Ask someone about their weight and you'll get varying degrees of resistance and truth to the question. I read a statistic the other day that over 66% of women lie about their weight. I suspect for the same reasons, men also lie about their size and weight, but that’s a topic for another post. Today, I want to talk about the importance of understanding your bodyfat as a percentage of overall weight. We often use BMI or weight/height charts as an indicator of healthy weight, and I guess it’s not a bad guideline, but only to a certain point.
A much better way to measure your weight and general fitness is to have a good understanding of your bodyfat content, not just your body weight. By monitoring your % bodyfat in combination with your weight regularly, there are many things you can learn about your fitness and general health as time passes by.
The Basics of % Bodyfat and Body Composition
Your body is made up of many components; the major ones are muscle, bone, organs and fat. And fat seems to be the one everyone is concerned about when we think of appearance, health, fitness and longevity.
Unfortunately, you can’t simply look in the mirror, stand on a scale and look up a BMI chart to tell if you are over-fat or under-fat. Height/Weight charts are only averages and about 50% of us conform to the averages on these charts. The charts have no way of determining what your muscle development is, or isn’t, and most people don’t know if they fit into the small, medium or large frame types. No, the only way to determine your % bodyfat is to measure it.
Being able to measure and monitor your % bodyfat will provide you with important information about the changes in your muscle tissue over time. By knowing your % bodyfat, you can determine your % muscle, bone and organ mass. For example, let’s assume a man weighting 160lbs has 20% bodyfat, then 32lbs is bodyfat and everything else is “lean mass” or 128lbs. Of the lean mass, the component that you have most control and can change is muscle tissue. By monitoring your bodyfat, you will have better insight into the changes of your muscle tissue. And your muscle tissue will increase or decrease depending on your diet, activity, exercise and general lifestyle.
Unfortunately, North Americans as a population don’t get enough exercise or eat a healthy diet, which results in gradually losing their muscle tissue as they age. So a person may actually weigh the same in their 50’s as they did in college and have significantly less muscle and more fat on their body.
A study by Brozek and Keys determined that the average male at 20 years of age has 10.3 % bodyfat and by the time he reaches 55 years, his % bodyfat increased to 25%. This implies that a man weighing 160lbs at 20 will only have 16lbs of bodyfat and the same man at 55 will have 40lbs of fat. That’s a loss of 24lbs of muscle, bone and organ tissue and a gain of 24lbs of added fat. To be of healthy % bodyfat at the age 55, this individual should only weight 148lbs and carry 19% bodyfat. It would have been better that he exercised throughout his life and maintained his muscle, bone and organ mass. This example is for a man, but the same concept holds true for women.
This kind of change doesn’t happen to everyone. People that have active lifestyles, exercise daily and eat a healthy diet do not lose muscle tissue or gain bodyfat throughout their lives. In fact, people over 50 years of age can gain back muscle and lose bodyfat through a proper diet and exercise program.
The Application of Bodyfat Information
It’s important to note that body composition changes start as early as 18 and by 25 most North Americans have already lost lean mass and gained body fat. And that’s the ones that have maintained their correct weight. It’s even worse for those that have gained weight. If people monitor their % bodyfat early and often, they will see the changes and be able to make the correct changes before the weight challenge become serious and a lifelong struggle.
Another important reason to know your % bodyfat is to monitor the affect of a new diet or exercise program on muscle tissue and fat development. Research has shown that a people that go on one of the many fad diets will generally lose muscle tissue and not fat, but in the absence of actually taking regular bodyfat measurements the dieter will never know the harmful effects if all they rely on is their weight scale.
The most effective way to reduce the proper weight is through exercise and eating a well balanced diet, while monitoring your % bodyfat to ensure the weight loss is fat and not muscle tissue. As I train and prepare for the Haute Route bike race this August from Geneva to Nice, I’m following this process myself, as I have to reduce my total body weight while maintaining my muscle mass to ensure I have the optimal power to weight ratio to power my lighter body over the 68,000 feet (21,000 meters) of climbing during the 7 days of racing.
Yet another important use of bodyfat measuring regards people that are the proper weight, or even a little underweight according to BMI and other weight/height charts and may even look healthy, when in fact they’re actually “under muscled” and “over fat”. The fact that their small muscles weigh so little they are often given the false impression that they are a healthy weight, when in fact they are over fat and require an exercise program to gain muscle tissue while losing the unhealthy fat.
Like the example above, the opposite is true for a person that’s particularly muscular with low bodyfat. According to the BMI and other weight/height charts this person is considered overweight, when in fact they’re actually quite lean and if they went on a diet, they would only lose muscle tissue. So, only by measuring their bodyfat will they know they’re of a healthy weight.
Finally, when a person decides to take action and commits to a well planned exercise program, combined with a nutritious and well balanced diet, they may actually see a weight gain for the first few months as they gain heavier lean muscle tissue while losing the lighter bodyfat. Seeing their weight increase may be discouraging to the individual causing them to give up on their new healthy lifestyle. By measuring both weight and % bodyfat, they will see the improvements and continue with the program with a sense of encouragement.
How do I measure % Bodyfat
There are a two common methods and devices to measure % bodyfat at home. These are the Skinfold Calipers and Bio-impedance devices. I have both and of the two, the skinfold caliper is the more accurate method. The down side of skinfold calipers, is they generally require a second person to take the measurements. That said, I have become a master of measuring myself after only a few tries and the readings are very accurate.
So if you really want to understand your true healthy weight, don’t just rely on your weigh scale and the BMI chart as your guide, as this method may provide you with incorrect information. Purchase online a set of enexpensive Skinfold Calipers and take the time to make weekly, or at a minimum monthly bodyfat measurements to ensure you maintain a healthy body composition throughout your life.
And most importantly, taking corrective action once you know your body’s composition is the key to a healthy future.
Enjoy the Ride....Rob
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