To Lose Body Fat

If you’re aiming to lose body fat you’ll probably ask yourself what the ideal body fat percentage is.

Firstly however it’s important to understand a little about the role of fat in the body and why fat is a actually a good thing.  I know that might sound strange in this day and age of the media constantly telling you fat is bad but the truth is fat is essential to your body and without this essential fat your body would not be able to function normally.  Attempting to go below what’s known as your “essential fat” is not only bad for your health but extremely dangerous.

A typical human body has anywhere from 50 to 250 billion fat cells which are stored in many different areas throughout the body including the thighs, waste, buttocks, around your organs such as the kidneys and liver and even within muscle.  Fat has many uses within the body including the insulation and protection of vital organs but the main purpose of fat is to store energy for future use.  When your body needs energy it can break down the contents of fat cells using enzymes to release fatty acids into the bloodstream which can then be transported to any area of the body.  Your body can then convert these fatty acids into a usable form of energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Now that you know a bit about how fat is used in the body and why it’s important, with this frame of mind should you set your ideal body fat goal.  Unsurprisingly there is no one ideal percent body fat for everyone but you can set a realistic goal for yourself by taking into account your age, gender, and body type.  You should also determine whether you are aiming to be at an athletic level of body fat or just in a healthy range.  The following are some charts indicating the ranges for body fat percentage in both men and women:

Body Fat Percentage Chart for Men

Body Fat Percentage Chart for Women

As you can see from the charts above, your ideal body fat percentage is very dependent on your age and gender.  Another thing that’s evident from these charts is that the ranges for women and men are very different. Women naturally have more body fat than men and for good reason. Fat is vital for reproduction so in case of pregnancy fat stores are maintained on a woman’s body.

Lastly, it’s important to note that your ideal percent body fat is also very much dependent on how you feel and what level your individual body performs it’s best so do not think that lower is automatically better.

A lot of people will use a bathroom scale for measuring their weight. This is okay for general weight loss but if you are focused on losing body fat specifically, body fat scales are much more suitable.

The main problem with your typical bathroom scale is that it only gives you the weight of your entire body; your fat, muscle, organs, blood, even what you ate for dinner are all thrown together into this one number.  This is just plain misleading and certainly not a good way to measure body fat. It’s common for example that a person after going through a weight loss program for several weeks could end up at the same weight they started with.  How can this be? Simple; muscle weighs more than fat. The weight that you lose from shedding fat was made up the muscle you gained. In other words you could be well on your way to reaching your body fat goal but instead think you are no better off than you started!

Therefore, if you seriously want to lose body fat, you should consider investing in a good body fat scale also known as a fat monitor. Fortunately, body fat scales are actually quite common nowadays so you should have no trouble finding one in your local department store or fitness shop. Also, if you can, try to purchase a body fat scale that contains a body water monitor as well. A body water monitor will help indicate whether you are dehydrated. This is important as not only is dehydration bad for your overall health, it can actually slow the progress of body fat loss.

You might be wondering how a body fat scale works? A body fat monitor measures the resistance of a small electrical current that passes up one of your legs through your body and down the other leg. The way it measures this electrical resistance is by what’s know as Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). Since water is a good conductor of electricity, the way BIA is able to differentiate fat from muscle is because unlike fat which contains very little water, muscle is roughly 75% water.  The electrical current can therefore pass through the muscle with much less resistance.

With a 4-5% margin of error, body fat scales are not the most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage but are still close enough to meet most people’s needs and the sheer convenience makes them a highly useful tool in the path towards your body fat goal.