A new way to weigh yourself

Skip the traditional scale, and step on a body composition monitor, says Dr. Pamela Peeke, author of Body for Life for Women. It can measure percentage of body fat, plus muscle and bone mass.

"It's more important to know how much fat you have than what you weigh," say Peeke. Too much belly fat has been linked to disease. Women ages 40 to 59 should have no more than 31% fat; men, 25%.

You can track your progress too. "Watching the percentage of fat go down and muscle go up is a great incentive," says Peeke. The monitors use electrical currents to calculate body tissue weight.

Nancy Coventry - Reader's Digest