Body Composition
Posted by Fitnut on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
What is it?
Body composition refers to the constituents of your body - lean mass, fat mass, and water.
Scales weigh total body mass. What the scale doesn't tell you is whether that weight is fat, lean ( which includes bone, ligaments, and muscle) or water. Your body composition is more important than your weight in determining fitness and health.
Too High or Too Low
Excess fat may be partly genetic, but mostly results from poor exercise and nutritional habits. If your percentage of fat is excessive you may want to make some lifestyle changes. Obesity raises one's risk of getting heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. Excess fat weight stresses the cardiovascular system and reduces the body's ability to work efficiently.
All of us require stored body fat for fueling energy- if the body has to little fat, it will begin to break down muscle tissue in order to satisfy energy requirements.
Body composition refers to the constituents of your body - lean mass, fat mass, and water.
Scales weigh total body mass. What the scale doesn't tell you is whether that weight is fat, lean ( which includes bone, ligaments, and muscle) or water. Your body composition is more important than your weight in determining fitness and health.
Too High or Too Low
Excess fat may be partly genetic, but mostly results from poor exercise and nutritional habits. If your percentage of fat is excessive you may want to make some lifestyle changes. Obesity raises one's risk of getting heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. Excess fat weight stresses the cardiovascular system and reduces the body's ability to work efficiently.
All of us require stored body fat for fueling energy- if the body has to little fat, it will begin to break down muscle tissue in order to satisfy energy requirements.