Friday, 30th of July 2010 at 02:48:27 PMI signed up for Curves a few years back and one of the first things they did was weigh me and calculate my BMI (body mass index). I felt strangely violated. I mean, the last thing someone who wants to lose weight needs is someone telling them exactly just how much fat they really need to lose. I got over it because they meant well and I didn’t have much choice as I had already paid the fees. However, I remembered it so clearly that to this day I won’t get a personal trainer because I don’t want to go through that indignity again. I’d much rather do my own calculations than have someone with washboard abs and arms like Michelle Obama measure my waistline.
Body fat calculators are a useful, self-assessment tool to see where you are physically at the start of a diet.
You can find body fat calculators all over the Internet. A body fat calculator is just another online tool like insurance calculators or health assessments. It will ask you your gender, your waist measurement and your body weight. More complex body fat calculators may also ask for your neck size and your height. After putting these in, the body fat calculator will then provide you with an estimate of your body fat percentage.
Body fat calculators are a useful, self-assessment tool to see where you are physically at the start of a diet and where you need to go. Your body fat calculation isn’t necessarily something that needs to be done by a personal trainer or gym staff. If you can do it online, I say, “Do it”. It’s the exact same numbers and will produce the exact same percentages, only without the embarrassment of having someone with a tape measure going over the spots you may be sensitive about.
If you would like to know this prior to starting your diet, then they are fairly easy to find. Body fat calculators are all over the web. Weight Loss Center has a few different weight loss tools that you can use to measure your progress while dieting. In addition to the body fat calculator it has a BMI calculator, weight and height conversion calculators, healthy weight calculator, basal metabolic calculator, ideal weight calculator, and others. What I liked about the ideal body weight calculator is the fact that it tells me I should be 142.5 lbs for my height. That means I’m closer to my ideal weight than I thought I was! Go me!
I guess everybody is different. For me I need someone (trainer or whoever) to do my measurements. If I try to take the measurements myself they are often not accurate. I find it hard to measure my own self, it can be tricky especially being a bit bigger and all and I need to make sure it’s done accurately. 🙂