You may have started a new diet and exercise program and feel you are making progress. But when you step on the scale, nothing has changed. Does that mean your efforts “aren’t working?”
Not necessarily.
Or, maybe your doctor tells you that your body mass index (BMI) is high. Do you know what that means, and is it necessarily bad news?
It depends.
The scale and BMI are rudimentary tools for gauging your overall body composition, meaning they don’t tell you enough to determine if you are at a healthy weight.
Here’s an example. A professional athlete may be 183 cm, weigh 102 kg, and be in fantastic physical condition with a 81 cm and bulging muscles. A busy doctor may be six feet tall and weigh the same with a 99 cm and a bulging midsection.
They have the same weight and the same BMI, but very different health assessments. What’s different? The two men have different amounts of muscle tissue and fat mass. The athlete has a healthy body composition. The doctor perhaps does not.
Knowing your body composition gives you a better picture of your overall health than just knowing weight or BMI.
What is body composition and why is it important?
Summary
- Body composition refers to the absolute or relative amounts of fat and lean mass.
- Muscle, bones, and water make up lean mass.
- Increasing lean body mass can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases and can significantly improve health and functional status.
Body composition refers to the amount of fat, muscle, bone, and water that contributes to your total weight. Body composition can be expressed as a percentage (like body fat percentage) or an absolute amount (like kilos of muscle mass). Muscle, bone, and water are frequently combined and referred to as lean body mass, which differentiates them from fat mass.
As we describe in our healthy weight loss guide, not all weight loss is “healthy.” Ideally, losing weight means losing mostly fat mass — not lean mass — with minimal reduction in your resting metabolic rate.
For better health, most people want to lose fat mass and preserve or gain lean mass. Preserving muscle and bone helps prevent sarcopenia (muscle loss), frailty, and osteopenia (bone loss), in addition to improving the ability to do everyday tasks.
How to achieve better body composition
Summary
- A simple definition of improved body composition is decreased fat mass with increased or preserved muscle mass.
- Intermittent fasting and other means of calorie reduction may also help lower fat mass but should be augmented with resistance training to preserve lean mass.
- Resistance training exercise is the most effective way to increase lean body mass.
The keys to improving your body composition are:
- Sustainably reducing your calories to lower excess body fat.
- Getting enough protein to promote muscle growth.
- Using exercise to stimulate your muscles to build lean mass.
While there is more than one way to accomplish these goals, here are the best tips, backed by science, to improve your body composition.