Healthy Weight Loss Advice - Understanding Body Composition

It doesn't matter what you weigh. Height and weight charts are meaningless. What really matters is the composition of your body - how much of your body is muscle and how much is fat. An understanding of body composition is one of the ways you'll escape the gravitational pull of the diet mentality. Body composition is a much more sophisticated way to see your body. Forget the scales and the height and weight charts. Concentrate on body composition.

Body composition testing measures how lean your body is. Remember, getting lean means to enhance your lean body mass - your muscles, your bones, your organs and the fluids of your body. Body composition is the only accurate way to measure how lean you are.

We have a real challenge in this country. We live in the fattest nation on earth. The average American male is 26% body fat. The average American female is 36% body fat. Let's put that in perspective. If this average male with 26% body fat weighs 200 pounds, it means he's carrying around 52 pounds of fat. Fat is dead weight. Every pound of fat adds 7 miles to your circulatory system. Your body stores your toxins in your fat cells. The more fat you have on your body, the more toxic your body is.

Example. A person who is 50 pounds over his or her ideal body weight has a risk of cancer that is 18 times higher than the average. According to cutting edge research performed at Tufts University Medical School, the best single indicator of whether you're aging successfully is your body fat percentage. The leaner you are, the more successfully you age. You can't be too lean.

According to exercise physiology research what should your body composition be? Men should be 15% body fat or less regardless of age. Women should be 22% body fat or less regardless of age.

Fifteen percent body fat for men and 22% body fat for women will put you into good to very good health. What if you want excellent health? What if you want to be as healthy as you could possibly be? For male athletes or men who want excellent health, the range is 6 to 12% - regardless of age. For women it's 12 to 18%.

How do you measure body composition? There are various methods. Hydrostatic weighing is the gold standard of body composition testing. It's the most accurate, but not very practical. Skin fold calipers are nearly as accurate, a lot more practical, and a lot more comfortable for you.

Fat is stored in 3 different areas of our body. Subcutaneously - which is between the skin and the muscle. Intramuscularly - which is within the muscle (otherwise known as marbeling in steak). And, between your organs.

To obtain your body composition, it will be necessary to measure the thickness of your skin fold in 7 different locations on your body using a skin fold caliper. It will very accurately measure the thickness of your skin fold in millimeters. These numbers will be entered into a very complex mathematical formula that has been developed by exercise physiology research.

What will you learn? You'll learn your body fat percentage which is a relationship between the amount of fat you have compared with your lean body mass. You'll learn how many pounds of your total body weight are fat. And how many pounds are lean body mass. And you'll learn your true ideal body weight. How is that calculated? The computer will take your lean body mass (your fat free weight) and add to that the optimal amount of body fat 15% if you're a guy. 22% if you're a gal. Now you have your true ideal body weight based on your body and not some height and weight chart.

Remember, you won't always lose weight every week. But this is where the measurements really help. If you don't lose weight, but your measurements get smaller, you've gotten leaner. Research reported on ABC-TV NEWS showed that adding just 5 pounds of muscle and maintaining it for one year automatically burns 91,250 calories! And burning 91,000 calories translates to losing as much as 26 pounds!

Remember, if you gain one pound of muscle and lose one pound of fat, your weight hasn't changed, but you're leaner.

By: Malton A. Schexneider

Helping Your Obese Child Lose Weight

There are a lot of stories in the news these days about children who are overweight. In fact, I have seen pictures of young children who weight as much as a full grown adult. These children are truly obese.

Obese children can have many of the same health risks as adults, running from diabetes to heart problems. They are more likely to have even more health problems when they become adults.

There are many factors that lead to today's prevalence for obesity in children:

1. First of all, children are not as physically active as they were just a decade ago. You are more likely to find them sitting at the computer or playing Playstation than running or swimming.

2. Families are eating at restaurants more. Since most Moms are working outside the home, it's just easier for them to pick up some Kentucky Fried chicken than to cook a healthy meal.

3. Children are eating snacks that are higher in fat and refined sugar. These snacks are even available from vending machines at their schools, although some schools are finally adding fresh fruit and vegetables to their machines.

Children and teenagers are heavier than they were two decades ago. But, how do you know if they're heading toward obesity? Obesity is not measured the same for kids as it is for adults. Periods of growth and their different metabolic rates make it difficult to get a precise measurement using the normal BMI (Body Mass Index) method. The BMI for children needs to be used in combination with their age and gender for better accuracy.

Obesity is also measured differently according to a child's gender. Boys are considered to be obese when his body fat is 25% or more of his total body weight. A girl is considered to be obese when her body fat is at 27% of her total body weight. Girls and women normally have a higher percentage of body fat than boys and men. Normal body fat for a male is about 15% and at 27% for a female.

The same rules apply to children who are trying to lose weight as to adults: eat less and exercise more.

If you feel that your child weighs more than he or she should, a trip to the pediatrician is in order. The doctor can help you set up a safe diet and exercise program for your child. Here are a few other things that you can do:

1. Plan family activities such as hiking, camping or swimming that will get your child more physically active.

2. Cook more healthy meals instead of brining home fast food for dinner.

3. Remove potato chips and candy from your home and replace them with vegetables and fruit.

Get your overweight child help as soon as possible to prevent long term health problems.

By: Jude Wright

Overweight? There's More Than One Way To Take It Off

What does it take to lose weight? Put simply, it's to burn more calories than you take in. But, it really isn't as easy as it sounds. Let's take a look at some of the steps that you can take to start losing those pounds.

The first thing that you should look at is your diet. You should be eating portions sizes that are compatible with your body type and gender. A woman doesn't need to eat as many calories as most men do, and a small-boned woman doesn't need as much food as a large-boned woman. Portion size is one of the biggest obstacles to losing unwanted weight.

Keep healthy snacks in the refrigerator and pantry instead of candy and potato chips. It will help you to overcome the temptation of eating those high fat foods.

Keep a food diary so that you know what you are eating, how much you are eating and why you are eating it. Often, your mood can determine your food choices. Keeping a food diary can also help you become more aware of your portion sizes. You should review your food diary every few days to see if you can spot patterns in your eating habits that are preventing you from losing weight. Perhaps you eat more when you're unhappy or bored. Once you find poor eating behavior habits, you are more able to find ways to control them.

Set a goal. Write down how much weight you want to lose and the date you want to lose it by. Be reasonable. You won't be able to lose 30 pounds by next week. Tape the paper with your goal written on it on your refrigerator door and your bathroom mirror. If you have an old picture of yourself at your ideal weight, tape it up with your goal as incentive.

Get some exercise. Start an exercise program of some sort, even if it's just taking a walk. If you are already walking three to four times weekly, try holding weights while you walk and then increase your speed when you get used to holding the weights.

Try a different form of exercise. Ride a bike instead of walking or go swimming at a local pool. Do two or three different kinds of exercises throughout the week to get a well rounded workout.

Add strength training. If you add a few weight lifting exercises, it will help tone your body. Start out with lighter weights and add more weight as your body strength improves. A $30 investment should get you a nice set of dumb bells in the three to ten pound range.

It's not as easy to lose weight as some people will tell you it is. They say that all you have to do is buy this membership and you'll start losing pounds. But, the only way that you will start losing weight is to take the action steps necessary. Eat smaller portions and get more exercise. Those are the first two steps to weight loss success.

By: Jude Wright