Image via CrunchBase
So, I just got a Fitbit Aria scale, and I’m using it along with my Fitbit Ultra tracker and My Fitness Pal in order to reduce my weight to healthy levels. I’ve always read in the past about body weight percentage, and I even got calipers at one point to try to assess it, but I never had much luck or accuracy with them. Body weight percentage is a way of tracking how much of your body composition is fat. Males require 5% essential body fat, usually only achieved by the unreasonably starved and body builders preparing for shows. Athletes (male) often have around 13% or lower. The average (fit) person has less than 24% body fat. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage) I just found out, for the first time with any accuracy, that I have 27% fat, which is far lower than I suspected. I thought it was more around 50%! At any rate, I’m aiming for a goal of 24% or lower, as some say that BFP is a better indicator of fitness than BMI. I think BMI is generally inaccurate for me as a good indicator of fitness, as at my lowest weight in the last 20 years, 195 pounds, I was only at the very high-end of normalcy according to BMI, but I felt incredibly thin at 195, perhaps too thin. See my photos in the “Why is John doing this” page to see what I mean. Anyway, if anyone has any experience with Body Fat Percentage, I’d love to know more about your experience.
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