You’ll often hear this type of fat referred to as visceral fat and subcutaneous fat, respectively. The second, storage fat, protects organs but also can accumulate (around organs and directly under the skin) when more calories are consumed than burned off. It’s believed that women tend to have more essential fat than men (around 12 percent versus 3 percent) to support childbearing and hormonal functions. What is Body Fat Percentage?īody fat percentage represents how much of your body’s total mass is made up of two types of fat: essential and storage.Įssential fat is found in tissue, bone marrow, and organs, and it helps keep body processes humming. On the flip side, 30 percent of normal-weight people were at risk for heart trouble. When researchers compared the BMI of more than 40,000 people to six other heart-health metrics, like blood pressure and cholesterol, they found 47 percent of the people who were classified overweight, 30 percent of the people who were classified obese, and 16 percent of the people who were classified extremely obese were metabolically healthy-their other health stats were normal. In other words, not everyone who is “big” is obese-this is why many professional football players get misclassified -and not everyone who is big is sick.Ī 2016 study in the International Journal of Obesity backs this up. Even if you were to consider all of those things it would still be a highly flawed measure because scales don’t measure the presence or absence of health.” It doesn’t speak to why a person’s big, it doesn’t take into account race, age, sex, or musculature. “People use BMI as a simple surrogate for weight, and most think they’re are supposed to have one that’s 23, which they refer to as ‘healthy,’” says Yoni Freedhoff, M.D., an American Board of Obesity Medicine-certified doctor and the founder and medical director of Ottawa’s Bariatric Medical Institute, which focuses on non-surgical, long-term weight management.īut “BMI is a literal measure of bigness. However, despite the good correlation between BMI and body fat percentage, a Mayo Clinic study found that BMI tends to under-report obesity, missing more than half of people with excess fat. “BMI does not measure body fat directly,” according to the CDC, but research shows that it moderately correlates with more direct tools, like skinfold thickness measurements, bioelectrical impedance (what your scale likely uses), and underwater weighing. For adults 20 years old and older, that number is then categorized into a weight status. What is BMI?īMI is measure of body fat that’s calculated by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in meters). How do you make sense of those numbers? And how should you use them to get a better picture of your overall health? Step one: Learn a bit more about these body fat calculations. Or your weight could be stable, your body fat percentage good, but your BMI registers as obese. For instance, you could find out that your weight is stable, your BMI is healthy, but your body fat percentage classifies you as obese. Here’s why: These methods are designed to be screening-not diagnostic-tools, which means they can sometimes produce conflicting information. However, your BMI and estimated body fat percentage should not be the only pieces of information you consider. And that’s great: These at-home tools can be quick and easy ways to estimate your body fat percentage. To do so, many people turn to body mass index (BMI), calipers, and scales. So, it makes sense that you’d want to gauge your risk by quantifying exactly how “fat” you are. And not necessarily for vanity reasons: Nearly every major health organization, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the World Health Organization, has labeled obesity a disease and linked it to a variety of health conditions, such as depression, type-2 diabetes, and even certain cancers. If you'd like to try and reduce your body fat percentage, consider a new Yoga or Pilates class.Am I fat? If you’re a health-conscious person, this may be a question that’s crossed your mind. So it's important to have neither too much nor too little body fat. It regulates your body temperature, cushions organs and tissues, and is the main form of your body’s energy storage. A certain amount of fat is important for bodily functions. For instance, the range for a healthy body fat percentage in women tends to be higher than that of men, as women need more body fat. First, you must consider variables such as body type, heredity, age, activity and gender.
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