Hi, this is Dr. Dennis Clark with my next installment on belly fat science based on the research that I’ve done in the medical literature on belly fat and how you get it and how to get rid of it. Today I want to talk about something that is kind of overlooked and conceptually it’s oversimplified quite a bit and that is the importance of weight loss. I’m going to say that, yes, weight loss is important. However, weight, the physicists tell me, is a function of gravity. That means that if you were in outer space you wouldn’t weigh anything. However, what component that is more important than weight is your body fat composition. If you weigh 200 pounds on Earth and you went to the moon, you’d weigh more like 42 pounds. However, on Earth if you were 35 or 40 percent body fat and went to the moon you’d still be 35 or 40 percent body fat. These are crucial kinds of information that will help you decide or help you find whether you are making progress on changing your weight and changing your health. It has to do with body fat composition. There are easy ways for you to measure your body fat composition. There are simple devices that you get in your bathroom scale at places like Costco or other discount membership clubs. The key is not to lose weight. I want to emphasize that. The key is not to lose weight. The key is to lose body fat. Drop that body fat percent and everything else will work a lot better. It shouldn’t surprise you that losing weight is not as important as you thought it would be. Losing fat is the key for long term health and body composition management that you really want to target. You can find out more about the importance of this and how to achieve it in my free belly fat book, which you can download now at BellyFatScience.com.

All the best with getting rid of fat,

Dr. D

The most effective and by far the most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage is to use a body fat monitor. If you are serious about weight loss then a good body fat monitor is essential and will measure your body fat to within 0.1% of the actual total.

When someone says they want to lose weight, what they actually mean is they want to lose body fat; of course every human needs a certain amount of fat as it is essential for correct bodily function. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body’s energy storage. However, too much body fat, especially visceral fat around the major organs, can cause wide spread problems such as heart disease, diabetes and strokes.

It is also a fact that women do carry more body fat than men; this is natural and means that a woman’s body naturally has a higher percentage of body fat than the body of a man. The percentage of essential body fat in a typical women’s body is between 10-12% whereas a man’s body contains only around between 2-4%.

Including our essential fat it is considered acceptable to have a total body fat content of between 25-31% for a woman and between 18-25% for a man. Anything above these figures and you would be considered to be both obese and having too much total body fat given the overall composition of your body.

When undertaking a weight loss program it is important to monitor body fat as this is a realistic indicator of your progress and if the diet is working for you. Remember, weight loss doesn’t always mean fat loss, yet fat loss should be the main aim of any weight loss or healthy diet regime. Many people often make the mistake of setting themselves impossible goals when they embark on a weight loss programme and lean body mass is not taken into consideration when setting yourself an ideal target weight.

By using a body fat monitor you can assess your exact requirements and achieve realistic goals. Judging exactly how much body fat you need to lose rather than how much weight is vital and this will lead to the maintenance of essential lean body mass which usually means calorie-burning muscle.

Body fat monitors use Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, which involves sending a very low electrical signal through the body. This offers an indirect measurement of body composition. A safe electrical signal (50Khz, 800 microamps) is sent through the body via contact points (hands or feet)

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis is based on the fact that lean muscle tissue contains high levels of water and electrolytes, and therefore acts as a conductor of an electrical signal. Fat mass is comparatively anhydrous and acts as a resistor to the flow of an electrical signal. Increasing levels of fat mass result in a higher impedance value, and correspond to higher levels of body fat.

Where to Get a Body Fat Monitor

Several online sources make getting your own device simple and inexpensive. EBay auctions offer many handheld devices made by Omron, which is what I own. You can also find the same devices on Amazon and other online superstores. The typical cost should be around $40 to $50.

Body fat percentage updates,

Dr. D

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Very interesting. And it confirms the role of getting plenty of effective calcium into your system for proper metabolism of all kinds, not just for bones.

All the best,Dr. D

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Body Fat Composition vs Body Weight

The best way to tell whether your diet, fitness, or other weight management programs are working for you is to keep track of changes in your body fat composition. Imagine that you weigh 200 lbs on Earth and are 35 percent body fat. On the moon you would instantly lose about 167 lbs because of lower gravity. However, your body would still be 35 percent fat.

The point here is that weight is not the issue. Fat is.

Body Fat Calculations and Types of Fat

Now it get a little dicey, because there is no way to know how much of the different kinds of fat are in your body. Your total consists of brown fat and white fat (both referred to as adipose tissues), and even cell membrane fat.

Brown fat is the new kid on the block for fat loss. At one time it was thought to be present only in infants. Recent research shows its presence in adults. It occurs mostly in the upper chest area and around the neck. The importance of this discovery is that the more brown fat you have, the more able you are to balance other types of fat. Brown fat directs the metabolism of that awful belly fat that most folks want to lose.

You can easily tell when you have abnormal fat made of white adipose tissue, because it sticks out somewhere. The usual places are belly, thighs and buttocks, and upper arms.

Ideally, the best fat loss would therefore be white fat loss. Indeed, better weight management would include getting your body to make more brown fat and less white fat. So far, scientists have succeeded in getting mice to do this in laboratory research. We do not yet know whether this will work in people. Of course, drug companies are seeking a new miracle drug that will do this for you. No such thing is available at the moment.

Body Fat Recommendations

Keep in mind that measuring total body fat can be misleading, even though it is currently the best indicator of body fat composition. The accuracy of the main three methods of measurement varies.

The most accurate is the submersion test, where your buoyancy in water is used to calculate body fat percent. The second most accurate method is through impedance devices. These are now available as bathroom scales that read body fat and as handheld devices that use the same principle. In my personal experience, my handheld impedance device measures about 3 percent higher than does the submersion method.

The least accurate method is the caliper method. It varies tremendously because the strength of pinching varies with the examiner.

Regardless of the result that you get, there is a range of body fat composition that is best for optimum health and weight (fat) management. There is no magic number for everyone. Indeed, numbers are always higher for women than for men, and they increase with age.

General agreement among nutrition researchers offers the following as healthy ranges of body fat percent for women and men in different age groups:

Women

20 to 40 yrs, 21 to 33 percent fat
41 to 60 yrs, 23 to 35 percent fat
61 to 79 yrs, 24 to 36 percent fat

Men

20 to 40 yrs, 8 to 19 percent fat
41 to 60 yrs, 11 to 22 percent fat
61 to 79 yrs, 13 to 25 percent fat

These are the target ranges for good health. It is probably obvious that being above these ranges is the foundation for overweight (i.e., overfat) and obesity. There may be no limit to how high it can go. One of my clients, a woman in her 50s, measured at 48 percent body fat. Wow!

Lower Body Fat Percent Is Not Healthier

What may not be so obvious is that numbers below these health ranges are not necessarily healthier just because they are lower. You need body fat in the right amounts, of the right types, in the right places for optimum health and body image.

All best in natural health,
Dr. D

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