Body Fat loss NOT Body Weight loss

The majority of client requests I receive focus on weight loss.

One gentleman once came to me for help with his training & targeted a huge increase in fitness & a weight loss of 14 kilos in 14 weeks.

Accounting for his age, the fact that he was significantly overweight, had a highly stressful job & hadn't exercised consistently for many years I opted for a more cautious approach.

Understanding the motive behind the target this man set himself & identifying a safer goal based on my experience was key.

From a marketing perspective goals achieved in weeks is far more appealing than if done in months.

However, unless 4 hour a day sessions & a very strict diet akin to professional elite level athletes or actors preparing for a film role, this for the rest of us is unrealistic.

Wanting quick results influence decision making & the resorting to slimming shakes, heavy calorie restricted diets & excessive use of cardio machines, which themselves can & do lead to weight loss but there are more effective ways of achieving & maintaining that.

Firstly, it is a reduction in body fat that should be the target rather than body weight.

Excess subcutaneous fat (just beneath the skin) & especially visceral fat (surrounding internal organs) are undesirable & can disrupt the body’s ability to breakdown fats & carbohydrates which has been linked to heart disease & high blood pressure (1) as well as various cancers (2).

Body fat is a far more informative measure of health than a set of scales revealing body weight or indeed Body Mass Index (BMI) which applies a weight to height ratio to establish a particular weight category as shown below.

For adults over 20

Above 40 Obesity Class 3 35 – 39 Obesity Class 2 30 – 34.9 Obesity Class 1

25 – 29.9 Pre-obesity

18.5 – 24.9 Normal Weight Below 18.5 Underweight

Although a useful as a generic tool for populations in correlating food habits to body weight more detail is needed if making assertions on individuals.

BMI does not take into account that muscle weighs more than fat & would catergorise a 30-year-old man at 5ft 11 & weighing 85kgs as being pre obese despite having a body fat percentage of 15.

Body Analysis Scales

Body composition analysis systems such as the BodPod & Hydrostatic weighing (under water) in the laboratories of scientific research centres are more accurate, but they're neither practical or necessary.

Numerous brands now provide inexpensive body composition scales which measure subcutaneous & visceral body fat.

When weighing yourself try to do so at the same time of day & place whilst wearing the same clothing to reduce variables & inconsistent readings & purchase the machine with the strongest reviews that best suit your budget.

Two manufacturers of body fat scales (Salter & Tanita) both provide readouts of subcutaneous & visceral fat levels within their analysis.

They also offer information on percentage body fat values for adults which are featured in the 2 charts below.

In Summary

There are several effective & safe ways to reduce & maintain body fat to healthy levels & the important thing is to incorporate as many of them as possible.

Unfortunately however our preferences take over at the expense of other options which is often limited to cardiovascular machines.

Although they undoubtedly merit a place on someone's training program, limiting it to that alone can compromise fat loss reduction & optimal body composition which increases in importance as we age.

I provide you with the knowledge of what to eat, how to eat it & how to exercise to help you to reduce body fat & to maintain it.

References

1. Fox. C. S, et al., (2007). Abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue compartments: Association with metabolic risk factors in the Framingham Heart Study. Circulation 2007;116:39–48.

2. Doyle. L. S, et al., (2012) 70th Anniversary Conference on ‘From plough through practice to policy’ Symposium 3: Obesity-related cancers Visceral obesity, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and cancer. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (2012), 71, 181–189