Body fat - why it is important to know your measurement!

There are so many body fat monitors on the market today that it can be confusing to know which one to choose. But at the end of the day, what is body fat and why is it important to measure it?

Basically it is easiest if you think of your body in terms of 2 things – firstly the bad stuff, or the body fat, and then the good stuff, being lean muscle, tissue, skin and bone.

Everyone needs a certain amount of body fat – we cannot live without it. In the days of cavemen, people would eat to excess when food was plentiful and put on loads of body fat in the process. As the seasons changed and food became scarce, the body would use up its body fat stores to provide vital calories and energy to help the cavemen live through the day and not starve. This is similar to what happens when animals hibernate today, in that they eat to excess prior to their long winter sleep and use their food stores to help them survive when they are asleep.

In today’s modern society however, people do not generally have periods of plenty and then periods of scarcity. Nevertheless the body still maintains its survival instincts and holds on to excessive calories that we consume in the form of body fat.

Unless we do something to make the body consume these extra calories, ie diet or exercise, then our body fat percentage will gradually increase over time, ultimately leading to weight gain and health problems associated with carrying excess weight ie high blood pressure , high cholesterol, strokes, type 2 diabetes and so on.

So now we know WHY it is important to measure our body fat, lets look at acceptable levels:

For a healthy adult male, body fat should account for 15 – 18 % of body weight, for a female, anything from 22 – 25% is considered ideal. Anything more than 7% over these recommended limits is seen as a serious health risk, and a problem that needs to be redressed as soon as possible.

Body fat monitors will not always give the same result, depending on which part of the body they measure, so be sure to monitor results on the same machine each time, rather than switching between different methods. As well as weighing scales and hand held monitors, there are internet sites that will measure your body fat percentage for free, though the most accurate method is by means of bioelectrical impedance analysis