THE IMPORTANCE OF BODY FAT TESTING
In assessing the true success of your weight loss program
By JJ Virgin, CNS, CHFI
Traditionally, we have measured our success on a “diet” or weight loss program by checking our scale weight. The challenge is that this number doesn’t give us the whole picture. The most important thing you can do to ensure your long term weight management success is to lose body fat (BF) while maintaining or increasing lean body mass (LBM). The scale doesn’t distinguish between LBM and fat mass (FM) so you may get an inaccurate picture of your progress if you rely on this method alone.
I recommend body fat testing as an essential part of your weight loss program as it can tell you if you are being successful in changing your metabolism into a fat burning furnace and boosting your basal metabolic rate by adding precious energy demanding muscle. Muscle is a metabolic girdle-not only does it help to hold everything in tighter it is also where you burn fat AND it requires more energy to exist on your body-each new pound is worth as 40-50 more calories a day.
There are many different ways to test BF and most of them are just predictions of your actual body fat. This is satisfactory because you are looking for the relative change so that you can ensure that you are losing BF while preserving or increasing LBM. My favorite way to test body fat percentage is via bio-impedance using the Tanita BIA scale. This easy to use scale provides weight, BMI, predicted BMR, body fat percentage and actual pounds of muscle and fat.
Bio Impedance (BIA) scales like the Tanita scale we have been using with the Dr. Phil Ultimate Weight Loss Challenge (www.Tanita.com) are based on total body water. This testing can be affected by hydration, women’s monthly cycles and even time of day. They are the quickest, most economical and most consistent way to measure providing you control the variables as much as possible (food, water, caffeine, alcohol and salt intake, time of day, exercise).
We have also done skinfolds using Lange Calipers. This technique is based on the premise that 50-70% of your fat lies directly below the skin. We know that as body fat % rises, as you become weight loss resistant, or as you age this hypothesis no longer holds true. By taking the measurements at multiple sites, we are able to use skinfold measurements to give us a picture of how you are losing. Skinfold % and BIA should be within 2-3% of one another if you are healthy and not overstoring internal fat.
The range for ideal body fat is wide and varies depending on which textbook you are referencing. Women have 10-15% essential fat (fat you must have to survive) and men have 3-5% essential fat. After that the body fat ranges will vary depending on whether you are an athlete or not and tend to increase with age due to the loss of LBM. On a healthy weight management program you can expect to lose 2-4% body fat a month. What I have used over the years is this:
MEN:
- Range 8-18%
- Very athletic men will be from 5-12%
- To be optimally healthy you should strive to be 10-15%
- You are overfat at > 18% and clinically obese by body fat standards at 22% and above
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WOMEN:
- Range 18-28%
- Athletic women 15-20%
- Healthy 18-25% and optimal health 18-22%
- You are overfat at >28% and clinically obese at 32% and above
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