Body Composition Measurement 

Measuring your body composition and not just your weight provides a more accurate means of tracking the effectiveness of your fitness and nutrition program.

 
Example chart for a Pilates of Champions Nutrition Counseling and private Pilates client.

When most people think about fitness and being healthy they usually consider a key measurement being their weight and how it compares within the many published height to weight comparison charts. But think for a moment, is all body weight the same? No, there are many factors to your overall weight but the two that you can control in a healthy manner are lean muscle tissue, bone mineral density and body fat. Most of us want to reduce the body fat and not the lean tissue and bone mineral density. So, what you need to do is monitor your body fat levels not just your overall weight. One of the most accurate methods to measure body fat is by using body fat calipers.

These work by taking the skinfold measurement at 9 different locations on the body and then using these to derive a measure of percentage body fat. This gives you a measure of how well your nutrition and exercise program is helping change the composition of your body and not just your overall weight. When people exercise they may gain lean muscle tissue which adds weight.

Often this can be demoralizing after they have worked hard to “lose weight”, because the gain of lean tissue may be masking the reduction in weight from the loss of body fat. You may also be losing weight as part of a “diet” but how sure are you that you are losing body fat and not the good lean muscle tissue or even bone mineral density? Measuring body composition or body fat levels is a more accurate and rewarding way to track your progress.

Pilates of Champions staff have extensive experience in measuring body fat using the 9 skinfold method and can use it to help you track the progress of your fitness, health and weight management program. You do not need to be a member or attend any classes at the studio to take advantage of this service.