Measuring Body Fat
Measure progress thru body fat!

Measuring body fat is something that must be done before and after every WLC Program Cycle. The only true way to measure your body improvements is to measure your body fat percentage. You will easily be able to see the progress you're making in strength with WLC and you'll be able to see the muscle building you've done in the mirror. Before long, many other people will be telling you about the progress you've made. You'll get comments from people!

But how do you really know if you've made progress? Well, you have to measure your body fat. Measuring body fat before the WLC cycle and after the WLC cycle will easily tell you the progress you've made by telling you how much body fat you've lost and how much muscle you've built.

We don't care about body weight in terms of progress here at Weight Lifting Complete! We care about muscle mass and fat mass. Weight doesn't matter at all to us in terms of progress unless you have a specific goal that you need to meet in terms of body weight. Then you can worry a little more about body weight. But don't set specific body weight goals because you don't know what you're going to look like at a certain body weight. Let the mirror guide you to your look!

An Example

Before WLC Muscle Building Cycle
Body Weight = 220 pounds
Body Fat Percentage = 12%

After WLC Muscle Building Cycle
Body Weight = 230 pounds
Body Fat Percentage = 12.5%

Okay, let's see how well we did on this muscle building WLC cycle! We need to calculate Lean Body Mass, which we will call muscle. And then we calculate fat mass. We can then easily calculate how much muscle we gained/lost and how much fat we lost/gained.

Before WLC Muscle Building Cycle
Body Weight = 220 pounds
Body Fat Percentage = 12%
Lean Body Mass = 220 x (1 - 0.12) = 193.6 pounds
Fat Mass = 220 x 0.12 = 26.4 pounds

After WLC Muscle Building Cycle
Body Weight = 230 pounds
Body Fat Percentage = 12.5%
Lean Body Mass = 230 x (1 - 0.125) = 201.25 pounds
Fat Mass = 230 x 0.125 = 28.75 pounds

Weight Gained = 230 - 220 = 10 pounds
Muscle Gained = 201.25 - 193.6 = 7.65 pounds of muscle!
Fat Gained = 28.75 - 26.4 = 2.35 pounds of fat

Do you see how we need body fat percentage to calculate what we've done for each and every cycle of WLC? Now we just need to know how to measure body fat percentage, right? Well, keep reading...

The WLC Method of Measuring Body Fat

There are many methods of measuring your body fat and calculating body fat percentage. I just want to discuss the way that I want you to calculate yours. This will be the WLC method of measuring body fat and I want you to ensure that you're doing it this way each and every time you measure. As long as you ensure you use the same method every time, we will be able to measure you're progress! Do not change the method.

I could have chosen any method, but I've decided to choose the caliper method because it is the most practical way for everyone to measure their body fat. If you have regular access to another method, then go ahead and use that method but make sure you'll always have access to that method. If not, you'll be starting over with a new method and you'll have to start a new baseline of measurements.

Jackson/Pollock 3 Site Method for Measuring Body Fat

I could have chosen any of the caliper methods. There are seven site, nine site, four site, and even more different methods of measurements. I've chosen the 3 site method because it's the easiest and you'll be able to do the measurements on your own. Some will say that the 3 point method is not as accurate as the 7 or 9 point methods, but it doesn't matter as long as we use this method consistently. It will be accurate with respect to our measurements. As long as you have a caliper and yourself, you'll be able to record the measurements and calculate your body fat percentage with the 3 site method. You won't need anyone else.

So, the Jackson/Pollock 3 Site Method will be the way us weight lifters here at WLC measure our body fat percentages. Well, how do we do this? As you might have guessed, we're going to take body fat caliper measurements at 3 different locations on your body. You're going to need a good pair of calipers to do this. Here's what a pair of calipers look like:

Once you have a pair of calipers, you need to practice using them. First, you need to know the three sites we will be taking measurements.

The Three Measurement Sites

For Men:

1. Chest
Diagonal skin fold. Caliper should be pointed towards your nipple on your chest. Make sure you take the measurement on the same side each and every time. The measurement should be taken midway between your underarm and your nipple.

2. Abdominal
Vertical skin fold. Take measurement approximately one inch to the right of your belly button.

3. Thigh
Vertical skin fold. Take measurement in the middle of your thigh. Ensure measurement is taken on same thigh every time and that it is taken about half way between your hip and knee.

For Women:

1. Tricep
Vertical skin fold. Take measurement on back of arm and should be taken halfway between your elbow and shoulder joints.

2. Suprailiac
Diagonal skin fold. Take measurement above hip bone around oblique area. The correct spot will be right around your oblique muscle. Make sure to measure the same side each time.

3. Thigh
Vertical skin fold. Take measurement in the middle of your thigh. Ensure measurement is taken on same thigh every time and that it is taken about half way between your hip and knee.

If you want to read a very good explanation of how to measure body fat and see some good illustrations, please see the Body Fat Article. The article is a few years old, but it's still a good one! If you'd rather do a 7 site method as described in that article, that's fine with me. But you'll need another person there to always measure for you. The 3 site method will serve you better! That's why I've chosen it for the WLC method.

The Body Fat Calculations

Once you have taken your measurements and you're confident in your measurements, you must plug them into a few formulas to get your result. Men will have to use a different formula than the women.

Calculation for Men:

Bone Density = 1.1093800 - (0.0008267)(Sum of 3 sites) + (0.0000016)(Sum of 3 sites)^2 - (0.0002574)(Age)

Body Fat Percentage = [(4.95 / Bone Density) - 4.5](100)

Calculation for Women:

Bone Density = 1.0994921 - (0.0009929)(Sum of 3 sites) + (0.0000023)(Sum of 3 sites)^2 - (0.0001392)(Age)

Body Fat Percentage = [(4.95 / Bone Density) - 4.5](100)

You can easily set you up an equation in any spreadsheet program to keep a database of all your results. I will soon provide these templates in the form of your WLC logs.

Measuring body fat will soon become a very simple process for you. A body fat caliper should only cost you 10 to 20 dollars. You can get more expensive ones if you'd like that are supposedly more accurate. I've always used the cheap ones, and they've served me just fine.

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