In addition to improving health, most people’s main goal when exercising is to lose or gain weight. However, according to experts to have a beautiful body, these things are not enough. You need to pay attention to another important body mass index – that is body fat. So What is body fat? What do they mean with a beautiful body and a healthy body? Let’s find the answer with Ocany right in this article.
What is Body Fat Index?
What is body fat?? “Body” means body, and “fat” in English means the amount of fat / amount of fat in the body. Body fat is an index that measures the ratio of fat to total body weight. Many people have a prejudice against the word “excess fat”, but it is actually a part of our body. There are also water, muscles, bones, etc.
Experts use BMI (body mass index) to determine whether a person’s body condition is in the normal range, malnourished or overweight, etc. BMI is recognized by the World Health Organization. (WHO) recognized with the formula: BMI = (weight )/(height x 2) (In which, height is in m and weight is in kg).
Body fat is an index that measures the percentage of fat in the human body
Below is the BMI classification scale applied to Asians.
- BMI < 18.5: thin
- 18.5 < BMI < 22.9: normal
- BMI > 23: overweight
- 23 < BMI < 24.9: Pre-obese
- 25 < BMI < 29.9: Grade I obesity
- BMI > 30: Grade II obesity
Classification of popular body fat types
Body fat also comes in many forms. Beyond the concept What is body fat? then you need to know which types of fat have negative and positive effects on the body. According to research, the human body usually has the main types of fat including: white fat, brown fat, beige fat. These fats are stored in the following forms: essential fat, visceral fat, and subcutaneous fat.
Each type of fat plays a different role. There are types that promote metabolism and stimulate the production of healthy hormones. But there are also types of fat that contribute to an increased risk of dangerous diseases.
Essential fat (essential fat)
This type of fat is essential for a healthy body. It helps regulate important hormones, including: hormones that control fertility, nutrient absorption and temperature regulation). This type of fat is found in the bone marrow, nerves, brain, etc.
According to the American Council on Exercise, women need 10-13% essential fat to stay healthy and active, while men only need 2-5%.
Essential fats are safe and important for a healthy body
The other two types of fat – subcutaneous fat and visceral fat are often mentioned with many “disparaging” words. However, is that true, let’s explore these two types of fat with Ocany right below.
What is subcutaneous fat?
Learn more about What is body fat? Surely you are no stranger to subcutaneous fat, also known as subcutaneous fat. As the name suggests, they are stored just under the skin of the body. They are a combination of all 3 fat cells including brown fat, white fat and beige fat.
According to research, most of our body fat is subcutaneous fat. They are quite soft, so experts can use a caliper to measure subcutaneous fat. And we can also test ourselves by pinching places such as biceps, abdomen, thighs, buttocks.
It is normal for the body to maintain a certain amount of essential fats, they are quite safe. However, when this amount of fat is too much, it can lead to imbalance in hormone levels.
What is visceral fat (visceral fat)?
Visceral fat is often referred to as visceral fat, because it is mainly concentrated in the abdominal area. White fat cells store in the abdomen and sneak between the internal organs of the body such as the liver, intestines, kidneys, pancreas.
Men are at high risk for visceral fat
Having too much visceral fat is dangerous. It can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes or even cancer. This is the type of fat you need to stay away from and actively eliminate as soon as possible.
What is the unit of body fat index?
The above article introduced the concept of What is body fat?. So, do you wonder what unit the body fat index is measured in? Conceptually, body fat is defined as the percentage of body fat to total body weight. For example, a person weighing 60 kg has about 6 kg of fat, the body fat ratio is 10%.
The body fat percentage will change as the composition of the body composition changes. This index will increase when the amount of fat increases, conversely can decrease if the amount of fat decreases (as long as the other ingredients remain unchanged). On the other hand, when weight increases due to increased muscle mass, while the amount of fat remains the same, the percentage of body fat will decrease.
Body fat percentage and BMI
Many people often confuse body fat ratio with BMI. However, they are completely different in concept and meaning.
What is body fat?? Body fat is an index that measures the ratio of body fat to total weight, and BMI (Body Mass Index) is an index used to assess a person’s body condition, to determine if they are overweight. , malnourished or normal.
BMI and Body fat are 2 different indicators in terms of concept and meaning
The BMI calculation formula has been shared at the beginning of the article, you can apply it to check your body condition. However, BMI also has some limitations such as:
- Only subjective assessment according to height and weight
- Unable to distinguish between fat and muscle percentages
- Unable to assess health risk factors
- Not suitable for pregnant women, nursing mothers and people who have just woken up.
