Can your doctor test your body fat?
Lately Ive been trying to get myself in better shape. I'm 5'4 116 lbs 25yrs old bmi of 20. Not too long ago I was 135. Ive been trying to do this the healthy way exercise including weight lifting eating healthy... (I just need to quit smoking..) I just got a general doctor a week or so ago after not having one most of my life. The last appointment my doctor made a point of bringing out the bmi wheel and telling me she doesn't want me to loose any more weight. Trouble is I still look a little pudgy in areas and I was wondering if I could ask my doctor to check my body fat percentage. I don't necessarily think I know if I need or don't need to loose more weight I think I may need to convert some more body fat to muscle to be health wise and appearance wise as fit as I can be without being either underweight or workout muscle fanatic . So can your general health doctor check your body fat percentage and tell you what it means? And since years ago I had bulimia she was concerned with my bmi. I am doing this the healthy slow way for the purpose of fitness how can I ask without her thinking I may have started back into an eating disorder?
Public Comments
- highly doubt it most doctors depend on bmi even though bmi is a completely pointless system
- You could arrange to have a DEXA scan done. Unless your doctor has experience measuring body fat with callipers there isn't much point asking them to do it. Another option is hydrostatic weighing. I wouldn't trust any body fat scales/anaylsers or calculators on websites because they give out pretty random numbers.
