Healthy Body Fat Percentage | Measuring Body Fat
When you are looking to shed off some weight in a healthy manner, you need to gain more understanding about your body composition. The more you learn how to calculate body fat and what factors cause it to go up or down, the more success you can get. But the key here is to establish a healthy body fat percentage through setting smart weight loss goals and achieving holistic health.
As the name implies, your body fat percentage represent the percentage of fat present in your body. For example, a woman weighing 100 pounds with a body fat percentage of 10 percent has 10 pounds of body fat. But if you want to determine whether you have a healthy percentage of fat and body weight, then your BMI calculation is a very crucial indicator for that. It might not directly indicate the total amount of fat there is in your body, but this measurement shows the proportion of your body weight against your height. Thus, learning about your own BMI measurement is crucial in determining whether you have a healthy weight and body fat percentage.
How To Measure Body Fat
While many people want to burn body fat for weight loss purposes, athletes monitor their body fat analysis as it can affect their own performance. Athletes prefer a higher ratio of lean muscle mass over body fat. Meanwhile it should be noted that women have more fat when compared to men due to their reproductive systems.
There are two common methods used for measuring the body fat percentage, which are skin-fold measurement and bioelectrical impedance analysis. A device known as caliper is used for the skin-fold measurement that pinches a certain amount of fat in certain areas of the body. The result from this “pinching” process is then tallied and undergoes analysis; however, this method is believed not to be very effective since it relies on the skill of the person wielding the caliper.
In bioelectrical impedance analysis, body fat is calculated by passing an electric current through the body. This technology is often used in various body fat scales and other such devices and it performs it calculations from the water stored in the muscles and fat.
Factors and Considerations Affecting Body Fat and Health
Although most people would like to focus solely on burning body fat as the quickest way to lose weight, it is important to note that fat serves its own purpose in maintaining your health. Human body fat is essential in various life-supporting functions, thus you need to work only on getting rid of excess fat. Some of the vital functions that fat performs include energy storage, body temperature regulation, and providing cushion for your vital internal organs. In view of this your objective should be to achieve a healthy body fat percentage that is ideal to your overall weight.
Healthy Body Fat Percentage for Women
As mentioned above, women tend to have more body fat than most men. Thus, they are the ones most likely to undergo weight loss programs and workouts to get rid of fat, especially around the belly area. However, you need to understand how age and BMI system works. As a woman ages, she loses her ability to maintain lean muscle tissue and bone density.
Therefore, you need to look at age-appropriate levels of body fat in order to maintain healthy body fat percentage. For women aged between 20 to 39 years of age, the ideal body fat percentage is around 21 to 23 percent. For those aged between 40 to 59 years, it goes from about 23 percent to as much as 34.9 percent. Meanwhile, for women who are between 60 up to 79 years old, their body fat percentage rises up to 39.5 percent.
