Health
How to Test Your Body Fat in 60 Seconds
90% of Men, 80% of Women
That’s about how many people are “overfat” according to a recent study. That means, statistically, YOU are overfat. And that overfatness can lead to cardiometabolic dysfunction and a whole bunch of chronic diseases that’ll kill you until you’re dead.
Wait, What Does “Overfat” Mean?
Think of it as a new category on the body fat continuum:
The problem? “Normal weight” and the three latter categorizations of fatness are typically measured using the BMI scale 77. As you know, this is an oversimplified formula based on height and weight. It does not discriminate between muscle mass and fat mass, nor does it tell you anything about WHERE you store your fat.
That last bit is important. First, storing fat in the abdominal/belly area is much worse for you health-wise than storing it elsewhere.
Second, BMI doesn’t tell you a damn thing about visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Visceral fat is stored inside the abdominal cavity and around your internal organs. That’s the stuff that’ll most likely lead to insulin resistance and, generally speaking, dying in an assortment of nasty ways. Subcutaneous fat is that jiggly stuff just beneath your skin. It’s less dangerous but definitely gross.
That overfatness is either a sign of growing health problems or at least a predictor of soon-to-be health problems.
They think we should just do away with the confounding BMI scale and use something different. Their method is fast, simple, and will probably hurt your feelings.
Measure Your Belly
Here’s the Maffetone method in a nutshell:
My jeans size is 32, but my belly measurement is 34. That’s the number we want, so get out the tape measure, don’t suck in your gut, and do the deed.
Now look at the definition of overfatness again: “If the circumference of your waist measures more than half your height, you’re overfat.” My 34-inch belly measurement is not greater than half of my height – 35.5 inches. So, I’m not overfat.
That’s it. Strict? You bet, but their research is pretty compelling if you want to dig deeply into the study.
Copyright www.forums.t-nation.com
