Measure your body fat not your weight

Measure your body fat not your weight

How many times you went on a diet and you felt that your clothes are fitting but when you step on the scale you were disappointed to see the weight hasn’t changed?!

Could it that you haven’t lost any weight? definitely not.

There is more in your body than just weight. Though many people and professionals depend on body weight to determine health status and obesity degree this may not be enough. They may use as well the Body Mass Index (BMI) as an equation to reflect the ideal weight. Though BMI takes into consideration the relation between height and weight it doesn’t take into consideration what this weight is. For example, a bodybuilder may be ranked obese in a BMI calculation through his extra weight comes from muscles. Therefore, we need another measure that helps us look into our body and know what its made of.

One easy, accurate and available way to measure healthy weight and progress too is using a body composition analysis machine. One of the best machines available in the market is the InBody Machine, you can find it in many dietitians clinics, hospitals and even gyms.

I personally depend on it always as a first diagnostic tool and also to test my patients’ progress.

In the first visit, I check the height, weight and body composition, I can determine the healthy weight based on the amount of fat and muscles and not just the weight. I can as well determine the most accurate amount of calories needed since it is determined by the body fat and muscles and not just the total weight. After that and in each review visit I test the progress based on the amount of fat lost and muscles either tainted or gained in the case of bodybuilders. This way I can be able to help my patient achieve better health and better body shape too.

Using the Inbody machine – body composition analysis I can as well check for any water retention which may reflect as extra weight on the scale or also may have a health signal that we need to investigate more about.

Therefore, next time you go to a clinic make sure they check your body fat/muscles and not just your weight. If you’re keeping your weight or gaining weight, but your body fat percentage is dropping, then your exercise routine is helping you gain muscles and your diet plan is helping you too. But if you are losing weight and your body fat is the same then you need to change your diet plan as it is making you lose the good part of your body which is the muscle mass, at this point and though you may be happy that you are losing weight your body shape may not be improving at the same time you may regain the weight quickly if you str the diet. at this point, you definitely need to add more exercise and change your diet plan.

Now that you know the difference, use the body fat percentage to measure your success of weight loss and use muscle mass to measure physical fitness. Bodyweight doesn’t reflect your health status, body composition does.