The World’s Newest Body Fat Formula
Want to know your body fat—but don’t want to schedule a special test or buy an expensive scale? Try the body adiposity index (BAI), which is based on a new formula from the University of Southern California. Fair warning: You’ll need to know how to operate a calculator. And remember, it’s simply a mathematical equation that’s used to ESTIMATE your body fat, not a direct measurement. (No, we shouldn’t need to issue that disclaimer.)
First, convert your measurements to metric numbers:
Hip circumference in inches x 2.5 = Hip circumference in centimeters
Height in inches x .025 = Height in meters
Then, plug it into the BAI formula:
[(Hip circumference in centimeters)/(Height in meters x square root of height in meters)]-18
Researchers call the formula the body adiposity index—a rough calculation for percent body fat. It uses the size of your hips rather than your weight to total up your tubbiness.
OK, so it’s not exactly a back-of-the-envelope calculation. But researchers are saying that it might provide a better estimate of body fat than the 170-year-old, notoriously flawed BMI (body mass index), which uses height and weight.
Among the problems with BMI: It’s a uniform index that doesn’t account for the different body shapes of men and women, or people of various ethnic groups. It also often classifies athletes—who weigh more because of their muscles—as overweight or obese. (To its credit, studies have established that your risk for heart disease and diabetes increases along with your BMI, says Anne Sumner, M.D., of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.)
Preliminary research shows the BAI is indeed a pretty accurate predictor of body fat. To develop it and test it out, the USC team compared about 2,000 people’s BAI to percentages they got from DXA scanning, which uses X-rays to determine precisely how much of your body is made up of fat. And—ding!—the two numbers closely matched.
We wondered: Why measure the hips and not the waist? Turns out, the hip measurement tends to be a better predictor of overall obesity than waist circumference, explains Dr. Sumner.
The authors admit that the new index still needs some work. BAI has to be tested in different ethnic groups, since the USC study involved only Mexican-Americans and African-Americans. And before anyone takes BAI seriously, studies will have to prove that it, like BMI, is linked to your risk of future disease.
If you want an accurate percentage, what’s a guy to do? Until more research is done on BAI, the best affordable way to measure your body fat is with a BodPod. It uses air displacement to measure body fat—similar to underwater weighing, without the whole getting wet part. Find one in your area at http://www.bodpod.com/clients/locator. And don’t even think about those fat measuring scales—their readings can vary widely depending on your body’s hydration level, explains Pete McCall, C.S.C.S.
Anywhere between 9 and 22 percent body fat is healthy. Your health risks increase substantially if your body fat is 25 percent or higher, says obesity researcher Dan O’Connor, Ph.D., of the University of Houston.
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