Understanding Your Body Fat Analysis
Research over the years continually shows that your body composition is directly linked to certain health risks and the development of certain diseases. Doctors are finding that fat loss and not weight loss can help you live longer.
Body composition has always been important with athletics and performance, but it’s now being used in ordinary medical practice, and even at home! By measuring your body composition, you can determine not only the status of your health but also how to better focus your diet and exercise. This can be extremely helpful and help to optimize your weight loss plans.
There is more than one way to measure your body fat analysis, all of them similar in accuracy. According the The National Institutes of Health, no one method of measuring body fat. Getting good results depend on taking the most accurate measurements in scientific database. Usually people will use several methods in combination.
When trying to understand your body fat analysis, you will want to familiarize yourself with the basic terms.
Weight
Your weight is total weight of your body – this includes your bones, muscle, fat, water, etc.
Overweight
Being overweight is when your body weight is above the acceptable weight category based on your height and frame size. These standards are usually based off of population averages – so these can change over time. Just because you overweight does not mean that you necessarily have too much fat, sometimes you may have above average amounts of muscle.
Obesity
Obesity is where you have an excessive amount of body fat. Researchers have linked over 30 different diseases to obesity.
Body Fat Percentage
This is the percentage of your total body weight that is fat.
Fat Mass
This is the actual weight of fat in your body.
Body Fat
Your body fat serves to insulate and protect you as well as store your energy reserves. When your body fat percentage is too high, the fat increase which can put you at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and even some forms of cancer. Having too much body fat can also affect your immune system and affect your sleep patterns.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BRM)
Your BMR is the rate your body burns calories in order to maintain normal body functions while you rest. Your BMR is affected by the amount of muscle in your body. Your body weight will stay the same when you burn the same number of calories that you are eating. You will only gain or lose weight when you have a 3,500 calorie difference between your intake and the energy you expend throughout the day. If you only diet and don’t exercise, this could result in loss of muscle. When this happens, it will slow down your metabolic rate making it really difficult to keep the weight off. However, if you are able to increase your metabolic rate, if will help you burn those calories and keep them off.
Weight vs Body fat
When you weigh yourself, that measurement can’t always determine how much body fat you have. This is because normal scales are not able to tell the difference between fat free mass and fat mass in the body.
