Understand Your Body Weight Before Losing It

by admin on March 28, 2009 · 0 comments

Many people become frustrated and stop exercising and eating well when they don’t see their weight go

down. That is the worst thing you could ever do with your body. Never judge your progress solely on your scale (body) weight! Many people, including some physicians, still believe that body weight is important. It’s not! It’s what your weight is made up of! For example, Mary weighs 160 pounds and she thinks she needs to lose 30 pounds. So does her family doctor. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), based on her age and height, Mary should weigh only 130 pounds. So Mary begins a diet and exercise program and after three weeks she quits because her weight hadn’t changed one bit! What Mary and her doctor fail to realize is that the BMI does not take into consideration individual differences such as muscle tissue, bone size and density, fluid retention, and of course body fat.

Mary learns that your body weight is made up of those 4 factors and decides to have her body fat tested. It turns out that Mary’s body fat is only 25%, which means she only has 40 pounds of fat on her entire body, and it is impossible and unhealthy to try to get rid of it all!

A healthy body fat percentage for Mary is 20%, therefore Mary actually only needs to lose about 8 pounds of body fat, not 30 pounds of scale weight! If Mary was to lose 30 pounds she would probably also lose precious muscle tissue, which is not a good thing! You should now have a good understanding of the differences between scale weight and body fat. I highly recommend having your body fat tested at least every couple of months and using that to
determine how well you are doing. You can have the test performed by a qualified fitness professional, or you can also purchase one of the many products out there, which measure your body fat.

There is a company called TANITA, which makes numerous high quality scales, which also measure body fat. Don’t be too concerned with the exact accuracy. All that matters is that you use the same testing methods each time and that the numbers are going down. Right now you are probably wondering what a healthy body fat percentage is for you. Well, listed below are some general guidelines for body fat.
Women
Ages 18-25 —– 13-21%
Ages 26-35 —– 13-23%
Ages 36-45 —– 15-25%
Ages 46-55 —– 18-27%
Ages 56 + —– 18-30%

Therefore, goal towards a healthy body weight and not an unhealthy one! You can lose weight with all those hard ways in the world but may be it costs you your health in the long run. Be careful fellas while choosing to lose weight. Again, lose weight not your health! Have a healthy weekend!