Can’t stop wishing that you had the perfect figure sported by those VS bathing suit models? Yes, they are incredibly gorgeous, and yes, I am guilty of wishing that I had one of their anatomically perfect bodies at one time or another–but, didn’t you hear?
Strong is the new skinny!
When you are hitting the gym, counting down the days to Spring Break, make sure you do not have a distorted view of how beautiful your body is. Give yourself a little reality check and calculate your body fat percentage. Odds are, you are probably in the healthy range (21-33%) and have nothing to worry about and no weight to lose.
Focus on getting fit, getting stronger and looking toned on the beach.
Livestrong.com provides a great article to help us understand our body fat percentages and they even put up an
easy calculator so that we don’t have to do any of the crazy math ourselves.
Girls often get obsessed about losing weight, but it is important to make sure you are losing fat mass and not lean muscle mass. To put this in perspective, let’s say that you are a 130 pound woman with 23% body fat, (healthy!) who wants to lose 20 pounds. After doing some calculations, we understand the following:
- Your initial body fat: 130 pounds x 0.23 fat (23%) = 30 pounds body fat
This means that your lean body mass: 130 pounds total – 30 pounds of fat = 100 pounds lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)
Your goal: 130 pounds – 20 pounds = 110 pounds
- Body fat at goal weight: 9%
Not only is the goal of losing 20 pounds unrealistic, it is also extremely unhealthy. You should aim for a body fat percentage of 21% at the lowest–unless you happen to be a competing athlete, in which case body fat at 14-20% is acceptable.
Foster a positive self-image. Look in the mirror and realize that you are beautiful. Stop comparing yourself to others, (especially those VS models,) and work on being healthy, fit and strong. This is the best thing your can do for yourself and for your future.
Stay healthy, stay happy and cheers to Spring Break!
Want to do the math yourself ? Here is the method I used:
1. Weight x 0.732 + 8.987 = body weight factor
2. Circumference of wrist / 3.14 = wrist measurement factor
3. Circumference of waist x 0.157 = waist measurement factor
4. Circumference of hips x 0.249 = hip measurement factor
5. Circumference of forearm x 0.434 = forearm measurement factor
6. Body weight factor + forearm measurement factor – wrist measurement factor – waist measurement factor – hip measurement factor = lean body mass
7. Weight – lean body mass = body fat weight
8. Body fat weight x 100 / weight = BODY FAT PERCENTAGE (roughly)
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