Most people use a scale to see if they are gaining/losing weight, but the scales can’t tell you the whole story, some are better than others as they can monitor your body fat percentage, which is an important indication of your internal health, the fat you carry but can’t see.
We are all different body types (often referred to as apples (carry weight around the waist) and pears (carry weight around the hip/bottom area). Apples are more prone to holding fat around the abdomen (stomach) and this has been linked to increased risk of heart disease. Reduce your internal fat and reduce your potential risks.
BMI (body mass index) is often cited as the go to measurement because it’s an easy measurement to do and there are numerous calculators online, to do it yourself – divide your weight in kg by height in metres squared. A reading of 18.5-25 indicates you’re in the healthy range. There have been some good articles about why this isn’t good for certain areas of the population – like athletes who have a much higher muscle than fat ratio (muscle is heavier than fat), but the BMI calculation means they are assessed as obese. Have you seen an obese athlete?
A good alternative is the waist to hip ratio, which can also be done with just a tape measure. Measure your hips at the widest point (just by the hip bones) and then your natural waist, the narrowest part (where your stomach button is). Divide the waist reading by the hip reading to get the result. Being under 0.95cm for men or 0.80cm for women is healthy.
And don’t forget, muscle weighs more, but looks considerably less bulky, than fat. Muscles also have more health benefits. We all need to carry a certain amount of fat – men, less than women, but if we carried more muscle, less fat, we would look leaner and be healthier.