The american college of sports medicine acsm has called it the gold standard because of its high accuracy. Skinfold calipers measure the thickness of your subcutaneous fat the fat underneath the skin at certain body locations.
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Gold standard body fat measurement. Gyms measure body fat in myriad ways and this article will cover five of them. This test is based on a three dimensional model that measures fat tissue mass subcutaneous fat and internal visceral fat lean muscle mass and total body mineral content total skeletal mass and bone density. Because bone and muscle are more dense than water a person with a larger percentage of fat free mass will weigh more in the water and have a lower percent body fat. The percentage that it estimates should be within 1 percent of. Hudson medical teamwellnessjune 25 2019. Dexa is considered the gold standard for measuring visceral fat.
Measurements are taken at either 3 or 7 different sites on the body. Visceral fat measurement accuracy. Underwater weighing for body fat percentage is highly accurate and considered the gold standard for measuring body fat percentage. Hydrostatic weighing this method is considered the gold standard 15 error of body fat measurement that requires being submerged in a specialized tank of water. Teaching the science application of body measurements certifying professionals measuring elite athletes since 2002. While dexa is the gold standard for bone mineral density measurements41 it is also used to estimate total and regional body fat and ltm.
Bod pod the gold standard in measuring body composition. During a dexa measurement the person lies on a bed and an x ray beam passes in a posterior to anterior direction to a detector. The bod pod provides a measure of your muscle to fat ratio an indicator of overall health and is a great tool for tracking fitness improvements. Dexa or dual energy x ray absorptiometry will provide you with accurate results of your body fat percentage lean body mass skeletal muscle mass and is often used by professionals to predict osteopenia and osteoporosisby measuring bone mineral density. Dual energy x ray absorptiometry dexa is currently being touted as the gold standard for measuring body fat. Used extensively by the nfl the military health care and other organizations bod pod is the most popular service offered by the smart lab.
Because its based on the archimedes principle of fluid displacement this method is often called underwater weighing. When it comes to analyzing total body composition the most accurate type of scan you can get is the dexa scan. No other technique is considered as accurate. Goldstandard systems sets the gold standard for body measurements in sports. Become an ihsa certified body fat assessor.