Long post alert! Body composition: The holy grail of health, confidence and optimal physique. This topic came into my head last night as I was running up and down the Battlefield hills as I tried to distract myself from the cold air hurting my throat! Pretty much every single client or bootcamper signs up with one goal in mind- to look and feel better. After they are discouraged from monitoring progress via weighing scales, the attention turns to body fat and the desire to reduce it. More specifically- body fat % becomes the consideration- also known as body composition-in simple terms- what your body is composed of as a % of muscle tissue V fat tissue. Figures are often used- with 10% for males and 20% for females considered very impressive and probably optimal for health. (Ironically- too much body fat and too LITTLE body fat often lead to a lot of the same health problems and neither are sustainable healthy practises.) Using composition is without doubt a better approach than using weighing scales. However- what I have come to realise is that whenever numbers of any kind are involved- people start to get hung up on them- regardless of less tangible improvement markers telling them they are going in the right direction. For example, they might feel more energetic, healthier, more focused, stronger, happier, more confident- these are all excellent reasons to exercises and eat well but unfortunately can’t really be measured on a scale unlike weight or body fat % and are therefore not considered as “impressive”, which is wrong in my opinion. However- with body fat %- people tend to lose sight on what they personally should be focusing on, or more specifically, they don’t put their own physique into context and what they should be focusing on. I realise at this point you might be thinking what is he talking about- this was much easier to say in my head in the rain last night haha. . There is TWO ways to bring DOWN your body fat %. And recognising this is very important. The first way- and the way that I’m convinced pretty much everyone thinks about and focuses on- is REDUCING their fat mass. So getting rid of body fat. Obviously, this will bring down your body fat %. (assuming muscle mass doesn’t drop!) However- the second way- and the approach that I am also convinced that nearly NO-ONE considers- is by ADDING MUSCLE TISSUE. Think about it- if you add muscle tissue you automatically REDUCE you body fat %. A simple example- if I weigh 50kg- and 40kg is lean tissue and 10kg is body fat- it means my composition is 20% body fat. However, if I add 5kg of lean muscle tissue over say, 2 years, my new weight is 55KG. If I don’t lose any of that 10kg of fat mass- my body fat % STILL DROPS TO 18%. This is despite my total fat mass being exactly the same. This is very important because individuals will respond differently to training and should be focusing their attention on different goals depending on their size, weight etc. For example- I would say there is about 30% of females that walk through the bootcamp doors (I’m using females as an example because I believe there is more females that this holds relevance for.) who may have higher than desired body fat % which is more as a result of having very little MUSCLE tissue, as opposed to very high levels of fat tissue. Therefore- their focus should be on building lean tissue as opposed to focusing on “losing fat”. How do you know if that’s you? Well- a few tale-tale signs would be if you aren’t “big”. You don’t look very overweight but you feel “soft”. You look good in clothes but “don’t have any muscles” You don’t feel physically strong, struggle to lift weights. You might have been “skinny” as a child- small wrists etc and then suddenly as you hit your older teenage years you got “soft” You will probably have a tendency to control your weight by going running, attending step classes that require no heavy lifting, by eating a small amount of food etc. You might have an aversion to meat and poultry and prefer veg and toast and low fat yoghurts. So, what should you do? Instead of focusing on “losing weight” your focus should be on building muscle. Why- because LONG TERM, more muscle tissue makes it far easier to control body composition. (It also has an array of other benefits that I won’t cover here) And like the example above- it will improve your body fat “composition” If you are small or “soft” it’s important to remember that the goal shouldn’t always be to REDUCE body fat per say. Body fat is essential, go too low and you will not be optimally healthy. Therefore the focus should be on BUILDING muscle, to bring down your body composition, without necessarily reducing the amount of fat mass your body actually holds. People in this category would benefit from regular protein intake and increased carb intake. They would do well to prioritise weight training and put “traditional cardio” in the back burner. What you might tend to find is that no matter how much “cardio” you do, and how much you watch what you eat, you stay small but remain “soft” and feel you just need to keep doing what you do to maintain your current physique. As the years pass, your composition may actually get worse. This may happen because you do put on more fat mass. OR, it might happen because you lose precious muscle tissue, maybe even only a couple of hundred grams per year. But over 10 years that adds up. (This will happen with age anyway, but it doesn’t have to happen that fast.) Incidentally- this is the other way of altering your body composition- this time for the worse- without actually changing how much fat mass you have. If you DROP muscle tissue, but DON’T DROP any fat mass- your body fat % STILL goes up. Think about it. This is why not all exercise is the same. This is why it’s not just about measuring how many calories you burn. This is one reason why we favour weight training, It also depends on the individual- and based on that individual- the nutrition approach should be altered too. I hope this makes sense- maybe If I had taken more time over it I could have conveyed it with more clarity but I’m worried the wee baba wakes up any second! Any questions or comments feel free to ask or share the post if someone you know might benefit from reading it!
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 12:59:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015