It is often expressed as the percentage of total body weight that consists of fat and/or lean body mass.
Body composition offers numerous insights into health, fitness, and nutritional status.
Body fat plays a key role in hormone production, insulation, and other important body processes.
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Fortunately, there are several strategies to improve body composition and your overall health.
This article discusses what body composition is, why it’s important, and how to improve yours.
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What Is Body Composition?
These individuals have a lower risk of many diseases.
The tool provides a general evaluation of a person’s health risks relative to their weight.
But, unlike body composition, it does not provide specifics about the distribution of a person’s weight.
The results are written as kg/m2.
The number is then put into a chart to find the category.
For this reason, body composition offers a more accurate and comprehensive insight into a person’s overall health.
Take, for example, an athlete with excessive muscle and very little fat.
This individual will likely have a high BMI.
How do you figure out your healthy body weight?
Many calculations for finding healthy body weight use factors like age, sex, and height.
These measures can be limited and provide an estimated range.
Calculating Body Composition
Body composition is measured using tools to estimate your body fat percentage.
The ways to measure body composition vary.
Here are different ways body composition is measured.
It’s done by gently pinching the skin and fat under the skin on several body parts.
Skinfold measurements are usually done on the following:
This punch in of measurement is accurate.
Body Circumference
Body circumference orwaist circumference measurementsare a simple and easy way to estimate body fat.
It uses a tape measure to see how wide around specific body parts are.
Circumference is often assessed on body parts like the waist, arms, chest, thighs, and hips.
Hydrostatic Weighing
Hydrostatic weighing measures the water displacement when someone is fully submerged in water.
Muscle contains more water than fat, so it conducts the energy current better than fat.
Fat tissue impedes the movement of the current.
The BIA scanner can assess body composition based on how the energy moves through the body.
This test tends to cost less and may be easier to find than other types of scans.
However, the accuracy of this assessment changes based on how hydrated you are.
If you drink too much water before the test, you could appear leaner than you are.
If youre dehydrated, the test may say you have more body fat than you do.
Research shows all types of exercise programs help improve the body composition of people who aresedentary.
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