Making sense of body composition, weight loss and fat loss

We tend to use weight loss as a generic term for trying to shed unwanted fat and improve the tone of the body, but in reality, this can be a very misleading term. It suggests that much of your focus on will be on the bathroom scales and results will only be acceptable if the weight drops. In practice, your weight will drop, but this is a very imprecise measure of the many changes that will occur in the body, as your dietary intact improves.

In truth, we are really trying to reduce the levels of unwanted fat in the body and improve the tone or shape of the body. The tone or shape improves due to increases in the density, shape and size of the muscles. 

These changes in the body can be encompassed by what we can describe as body composition.

Results are extremely motivating and help you to stick to new dietary habits. So it makes sense that before you commence any nutrition programme, you measure your baseline starting position and are measuring the right results.

It would definitely be wise to have your body composition measured and if you really want to understand the many beneficial changes that will occur in your body, you could get your blood work done.

It is simple, painless and cheap to get your body composition measured. This is best achieved via the bio-impedance method. This uses a simple device that passes a small, safe electrical signal through electrodes attached to the hands and feet. The principle being that fat cells contain less water and are less conductive to electrical signals, whereas muscle, skin tissues, organs and bones contain greater amount of water and hence conduct better.

The results of a body composition test will provide several key results that you should monitor and are more indicative of the changes that occur in your body. The key results are as follows:

• % body fat – measures body fat as a percentage of total body mass

• % muscle mass – measures muscle mass as a percentage of total body mass

• Basal metabolism – measures the total calories (energy) the body would consume while at total rest and at an ambient temperature over a 24 hour period.

The aim is to lower body fat, increase muscle mass and increase basal metabolism