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Weight
Loss Calculators
Each
weight loss
calculator has its limitations
Weight Loss Calculators have limitations
in their use inspite of their usefulness as weight loss
tools. If one was to use them beyond their
capability they tend to give a skewed impression of your weight loss
progress.
Fat Loss 4 Idiots (lose 40 lbs with Calorie Shifting )
teaches on how to compliment different weight loss
calculators to eliminate errors. In this article we just highlight the
problem.
Keeping
in mind that weight loss calculators
are used in both planning and
tracking of ones weight loss plan,
it is prudent to be aware of the limitation of any weight loss
calculator you employ. They are a myriad of weight loss calculator used
to aid in dieting. From pedometers and calorie
counting, to body mass index
and food pyramids,
all only make sense within some parameters.
Limitations
are brought about either by attributes entered into the tool or by the
technology used by the weight loss tools.
For
example, body fat
percentage is an excellent calculator used to ascertain
amounts of body fat in relation to other body constituents i.e. muscle
bone etc. It is very valuable in estimating both the challenge as well
as health risk. There are a number of ways to determine body fat
percentage. The more accurate calculators are more expensive and/or not
easily accessible.
The
others like skin fold measurements require trained hands. As much as a
well trained person could be 98% accurate an amateur would grossly
miscalculate the body for percentage using skin fold measurement.
Fortunately there is a method developed by the U.S Navy that uses girth
of different parts of the body that has more consistent body fat
percentage.
Other
methods like electronic gadget can have large margin of error due to
varying amounts of water in the body.
Another Weight Loss Calculator
Limitation
Another weight loss calculator with limitation is the famous Body Mass
Index (BMI) BMI is used even by the World Health Organization to define
obesity. It takes into consideration the height and weight of an
individual to estimate extent of body fat.
Unfortunately
it does not take into account body composition. It does not
differentiate between bone mass, muscle mass from body fat mass.
Consequently it introduces errors where other body constituents are
above average or below average. It therefore introduces error for those
with huge amounts of muscles tissue like body builders or those with
very low amounts of lean tissue like the elderly.
Indeed
the better illustration of BMI errors is probably the healthy BMI of
elderly persons. Such BMI may contradict with a complimentary weight
loss calculator like waist
circumference is known to be a more accurate indicator of
obesity related diseases than BMI however in the elderly, they seem to
contradict. The BMI would indicate health while waist circumference
shows unhealthy.
Evidently
since BMI does not take body composition into consideration. The
elderly tend to lose a lot of lean tissue as they age. This drops the
total body their BMI within the healthy range. However the loss of lean
tissue doesn’t equals to loss of body fat.
Waist
circumference on the other hand measures abdominal adiposity. The
abdomen is where many people will store substantial amounts of their
excess body fat. In the elderly this does not reduce significantly and
therefore still indicates poor health.
So
if one was to solely rely on BMI, they would misrepresent the
truth.
To
further show how limitation are rife among weight loss calculators, the
now popular Glycemic
Index (GI) is another weight loss tool that needs to be
handled with care. G.I is based on how much carbohydrate changes the
blood glucose once ingested. It is a relative index that compares 50g
of digestible carbohydrate in the test food with 50g of pure
glucose.
But
it is know that if one was to consume double that portion lets say 100g
of glucose, the sugar level in the blood will rise twice as high as a
50g dosage. This doesn’t imply that the G.I of glucose just
doubled.
Remember that G.I depend on 50g It means that portion and not only the
food has implication on the level of blood glucose which then has
implication on whether you burn fat or store up more fat.
The
million dollar question with G.I is that since it depends on 50g of
digestible carbohydrate in a food, how is it supposed to help in you
deciding whether to eat pastas or brown rice?
This
problem of working out the right diet using Glycemic Index resulted to
introduction of a more practical index called the Glycemic
Load (GL). This index is based on G.I only this time its G.I
per food serving.
As
you can see weights loss calculators have their advantages and
disadvantage. A meticulous combination is required to help you to
accurately approximate your calorie uptake, calorie expenditure and
track your dieting progress.
Fat Loss 4 Idiots (lose 40 lbs with Calorie Shifting )
handles this topic very well.
In the next page, you learn about Calorie Shifting You will discover;
Weight loss is based on science but you need to execute it
artistically. You need to know when to apply which principle to apply
when. So, in addition this Calorie Shifting will show you . . .
Next Page:
…………………………………….
To
learn more on Weight Loss Calculators as well
as related
subjects use the links below.
Alternatively
you can use the Google search tool further below.
Articles Related:
To
Weight Loss Calculators
Calorie
Counting - should you or shouldn't you
Waist
Hip Ratio - a better health indicator
Waist
Circumference - simple yet quite effective
Glycemic
Index - carbohydrate quality indicator
Weight Loss Tools
- tools to use when dieting
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