Lose weight - Body Fat

The human body is made up of bones, muscles, organs, water -- and fat. In weight loss measurements, the term "body fat" refers to the percentage of body mass that is only fat.

The amount of body fat that’s acceptable for women is unhealthy for men. For example, a 30 year old woman with 22% body fat is considered fit. However, a 30 year old man with 22% body fat is considered unhealthy. That shows that based on their hormones, men have better metabolism than women because men have more muscles in their body and that shows how extra muscles boost your metabolism up.

The chart below describes the body fat norm based on percentage of body weight that is fat.

Knowing your body fat percentage is important to set your weight loss goal properly. For example, if you are a 130 pound woman with body fat of 23%, losing 20 pounds is unrealistic and can get you into unhealthy body fat classification. The reason as follows:

130 * 23% = 30 pounds of body fat

130 - 30 = 100 pounds (with no body fat, that's bones, skin, muscle and water)

130 - 20 = 110 pounds (your goal to lose weight)

As you can see 110 pounds will leave you with 10 pound of body fat, that is 9%. Based on the bodt fat percentage chart above, 9% body fat is below essential and can be considered risky and unhealthy. This indicates that you need to set a better goal to lose weight. For example 10 pound weight loss goal will get you to 120 pounds with 20 pounds of body fat or 16% which is classified as fit and healthy.

There are many methods to measure body fat percentage. The easiest method is to determine your correct body weight composition. Beneath the skin is a layer of fat. The percentage of total body fat can be measured by taking skin fold of the area of the body you want to measure with a pair of calipers.