Do You Have A Healthy Body Composition (muscle-fat) Ratio?
Those people that have been blessed with the 'naturally thin' gene often think that they do not need to worry about exercising
. Because they are not overweight they often believe that they can get away with a no exercise lifestyle. Sometimes we can get too hung up on measuring our health and wellness by the number on the bathroom scale or on clothing size when there are other factors that are important.
Just because you are 'thin' does not automatically mean you are healthy and one way to look at this and measure it accurately is with a body composition test. Available from gyms and fitness centers body composition measures your lean body weight (muscle tissue) versus your body fat percentage.
A healthy body fat level for a female is between 14-24 percent and a male 8-17 percent. An obese woman would have a body fat level of over 32 percent and a male 25 percent. Everything in between these measurements would be considered overweight. It is possible to have a high and dangerous level of body fat yet be considered 'skinny' or 'thin' and weigh a so called 'healthy' weight on the scales.
This 'thin-looking' but over-fat condition is mainly caused by dieting or not eating enough and either doing too much 'cardio' type activity and none or not enough proper muscle building and maintaining activity. It is the result of an obsession with thinness rather than the focus being on increased strength, fitness and health.
The trouble is without exercise fat forms on the body, especially on the abdominal area both deep inside the abdominal cavity and under the skin widening your waistline. But the real danger comes from the fat inside wrapped around major organs hindering their functioning and releasing harmful chemicals that lead to disease.
If you feel you have excess body fat or have had a body composition test that determines that you have, the way to deal to it is with firstly, a proper program of strength training to reboot your metabolism and get your body burning more fuel (calories). Secondly, never starve yourself; you need good quality nutrition to support your proper exercise program.
The best thing you can do with your nutrition is ditch the processed foods and replace them with natural whole foods cooked from scratch. Instead of reducing your food intake it is better to put more effort into your exercise program which will allow you to eat more yet still lose body fat. You will also have lots of energy so you feel more motivated to be active and your body will be provided with a greater amount of nutrients to draw from.
Keep the focus on building strength, fitness, energy, vitality and health rather than simply losing weight. To achieve that your metabolism is the key and a healthy body composition (low fat level/high muscle tissue) is paramount to achieving this goal. Ideally you want fat loss to be automatic and your body in fat burning mode not fat storing mode.