Your Body Composition

As a former musician, when I hear the word “composition” I think of the famous 4-note theme of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. As a personal trainer, I think of an important component of overall health: body composition. Body composition lets us divide our overall weight into two categories, lean body mass and body fat. If you are carrying too much body fat, you are likely to end up with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, or a host of other health problems. The farther away you are from normal or average, the higher your chances of serious health issues, including muscular skeletal problems. Most of us simply get on a scale, see what numbers come up and use that as a basis for whether or not we are at a healthy weight. It is not that simple.

Lean body mass and body fat

In assessing body composition, we try to discern between lean body mass (your bones, internal organs, blood, water, muscle, skin) and fat. Getting on a scale may tell us how much the whole combination weighs, however, assessing which percentage is fat and which is lean body mass tells us much more about your health risks. Even the location of fat is related to health risks. For instance, abdominal fat is linked to heart disease, poor lipid profiles and type 2 diabetes. Because abdominal fat is more mobile it enters the circulation more readily to form arterial plaques.

The optimal body fat percentage of a male is about 16% and for a female about 23%. A man should not exceed the 23% threshold and a woman should not go over 31%. The easiest way to know if you are losing body fat is by how your clothes fit you. If you need to tighten your belt or you drop a dress size, even though there is little or no change on your scale, you are losing body fat.

These days, most experts are turning away from the BMI. One of the preferred measures being used is the hip to waist ratio. Both are measured at the point of greatest circumference. A man whose waist-hip ratio exceeds 0.95 and a woman whose ratio is greater than 0.8 are considered to be a greater risk. Another newer method of assessing your weight in regards to your health is the waist-height ratio. Your weight needs to be less than half your height.

Hydrostatic weighing

Hydrostatic weighing is considered the gold standard as far as accuracy in determining body fat. This test is usually administered at research institutes and involves being weighed while you are in a pool of water. Bioelectrical impedance is relatively new. You stand on the device, which looks like a bathroom scale and a low dose of electricity is sent up one leg and down another. The resistance to the lose-weight-guycurrent is measured. The more body fat you have, the higher the resistance.

Whichever way you choose to have your body fat measured, it is important information to know. By knowing exactly how much fat you are carrying vis-a-vis lean body mass, you can commit to an active lifestyle, a consistent exercise program and good, healthful eating. Keeping the amount of body fat at normal levels can “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.”

2017-01-30T12:10:04+00:00

One Comment

  1. […] people need to only lose a few kilos, others may have years of work to do in order to get into a range of healthy weight.  But as we all know, the chances of long-term success aren’t very good.  With some help from […]

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