What is Hydrostatic Weighing?
August 30th, 2011 by the writer
One of the trickiest aspects of measuring one’s weight by using a traditional scale is that one of these does not measure body health accurately. This is because; body health is not the same as body mass by any means. In fact, as you must surely guess by now, body fat can be a great part of one’s mass while at the same time directly affecting health in a negative way. This is why, in order to measure health, the measure of weight has to be done not in pounds, but instead in body density. And here is where hydrostatic weighing comes into play. Also known as underwater weighing, hydrostatic weighing is a special type of weighing that involves being weighed while being completely submerged underwater.
Now, one of the requirements for the accurate undertaking this kind of weighing is the measurement of the lung volume. On top of that, a proper and accurate weighing on land is also required for comparative purposes.
Also, before undergoing this kind of measurement, the person to be weighed needs to wear a special outfit and then sit on a chair. This chair is specially conditioned to be submerged underwater and is attached to a scale, which is submerged alongside with it. Then, before being submerged, the person is attached to the chair, which is then placed underwater at a level just below the person’s chin. After that, and before being completely submerged, the person in question is requested to exhale all the air in his/her lungs so as to make the measurement more accurate. Then the person is completely submerged and should stay so for at least a few seconds. On the whole, the full hydrostatic weighing process should not last more than 30 minutes from start to finish.
After all the underwater weighing process is over, the residual air from the lungs is deducted and other factors are entered into the equation as well, like the weight measured on land. All of these are used to calculate the body density and most importantly, his or her total body fat percentage accurately.
Now, quite interestingly, almost all of those who have tried hydrostatic weighing find themselves quite surprised by the results. On one side, highly trained athletes that possess a high weight level will find that their body fat presents very low counts. And on the other hand, people who do not exercise much and do not weight much either, find out to their surprise (and dismay), that their body fat count would sometimes be actually off the charts.
But of course, this is the whole point of hydrostatic weighing: to help people determine the true state of their health and from there, to help them start implementing a plan that can get them to the best of their health whether it is by eating a healthier diet, by doing more exercise, or even both.