What is the standard body fat level?
After understanding the types of grease What is body fat? and their role with the body, many people wonder how to calculate body fat? What is the correct body fat ratio? If two people have the same weight, is the body fat ratio equal?
How to calculate body fat Currently very diverse, the simplest is that you can use the DEXA measurement tool. This is a professional fat measuring tool, it can calculate every millimeter of body fat. In addition, fitness websites also provide free fat calculators, you can refer to.
If 2 people have the same weight, will the fat percentage be the same? The answer is no because it depends on the training and activity habits, thanks to the daily exercises can lead to completely different percentages of fat storage.
In fact, muscle is smaller in size than fat despite being the same weight. Therefore, people with high fat percentage will look, “chubby” than people with low fat percentage if they have the same height and weight. In contrast, people with a body ratio not too high at 25 – 30% will have a firmer body.
Muscle is smaller than fat even though it’s the same weight
Besides, we also need to pay attention to the physical problems between women and men in the distribution of fat in different parts of the body. For example, women tend to store more fat in their thighs, while men tend to have more fat in their abdomens.
According to experts, the percentage of body fat in men should be between 10 – 17% and 17% – 22% for women to ensure health and not affect appearance much.
Lowest Body Fat Percentage the body needs to maintain
Many people do not know What is body fat? often don’t have a good view of body fat. Therefore, they try to diet and exercise to “squeeze” fat to the lowest level. However, this is not necessarily a good thing. Unless you are a professional athlete or have an understanding of the body and nutrition to ensure health maintenance.
The body needs a certain amount of fat to maintain hormone levels, metabolism, reproductive function, strength, etc. When the fat percentage is too low, it will affect these activities. Get side effects such as:
- Increased hunger
- Decreased metabolic capacity
- Decreased sex hormones
- Loss of desire for sex
- Decreased muscle recovery
The percentage of fat is too low, affecting the activities in the body
You can experience these if you try to maintain a very low body fat percentage. For men it is less than 8%, and for women it is less than 17%. This can make you feel satisfied with a toned, muscular body, but if this condition is prolonged, it is not good for health.
How to determine the exact percentage of body fat?
Body fat ratio is closely related to your body shape and health. So how to calculate body fat What is that? To help develop an accurate workout and nutrition plan, you need to know your body fat percentage. To measure this index, people apply popular methods such as:
Handset
Portable body fat measuring devices work based on the principle of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Instruments that use this method are based on the principle that muscle conducts electricity better than fat. Therefore, if the body measurement results have a large resistance, the person has a relatively high body fat percentage.
Electric scales
Electric scales also use the BIA method to measure body fat percentage. However, the results from this tool are not very accurate because of the priority characteristic of the current. In particular, the current will pass through the low impedance regions first and will probably bypass the higher impedance upper body. In addition, the loss of water in the body also increases the impedance that affects the measurement results.
Electric scales also use the BIA method to measure body fat percentage
Formula for calculating body fat
If you don’t have a tool, you can use the US Navy’s body fat percentage formula. This formula is appreciated for its accuracy. It is built on 2 main variables including height and body circumference by gender.
Recipe for men:
Body fat ratio = 495 : (1.0324 – 0.190787 x log10(Waist – Neck) + 0.15455 x log10(Height)) – 450
Formula for women:
Body fat ratio = 495 : (1.29579 – 0.350004 x log10(Neck + Hips – Waist) + 0.221 x log10(Height)) – 450
Skinford method
If you are still looking for a way to calculate What is body fat?, then the Skinford method may be the choice for you. In this method, experts will use a caliper to check the thickness of the skin in places on the body. The collected data will be entered into the formula to calculate the percentage of body fat.
This method has relatively high accuracy and reliability. However, errors can still occur if you make mistakes like:
- Too little or too much skin pinching will affect the calculated data
- Errors when entering data also affect the calculation results
So in this article, Ocany introduced to you What is body fat?, how to calculate Body fat. Essential fat and subcutaneous fat are safe and healthy, you need to get rid of visceral fat. To have a healthy and beautiful body, maintain the percentage of fat at an acceptable level and do not “squeeze” too much fat.
John Alen was born in 1971 and is a doctor in the healthcare and psychology fields with many years of experience. He is currently working at easyhealthylive.com, a leading health and psychology blog. Having studied at Y1 National Medical University named after IM Sechenov, John Alen is using his knowledge and experience to help improve the physical and mental health of people in the United States.
