Measuring Body Fat

Continued...

The importance of fat

A healthy body needs fat for normal physiological functioning. Fat is distributed throughout your body not just under the skin or around your waist. It also cushions and surrounds internal organs.

There are two types of fat: essential and storage. Essential fat is required for the hormonal and immune systems to function. Storage fat is used as fuel. Essential fat is stored in the bone marrow heart, lungs, liver; spleen, kidneys, intestines, muscles and other organs.

Women carry additional essential sex-specific fat in the breasts, pelvis, hips and thighs. This fat is biologically important for childbearing and other hormone-related functioning.

Women carry more than four times as much essential fat as men. Essential fat should account for at least 10 to 12 percent of a woman's total weight; lower levels may impair her health.

In addition to essential fat, women have varying amounts of storage fat. This is the fat that we gain or lose as our weight changes. Storage fat amounts to about 15 percent of an untrained woman's total weight.

A total-body-fat percentage of 20 to 27 percent is well within a normal, healthy range for women. With training, body-fat percentage may be as low as 12 to 16 percent.

In an age of nutritional terrorism waged by the media and advertising, where the dinner knife is considered more dangerous than the stiletto, many women do not realize it is possible to be too lean.

Up to a point, as you train and exercise, you lose storage fat and increase muscle - lean body mass. As fat stores become depleted, your body switches to converting muscle mass to energy. It does so in order to save essential fat, but because you're losing muscle instead, you're actually being deprived of strength and fitness.

What are the pros and cons of various methods?

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Table of Contents

Foreword: Billie Jean King

Comments by Barb Harris
Editor in Chief,
Shape Magazine

General Health
Nutrition
Exercise
Common Medical Problems
Dental Health
Emergency!
Infectious Disease
Sexual Health
Emotional Well-Being
Eating Disorders
Alcohol & Other Drugs
Environmental Health
Prevention