27
Mar 2018
Achieving Health, Fitness & Longevity (part #1)
Body Composition
Coach Chris
Today I’d like to talk about something we all have, and for a lot of us, something we would like to change for the better – our body composition.
I like to view body compositon in two parts – Fat mass, and fat free mass.
Fat mass is something we all tend to worry about, know matter how much we actually have. Tipping the fat scale too high or low can both have negative consequences.
Too much bodyfat can result in the formation of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and more. It will also lead to decreased performance, joint pain, and increased risk of injury.
Too little bodyfat leads to a decrease in performance, creates vitamin and mineral deficiencies, fluid and electrolyte imbalances, an increased risk of bone fractures, suppresses the immune system, adversely affects reproductive functions and damages the heart. Other side effects include feeling cold all the time, joints that tend to hurt more than they usually would, you tire quickly and sleep quality is often poor.
Fat-Free Mass is exactly that – all the mass in your body that is not made up of fat. Your FFM contains a variety of different components, all your internal organs, skeletal muscle mass, body water, etc.
Essential body fat, which is the amount needed for maintenance of life, is around 13% for women and 3% for men. Fat allows the body to store energy, protects internal organs, acts as an insulator, and regulates body temperature, among other things. Nobody can have 0% body fat, and maintaining body fat percentages lower than 4% is generally regarded as inadvisable for long term health.
Case in point – Our bodies need fat – it helps keep us alive! But as you can see, there is a plethora of not-so-good side effects from your levels either being too high or too low. Check out the chart below to get an idea of where you should be based on your age.
A healthy person usually carries around less body fat and more lean muscle tissue. Know matter where you are on the spectrum, the more you improve your body composition, the more you will see signs of improvement to all of your key vital signs, such as blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol, fasting glucose levels, and more…You will also be reducing pain & inflammation in and around your joints when at a more favorable body composition. This will make tasks such as running, jumping, squatting, pull-ups & push-ups a lot less stressful on the body. The leaner you become, the easier all of these things will become as well.
For these reasons, if you feel your body composition is not where it needs to be, your focus should not just be on exercise, but on sound nutritional practices as well (more on nutrition in part #2). When coupled together properly, amazing things tend to happen!
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