Are You Actually Fat (or do you just think you are)?

Let’s be honest about the F word. There is FAT with a capital F and then there is what I like to call lower case fat. I have a few friends who moan about being the former, when all they are really getting their tiny knickers in a twist about is the small curve of their belly or their disobedient upper thigh that has the audacity to rub gently against the other. We need some fat on our bodies for all those fabulous things like energy and hormone health and brain function (I know plenty of dumb skinny people – case in point).

So, are you actually Fat with a capital F? Well – based on the fact that almost 2 in 3 adults in Australia are categorised as obese, then statistically speaking there is a pretty strong chance you might be. There are a few ways to calculate this, each with varying degrees of importance according to the experts.

The Mirror: Body Dysmorphia aside, checking out your own reflection in a full-length mirror with not much on is usually a pretty good indicator. Professor Keren Phelps calls this the ‘eyeball test’ – ‘You look in the mirror and you can see if you are overweight. That is the visual clue’. She also advocates the good old are-my-clothes-getting-tighter indicator.

The Scales: Most of us have an ‘ideal weight’ – though for many of us this is often based on a throwback from our 18 year old perfection. What we should weigh depends partly on our height, gender, ethnic background, age and on what particular chart you are looking at or which particular expert you are deferring to. The old-school methods from guys such as Dr. Robinson (1983) calculated the ideal weight for a 5ft woman and man and added a figure in kilos/pounds for every inch/cm over that one. If you want to see what they reckon you should weigh you can try This Link  – for a fair few of you this might make you feel a little Yikes (myself included). Nowadays the experts are a little kinder offering us a healthy weight range with the old-school number falling around about the middle of that or a bit on the low end side. To check out your kinder suggested weight range Click Here.

BMI: The scales only tell us one small part of the story so the next step is to check out your body mass index. This is still generally assumed the easiest and most reliable way to determine if you are overweight and is endorsed by both doctors and the Heart Foundation (who no longer make any mention of actual kilos/pounds). To work it out you x your height by itself (ie: 1.70m x 1.70m) then divide your weight by that number.Click here to skip the Maths. A healthy BMI is 18.5 -25 – over 30 and its time to put the serious brakes on health wise. Problem with this measurement is it can’t distinguish between fat and muscle or where you hold your fat (Yup – belly fat – the kind I keep getting Facebook Ads for – is the worst kind.)

WAIST MEASUREMENT: It’s not so much what you wear but the way that you wear it and if you are wearing all those excess kilos round your middle it is not great news. Bikini silhouette aside the ‘apple shaped’ among us are at a higher risk of getting nasties such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. To check if you are on the right side of healthy measure around your middle at your natural waistline (above your bellybutton and below your rib cage without sucking in). A measurement over 80cm (31.5 inches) for women and over 94cm (37 inches) for men means you may be at risk.

A PIECE OF STRING: Sounds ridiculous but a study by Oxford Brookes University discovered that a simple piece of string might be more accurate in judging a person’s heart health than the classic BMI. Use the string to measure your height then wrap it around your waist – basically you are looking for a waist measurement that is less than half your height. In the University Study 1/3 of those tested had been deemed ‘normal’ in BMI tests but failed the string test. How long is a piece of string indeed.

BODY FAT %: Now we are talking. Most fitness professionals deem this to be the key indicator of health in terms of both weight and fitness. What your ideal body fat percentage is depends if you are wanting to look ripped/lean/fit or healthy. As a general guide this chart gives you an idea of healthy % ratios.

• Top athletes: 15 to 20%
• Fit women: 21 to 24%
• Healthy/acceptable: 25 to 32%
• Overweight: 33% plus

If you want to perv at men and women’s bodies at different body fat % Click Here.

Measuring body fat % is less easy. There is the good old fashioned Caliper/ Skin Fold Method, Body Composition Scales (pricier scales you can use at home) and the more high tech options that measure body composition such as InBody or DEXA . All the experts and many muscle bound online forums get their quads in a twist over the accuracy of all of the above. If you are using the same method/machine to track your progress you can at least see if you are heading in the right direction.

And finally, we will touch on a real phenomenon with a stupid name that I promise is not just made up by The Daily Mail.

ARE YOU SKINNY FAT? I love this expression. In no other area of our lives is such a diagonally adverse trait an actual thing – there is no clever stupid – there is no happy suicidal – there is no thin donut. It’s like the sweet girl next door who’s actually a total bitch. Unsurprisingly, Skinny Fat tends to be more a female thing and is spurned on by our tendency to either restrict calories and do lots of cardio or just eat crappy food, do Fu** all exercise and come from a genetically blessed line of skinny people. The body fat/body composition analysis will be your best bet to see if this silly description describes you but you can also look out for other tell-tale signs such as poor diet (no veggies, minimal protein), a muffin top (despite the rest of you being v skinny) and especially low muscle mass (try doing 10 push ups – do you suck?).

Unfortunately, Fat can be a nasty word. There is a fair amount of unhealthy self-loathing out there and way too many of us give ourselves a hard time for not being what we suppose we should be. This post is only intended for you to see if you are keeping within the parameters of what is generally constituted to be ‘normal’ for the sake of your health. Do the math and either pat yourself on the back (with a slice of pizza) or do your best to get on the right track (but please seek out a professional way more qualified than me to assist you). I do genuinely think its a bit rubbish that the subject of weight is still something that concerns me in my 40’s and I am doing my best to find a set and forget solution (more on this soon) – I welcome your comments, thoughts & advice on this most sensitive (for some) of subjects.

This Get Thinner post was brought to you by someone who is a bit disappointed she wasted so much of your youth on lower case concerns.