As most of us know only too well, weight gain occurs when we consume more calories than we burn during daily activities, including exercise. These excess calories are then stored as fat.

This trend is particularly evident among Americans, and is increasing each year. In fact, the Journal Of the American Medical Association states that the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity has increased to 64.5% of Americans in 1999-2000 from 55.9% in1994.1

Though many of us are aware of carrying excess weight, we may not know where to begin in our quest towards a healthier and more fit body. A great place to start is to determine your body composition—the ratio of body fat to lean muscle—as it has a direct impact on your weight, fitness, health and life expectancy.

You can ascertain your body composition through body fat testing. Many Americans lack a clear understanding of their fitness—relying only on the bathroom scale to determine body weight.

However, fat weighs considerably less than muscle, but takes much more space. Therefore, the bathroom scale is a highly inaccurate gauge of fitness, as it fails to differentiate between fat and lean muscle.

Conversely, body fat testing to determine your ratio of fat to lean muscle provides a far more accurate picture of your true fitness.

Without exercise, you may find over time that although the scale indicates your usual weight, your clothing size continues to increase.

The good news is that you can reverse this unhealthy trend. By embarking on a committed fitness program, you will likely find that as you convert fat to lean muscle, you reduce your clothing size while maintaining or even gaining weight.

These changes will be reflected in your improved body composition and Body Mass Index (BMI). Your BMI is simply the measure of your weight adjusted for height.

According to Walter C. Willett, M.D., a BMI of more than 25 increases the risk of dying early, mainly from heart disease and cancer. He notes that BMIs between 25 and 30 should be considered overweight, and more than 30 is regarded as obese.

You can have your BMI calculated in seconds at www.halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm. The American College of Sports Medicine asserts that the healthy body fat percentage range for men between the ages of 30-39 would be between 12-21% body fat, while women in the same age range would ideally be between 17-25%.

Determining your body composition will provide you with an accurate starting place for healthy weight loss. If you have a higher than ideal percentage of body fat to lean muscle, reducing that percentage is your best bet to reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Recent research indicates that women between the ages of 30-50 who engaged in regular physical activity were able to maintain lower body fat levels and body mass indexes than their sedentary peers.2

They also showed a consistently higher metabolic rate, even at rest. For similar benefits, you should aim for a minimum of 20-30 minutes of exercise daily, 3-5 times per week.

The more lean muscle mass you have, the more efficient your metabolic function will be. This means that you can consume far more calories than someone with a higher body fat percentage, and still retain a lean and healthy frame.

The advantages of improving your ratio of body fat to lean muscle are apparent, but you need a baseline understanding of where you are to determine and track where you want to be.

For more information about body fat testing, contact Kiki Powers at kiki@aboutnhs.com.

References

1 Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Ogden CL, Johnson CL. Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999-2000. JAMA 2002 Oct 9;288(14):1723-7

2 Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2001 Oct;101(10):1181-8