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Fat stats: Aggies turn out by
the dozens for a pinching and a dunking
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By Julie Garcia
January 26, 2006 | More than 60 people got their
body fat percentage measured by being dunked into
water in the HPER on Tuesday night.
Some wanted find out their body fat percentage
so they could make goals to lower it and get in
better shape. Others were just plain curious.
"I just wanted to know how fat I was,"
said Otto Anderson, a junior majoring in aerospace
engineering at USU.
"I didn't know it'd be like a little baptismal
font in the corner," he said.
Students began the process by being pinched
with cold, metal clamps in three places, such
as their waist, chest, arms, or thighs. The clamps
measure skin folds and subcutaneous fat. Then,
the measurements are put into equations that take
into account age and gender.
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GET WET:
Jeffery K. Bell, top, prepares to submerge
in the tank to measure his body fat. Ashlee Garcia,
below, demonstrates how to completely get underwater.
/ Photos by Shannon Gibbs |
After the clamping, students proceeded into the small
hydrostatic weighing room. A small tank of water with
a huge grocery-store-like scale stood in the corner.
The students were taken one at a time to sit on the
giant scale within the tank. They were submerged a few
times so that accurate measurements could be taken.
"It was crazy because I saw this girl go before me
who let water go up her nose. She freaked out and came
out of the water gasping for air. She sounded like she
was dying!" Anderson said.
A person who is being hydrostatically weighed has
to get all of the air out of their lungs by exhaling
as much as he can. Then he or she sinks the whole body
into the water for a few seconds while the arrow on
the scale bobbles around a few times and steadily lands
on a number.
The hydrostatic scale calculates the body's weight
underwater -- in other words, body density. The heavier
a person is underwater, the lower his body fat percentage
and visa versa. The hydrostatic weighing tends to be
more accurate because it falls within 1-2 percent of
people's actual percentage of body fat, whereas the
skin-fold measurements fall within 3-5 percent. It's
a great opportunity for students to see where they're
at health-wise, Lindsay Lovell, Student Director of
the Employee Wellness Center said. She said it's good
for students to set and accomplish workout goals one
semester and then come back and see their results the
next semester when they get weighed again.
"Unfortunately some people like to take the tests
and be like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so fat!'" Lovell
said. Doing the body fat measurement is better over
time than tedious weighing on a regular scale. A normal
body fat percentage for women falls between 16 percent
and 25 percent and men 12 percent and 18 percent, she
said.
Lovell said if people work out about three to five
times a week and eat healthy meals they usually should
fall within the normal weight range category.
Everyone carries their weight differently and some
people just naturally carry more than others, she said.
The Employee Wellness Center conducts the $5 body
fat percentage tests once a semester, but if people
want to do it at any other time in the semester it's
around $25. Questions about the body fat percentage
testing can be emailed to Lovell at llovell@cc.usu.edu.
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