While persons that are medically obese almost always have high percentages of body fat, others range dramatically and you can t always tell someone s body fat level by looking at them. You can have too little body fat, as well. Excessively low body fat percentages are correlated with another set of risks, including cessation of or irregular menstrual cycles, lowered hormone levels and a loss of bone mass. Body fat can be measured through several different methods. The simplest and least expensive is through the use of calipers.
Calipers are a tool that looks somewhat like a giant tweezers.
These are used to grasp your skin folds at different points on your body and measure the thickness. These measurements are then compared to standard values for persons of your age and gender to give you your estimated body fat. Hydrostatic weighing is the gold standard of body fat measurement. Generally only available in university or high end training facilities, Hydrostatic weighing involves complete submersion of your naked body into a large tank of water. You have to expel all of the air from your lungs, and your body fat is then measured on a number of factors including water displacement.