When it comes to measuring weight loss, most of us rely on the weighing machine to tell us whether we've lost or gained weight. But, as people are fast learning, this isn't the most excellent method to keep track of your weight. A scale measures all including muscle, fat, bones, and what you ate or drank that particular day. It doesn't tell you what you actually want to know, how much fat you have.

Popular methods for measuring body composition

DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry):
This examination is used to measure bone density, but it also measures body fat percentage as well as where most of your fat is. The details about DEXA are. It uses a full body scanner and two different low-dose x-rays to read bone mass and soft tissue mass, which takes about 10-20 minutes to do a body scan. This is considered a good standard for measuring body fat and bone density. It's trouble-free. First check with your doctor to see if this is right for you. The price is generally about $100.

Hydrostatic Weighing:
This is a cool way of saying underwater weighing. Similar to DEXA, this test is one of the more correct ones. The way it works is: You sit on a scale within a tank of water and blow out as much air as you can. You are submerged underwater, where you blow out even extra air. Since fat is lighter than water, the additional fat you have, the more you'll float. The scale measures underwater weight to give out body mass. The scope of error is around 2-3%, but the accuracy depends on the amount of air you force out. You have to blow it all out or it won't be as exact. This is not an easy way to measure body fat since it can be uncomfortable and even frightening to be dunked underwater with no air in the old lungs.

Conclusion

Body composition is basically the ratio of lean body mass to fat body mass. A lot of fat can lead to health problems like heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and other serious conditions. If you keep your body fat within a rational level, you'll be healthier and, of course, slimmer. So, now when you have got the methods start to control on your fat.
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People who diet often can lower their metabolisms enough to decrease their caloric needs. This can be done in two ways:
* First, a diet of less than 1000-1200 calories can actually cause a starvation-like state and force your body to conserve calories The body will cut back its caloric needs to survive. Therefore, you won't lose more in the long run on a 500-calorie diet than you would on one above 1000 calories. This starvation state can lower the metabolism for as much as one year.



* Second, crash dieting can change the body's composition. Let's say you lost 10 pounds in two weeks. Most of that weight was water (5 pounds), some was fat (3 pounds) and the rest was muscle (2 pounds). When the weight is regained (as 95 percent is), it comes back in the form of fat and water. Every future diet can perpetuate this downward cycle of muscle loss; the chronic dieter may change their percentage of body fat over time from 25 percent to 35-40 percent. Surprisingly, the scale may not show large amounts of weight change. Muscle burns up more calories than fat and chronic dieting makes you lose a large percentage of what helps you keep trim. This Yo-Yo effect of losing and regaining can harm the body. It is better to never have dieted at all than to keep losing and regaining the same 1020 pounds.

What does help lose and maintain weight is healthy eating habits and food choices and a more active lifestyle. Take a fresh look at your daily diet and exercise -- get rid of the idea that a diet is something to endure for a month after which you can go back to your old habits. Make short- and long-term goals to slowly change your lifestyle to include healthier food choices and to be more active at work and play.