Stand up and go look in the mirror… you’re done!

Your mirror is the best fat test. If you can see excessive body fat on your body then you your scale.

Who cares what you weight anyway. It’s all about how you look and how you feel. If you look great then you feel great. And I right?

So stop using the BMI “test.” It’s broken and worthless. Every once in awhile I do recommend you calculate your body fat because that can be a very motivating number to see drop. And finally just look in the mirror and use that as your fit and fat test.

Learn more about the proper way to do a women’s workout and keep up to date with the best information about women’s exercise.

Valerie is a AFAA certified personal trainer who specializes in helping women get the best results using weight training. She and her partner Taylor Ryan have created a free four video series which you can get here… and learn more about a proper women’s workout.

Article Source: Why BMI (Body Mass Index) Is The Worst Calculation To Use as a Guide

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Tags: feminine muscle, bmi test, body fat percentage, pain in the butt, shoulder blade

bmi test, body fat percentage, feminine muscle, pain in the butt, shoulder blade

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2009, 2:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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