Fat Burning Secrets - Your Weight Is Not That Important

Thats correct folks

Thats correct folks. Your weight is not that important. Your body fat percentage is. What is body fat percentage? This is part of the composition of your body. Your body is composed of muscle and bones etc which makes up your lean body mass. Your body then has fat. The percentage of your total mass which is pure fat is called your body fat percentage.

Most people when they start a fat burning weight loss regime tend to concentrate on a goal weight. They focus on getting to this weight and dont realise that body composition is much more important.

Your body fat percentage is a much better indicator of your health. There are different recommendations for body fat percentage levels, but the following come from the American Council on Exercise.

Women: Essential Fat 10-12%, Athletes 14 - 20%, Fitness 21 - 24%, Acceptable 25 - 31%, At Risk > 31%

Men: Essential Fat 2 - 4%, Athletes 6 - 13%, Fitness 14 - 17%, Acceptable 18 - 25%, At Risk > 25%

An example of how body fat percentage is a much better indicator of health rather than something like BMI would be fat skinny people.

Say I am a woman who weighs 70kg and I am 168cm tall. My BMI of 24.4 tells me that I am in a normal weight range. I then go and measure my body fat percentage and the percentage of my body which is pure fat is 33%. This shows I am actually at risk. I have too much fat compared with lean mass on my body and so I am actually at risk even though BMI tells me I am normal weight range.

The same can go the other way say I am a male body builder who is 193cm tall and weighs 115kg. Of course this weight is muscle! My BMI would tell me that I am obese and yet when I do my body fat percentage testing I have a percentage of 8%. This actually means I am in the athlete class and not at all obese.

Focusing on body fat percentage rather than total mass is a much better option when setting goals. It is a much better indication on where you are health wise. The other reason is that muscle weighs more than fat and so sometimes when you build more lean mass you will see a gain on the scales which is actually good because it means your body fat percentage has dropped and you are healthier and leaner. Your muscles just weigh more!

by: Laura Milczarek

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