Am I Fat? the Burning Question

Wander through many heath-and-fitness discussion forums and you'll come across this question with unsettling regularity. It seems many of us secretly wonder about their appearance. I say 'secretly' because the ones that are asking choose to trust the anonymity of the internet, rather than ask their own friends' opinions. It does make sense, though: would you tell your best friend she was fat? No--you would either flatly say no, or you'd probably blurt out some hackneyed, time-worn expression, something about true beauty being found from within.

To answer this question with some degree of satisfaction, I'll try to address two aspects of this: Psychological and Technical.

Psychological:

A very common trend in this question is that most of the people asking this question is that they are young, usually in their teens, and female. How do I know? They include all sorts of details in their question; a common form of this would go,

"Am I fat? I weigh 144 pounds, 17 years old, active on our high school pep squad, but don't exercise that much, and just get five hours of sleep every night because my brother leaves the PlayStation on all the time. And I guess I eat okay, mostly ethnic foods I'm into right now, but more than I think I should, especially when I'm out with my friends..."

What she really wants you to answer is not if she's fat, but, "Am I unattractive? Is this healthy? How would I know? I need someone to say I'm OK". While it is sad that many young people like her have this insecurity, sadder yet that many answering her would gush, "Oh-no-no, you sound fine dear, don't worry, you're still young..." and so forth. But this is not quite the answer she is looking for; in fact it is the same coddling, reassurance-intended drivel she would get from her friends-not very satisfying or even helpful at all. We tend to give that answer to anyone, friends or strangers, usually for two reasons: (1) we don't want to hurt their feelings and (2) we don't know exactly what hard information to supply.

In fact, looking back at the original question, she doesn't really give the right data for anyone on which to base a proper answer. Can you really, sufficiently tell how attractive or healthy someone is, based on the details she gave above? None of us from our computer terminals can authoritatively tell her, "Get more sleep and quit the pep squad! You will then be fat and unattractive no longer!"

Also, in our society, we seem to equate "skinny" with "beautiful". Conversely, we have come to equate "fat" with "ugly". While there may be a threshold we would consider a person to be too fat to be attractive, when one crosses this line is completely subjective to each and every observer, even the person himself or herself. This is yet another reason why our friends will not get a straight answer from us if we ask them about how fat we are: if we weren't attractive to them in some small degree, and/or had redeeming qualities such as personality or character, they wouldn't be our friends at all. This relationship becomes an insulating bias of well-intended kindness that can prevent us from reaching a definitive yes/no conclusion.

Speaking of thresholds, does it really mean you are more beautiful the skinnier you are, or the less you weigh? Where does this stop? Does a girl weighing 112 pounds have a prettiness advantage over someone who weighs 112.5? If so, does girl #112 have more self-esteem, and in better health than girl #112.5? How can you tell?

And if we had two other candidates, one weighing 200 pounds and another weighing 202, which one is happier, which one has more health problems? Which one is just the right weight? Can you tell from all four candidates' weights alone?

Here's my favorite question: If I weigh 135 pounds, and all-time champion bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, weighed 225 in his prime, does this mean I have to actually gain almost a hundred pounds to be in ideal shape? How about that likable guy Norm from Cheers-- is he then only seven or eight pounds away from physical perfection? Not so easy to tell, is it?

What would be helpful is expert, or even professional opinion, hence a technical way to answer the question.

Technical:

How "fat" you are is strictly the amount of fat on your body, expressed as a percentage of your total body mass. It's not how pretty you look, or even how entirely healthy you are. It's just a number, but a good indicator of other things you may have to do in your own situation.

There are several ways to find out how much fat is on your body.

(1) Caliper or Skinfold method: My least favorite, because it is the least accurate. The subject, with some assistance, uses a pair of special measuring calipers to pinch a layer of skin at various locations on the body, and get an average reading. This may seem simple, but thus far it is the least consistent: small changes, sometimes by a fraction of an inch in the location where the body was measured each time, how much or how little the skin was pinched, can lead to major inconsistencies in the reading.

(2) Calculation method: This happens to be my favorite, since it is the most convenient and practical. By supplying certain numbers such as your height, weight, waistline, gender, etc. to any bodyfat calculator program you can find online, you can have a quick reading. Depending on the calculation method, it may be off by one or two percentage points. The key is to use the same calculator to track your progress on a regular basis.

Here is just one bodyfat calculator you can find online to determine your percentage:

http://www.weightsnet.com/Misc/calculators.html

It uses a method developed by the YMCA, which needs the fewest body statistics you have to supply. It makes a few assumptions, but the result is quite accurate.

(3) Electrostatic Impedance - This by far will give you the most accurate results. By sending a weak electrical current to your body either via electrodes or contact plates, and measuring how fast the current takes to travel throughout your body, a quick calculation will yield your bodyfat percentage. You can have this test done at a lab, or purchase a device at a health-food store. My preference is a scale made by Tanita, which you step on barefooted, and it shows your weight and bodyfat in the same weighing.

Perhaps I should mention Immersion Testing as well, but that is even yet more expensive and impractical to do on a regular basis, as it requires a well-equipped laboratory with an immersion tank, and trained scientists to gauge your buoyancy, and calculate your bodyfat from there. Not many people can do this frequently.

So how fat is too fat? Once and for all, use one of the methods I mentioned above, and look it up on this chart:

Male:
Low: 6-10% fat
Optimal: 11-17% fat
Moderate: 18-20% fat
Obesity: Greater than 25% fat

Female
Low: 14-18% fat
Optimal: 19-22% fat
Moderate: 23-30% fat
Obesity: Greater than 30% fat

(Taken from http://www.worldguide.com/Fitness/bodyfat.html )

So the answer to "Am I Fat?" cannot be simply measured with a simple yes or no. It has many dimensions (perhaps more than I have covered) that bear scrutiny with each person, and all of it must be done to get the full picture. But at least this should get you on a good -if not very well-informed start.

Finally, please indulge me when I send you off with this wink saying that True Beauty is To Be Found On The Inside!