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WHAT IS BODY COMPOSITION?
Body composition is used by health professionals to evaluate a person’s weight by breaking it down into its core components: fat, protein, minerals, and body water.
It describes your healthy weight more accurately and provides a better glimpse into your overall health than traditional methods like BMI & weight.
Body composition analysis can accurately show changes in fat mass, lean muscle mass, and body fat percentage.
Why Is Body Composition Important To Measure?
Most diet and fitness goals focus on weight loss or gain, overlooking that two people of the same sex and body weight may look completely different from each other because they have different body compositions. Measuring your body composition will tell you your own body’s unique makeup and help you identify areas to work on to improve your overall health and wellness.
Getting a better insight into your overall wellness starts with measuring your body composition and going beyond the number on the scale. You will know whether you need to gain more lean mass or lower body fat percentage to achieve a healthy body composition and a better level of health.
What Are Examples of Body Composition?
Many individuals will fall within one of four different body composition categories below. Knowing your body composition helps you design an effective, personalized fitness and nutrition plan.
1) Balanced Body Composition: This individual’s weight, body fat percentage, and muscle mass are within the same range. A balanced body composition can be healthy or unhealthy depending on your body fat percentage.
2) High Body Fat, Low Muscle Mass: This individual’s weight is considered healthy for their height but they have a high body fat percentage and low muscle mass level.
3) High Muscle Mass, Low Body Fat: This individual’s weight may be considered high for their height using BMI but that is because they have a high muscle mass level. Their body fat percentage may be lower than average.
What Are the Benefits of Body Composition?
A healthy body composition contributes to a stronger immune system and reduces your health risk for common chronic diseases and conditions like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Here’s how you can use body composition to improve your wellbeing.
~Find your baseline so you can know what you need to lose, gain, or maintain
~Assess your Percent Body Fat so you can focus on fat loss, not just weight loss
~Maximize your workout routine to fit your unique health and fitness goals
~Calculate your caloric needs and create a personalized nutrition plan
~Set realistic goals, accurately monitor progress, and stay motivated
~Make more informed decisions to improve your body composition