Beyond Pinch An Inch: How Do You Measure Up?

By Steve Wilkens, BodyTrac Health & Fitness™

Q: At my local health club I have seen advertisements for body fat measurements. How is this done and what is the benefit?

A: Body fat measurements can be an effective and helpful tool in weight loss, health maintenance and athletic training.

Growing up in America, we are taught the importance of weighing ourselves to determine our health, but a scale alone does not take into account our body compositions: the amount of fat versus lean muscle.

The medical community uses the Body Mass Index (BMI) in order to define ideal weight. This is based on a height-to-weight ratio. However, BMI is considered to be outdated because it does not take muscle mass into consideration. For this reason the trend is toward body fat measurements.

These services can range anywhere from $15 to $100 or more, depending on the method. Skinfold Calipers are the cheapest and can be reliable in professional hands, but there is a lack of consensus on where to pinch the skin and in how many locations.

The next option is Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA), running between $35 and $50. It is very accurate and works by running a gentle current through the body that analyzes the body's composition, including water weight and lean muscle mass.

Finally, the most accurate methods are the BOD POD and Hydrostatic Weighing (averaging $100), where an individual's body is placed in a chamber filled with air or completely submerged in water, respectively, and then the displacement is calculated.

Many of the gyms in this area use Skinfold Calipers. Florida A&M University, Premier and BodyTrac all utilize BIA machines. The BOD POD is offered at Florida State University for student athletes, but Hydrostatic Weighing is not currently available in Tallahassee.

The most effective way to utilize body fat measurements is to pretest in order to determine a baseline. In this way true progress can be measured. This is important for any health plan, because people tend to stay motivated when they can see and track real results.  

Editor's note: Personal trainer Steve Wilkens is the fifth of six new local columnists who will be writing each week for the Health & Fitness section. Next week: massage therapist Kim Ortloff will share her expertise about easing aches and pains.

Steve Wilkens has been a personal trainer in Tallahassee for seven years with IFPA and ACSM certifications. He is also an owner and trainer at BodyTrac Health & Fitness and holds the title of Mr. Florida Bantamweight 2003.