Phil Goglia
What Does It nasty to Be Lean? How to Evaluate Your Body Composition
Many people believe that scale weight is the primary determinant of whether or not they are fit. That belief has resisted not single the test of time but a lot of the true scientific research behind weight loss and weight management. The reason for this is that many high-profile health professionals continue to use scale weight as the measure of successful dieting and health instead of the genuine gold standard of weight loss: body composition.
Whether your ultimate goal is to lose weight, improve your general health, or to simply have a more tonal and attractive body, you need to understand that your primary focus should be on body composition—your ratio of fat to wizened tissue—rather than retributory on how untold you weigh. This article offers a definition of good body composition and gives guidelines on how to evaluate your own body makeup—professionally or at home.
What Comprises a Lean Body?
It is a myth that contrabass scale weight automatically means lean. The world of dieters is filled with what I refer to as “skinny fat people,” those who have managed to reduce their scale weight considerably through calorically-deprived weight loss programs but at the sacrifice of lean muscle.
The body requires a basal amount of calories every day to repair and maintain lean tissue and to keep one’s metabolism efficient at burning fat. When a person is eating the proper type and amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrate regular to support their metabolism, they will drop body greasy and build and maintain a well-preserved percentage of wizened muscle, even if they are fat to begin with.
When a person is eating too few calories to repair lean tissue and support metabolic function, the body will have to get its energy sources from somewhere—it will literally cannibalize its own muscle tissue to feed and repair itself. A person will lose scale weight on this type of diet, but it will be the wrong sympathetic of weight. So, instead of being firm and svelte, these individuals will look flabby and gaunt.
The proper definition of having a lean body is how untold you weigh per square inch. A pound of greasy is three times the volume of a pound of lean tissue. Muscle tissue is precise dense and compact. So, you could literally lose cardinal pounds of body fat and gain five pounds of lean tissue and have a untold leaner and tighter body with no scale weight differential at all!
Below is a chart defining healthy and unhealthy levels of body fat.
BODY FAT PERCENTAGE LEVEL MEN WOMEN Athletic, very lean 10.0 or lower 15.0 or lower Good/lean 10.1 to 15.0 15.1 to 18.0 Average 15.1 to 20 18.1 to 22.0 Fair/Fat 20.1 to 24.0 22.1 to 27.0 Obese preceding 24.0 Above 27.0
How to Have Your Body Composition Evaluated
If you do not want to go to the expense of having your body composition proved by a professional, there is a simple at-home test that you can perform that is reasonably accurate. There are both female and male versions of this test.
At-home Body Composition Test for Females
- Multiply your hips (inches) _____ X 1.4 = _____ minus 1 = ______ (A)
- Multiply your waist (inches) ____ X 0.72 = ____ minus 2 = ______ (B)
- Add A plus B = ________ ©
- Multiply your height (inches) ______ X 0.61 = _______ (D)
- Subtract D from C, past subtract 10 more: C – D – 10 = _______%
Your answer will be your approximate body fat percentage, if you are a female.
At-Home Body-Fat Test for Males
- Multiply your hips (inches)____ X 1.4 = ____ minus 2 = ____ (A)
- Multiply your waist (inches) ____ X 0.72 = ____ negative 4 = ____ (B)
- Add A plus B = ____ ©
- Multiply your height (inches)____ X 0.61 = ____ (D)
- Subtract D from C, then subtract 10 more: C – D – 10 = _____ percent
This is your approximate body fat if you are a male.
If you wish to calculate how many pounds of fat and how many pounds of lean body weight you carry, use the following cardinal formulas:
Total weight (lbs.) ____ X percent body greasy ____ = ____ total pounds of fat
Total weight ____ minus whole pounds of greasy ____ = ____ total pounds of lean weight
Knowing how many pounds of body greasy versus lean muscle you have can be a big motivator to make a body composition change.
Getting Your Body Composition Evaluated by a Professional
If you prefer to have a body composition test conducted by a trained technician, other options, in order of price and accuracy, include hydrostatic weighing, bioelectrical impedance, and skinfold measurement with a caliper.
Although it is the most expensive test, costing between $100 and $150, hydrostatic weighing is currently thoughtful the gold normal of body composition. This technique is based upon the assumption that the density and specific gravity of muscle is greater than that of fat. For this reason, lean tissue should sink in water and greasy tissue should float. By comparing a test subject's collective measured while low water with his mass measured while out of water, a technician can calculate your body composition rather accurately, within plus or minus 3% of your genuine body composition. You can usually find a facility for hydrostatic weighing at a local university, hospital wellness center, college, health club, or fitness center.
Bioelectrical impedance is based on the fact that lean tissue, because of its high water content, is more conductive of electrical current than fat tissue. A technician attaches a bioimpedance meter to the subject’s hands and feet and passes current finished the body via electrodes. The more lean tissue a person has, the greater his or her semiconducting potential. Compared to hydrostatic weighing, there is a nonnegative or minus 4% margin of error, if done correctly.
These days, with the advanced technology available, even whatsoever bathroom scales are equipped with bioelectrical impedence devices that can measure your body fat. Unfortunately, these scales can only measure you vertically and are generally not precise accurate. It is much better to have this test done by an expert with prissy equipment.
Skinfold measurement with a caliper is the most convenient method for measuring body greasy since it is low cost (about $5 to $15) and is readily available at your local hospitals, physiological therapy centers, health clubs, schools, universities, and through the offices of exercise physiologists, and dietitians. The assumption behind this test is that subcutaneous body fat is proportional to general body fat. Therefore, the body greasy to lean muscle ratio can be calculated by measuring anywhere from cardinal to eight sites of skin thickness and plugging the numbers into a mathematical formula. This test has an error rate of plus or negative 5%.
Remember, the scale can never tell you the whole story. The true definition of what it means to be lean is organically centered in a healthy body composition. If you repair and support your body by eating the proper amount of calories to help it to function at best metabolic efficiency, you should be delighted with the results.
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