Most people know how much they weigh on a scale. Some check their weight every day while some every few weeks. But do you know your body composition and body fat percentage? The answer is probably not.
We largely focus our attention on gaining muscles or losing weight. But what we fail to consider is that two people of the same sex and body weight may be polar opposites from each other when it comes to body composition.
But first things first. What is body composition?
Body composition is describing what the body is made up of. It breaks down the body into its core components: fat, protein, minerals and body water. It describes your body weight more accurately than other traditional methods such as Body Mass Index.
BMI, despite being a common method to measure body mass, is an inaccurate tool for measuring weight change. It’s a simple calculation that uses a person's height and weight. The formula being BMI = kg/m2 where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m2 is their height in metres squared. If you have a BMI of 25.0 or more, you are overweight, while the healthy range is between 18.5 to 24.9. This, needless to say, is an oversimplification of body composition and provides misleading numbers on your overall health.
Body composition analysis can show precise changes in fat, muscle mass and body fat percentage. Measuring and knowing your body composition will allow you to understand your body’s unique makeup. With this, you can precisely identify areas you should work on to improve your health and general wellbeing. InBody body composition analysis can breakdown how much of your weight loss is fat, muscle or body water.
We usually stereotype that a “healthy” person is thin and ‘fit’. But that isn’t necessarily always the case. A skinny looking person can carry an equal amount of health risks as an obese person. This increased health risk can be owed to an excessive amount of visceral fats that a person has since it can’t be measured by the traditional BMI.
To have good long term health, a balance of fat and muscle is of vital importance. Since Inbody tests differentiate between muscle and fat, it removes the unnecessary guesswork to determine if your weight loss or gain is in muscle or fat. It’s the best way to track your progress and ensure that you stay motivated by your fitness routine.
Are you trying to lose weight and are frustrated that the number on your weighing scale simply won’t come down? It’s understandable to feel frustrated and give up when you’re not making progress. But truth be told, your body composition is changing, it’s just that your ordinary weighing scale simply won’t show the change within your body.
Knowing your body composition will allow you to have more targeted workouts, set realistic goals and accurately measure your progress towards them. It also calculates your caloric needs so that you can work on a personalized nutrition plan. Knowing your fats and visceral fat will help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
InBody offers a premium range of body composition analyzers that provide accurate and detailed reports on your body composition. This will help you optimize your fitness plan and train your body more efficiently.