Measurement values - What do the numbers mean ?
For most people, maintaining a desirable weight and body fat percentage can only be achieved through an integrated program of nutrition and exercise or balancing energy intake with energy expenditure.
To reduce weight and body fat requires cutting back on calories and increasing the amount of exercise. Dieting alone won't work.
Even when a person's weight-control system has genetic flaws and one of the new diet drugs is prescribed, proper nutrition and plenty of exercise is still part of the prescription for health.
Most of us have more than enough to eat, but many people don't eat a healthy range of foods.
Consuming too many calories from any kind of food source can produce fat.
One of the best models for healthy eating is represented in the Food Pyramid.
To get the proper daily nutritional value:
• Eat a variety of foods
• Eat a high-fibre diet (choose more grains, fruits and vegetables instead of protein, fats and sugar)
• Maintain a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet (eat no more than 30% of calories from fat, including only 10% from saturated fat)
• Use moderate amounts of salt and sodium and choose sugar substitutes
• Limit alcoholic intake
Often the first step to a good diet lies in changing food and eating behaviour:
• Don't skip meals
• Eat a series of small meals throughout the day and avoid a big meal late in the evening
• Eat and chew slowly
• Use a smaller-sized plate to achieve a "full plate"
• Don't go back for seconds
• Bake or boil food instead of frying
• Order from light menus and purchase low-calorie or low-fat foods (remember that low-fat does not necessarily mean low-calorie)
• Learn about food values and make healthy combinations in meals
• Weigh yourself regularly and focus on measuring body fat percentage
• Reward yourself with non-food pleasures
As well as eating a well-balanced diet, it's important you take the right amount of exercise too. More and more of us lead fairly sedentary lives.
Fewer of us have manual jobs, we travel everywhere by car, bus or train and spend lots of time in front of the TV or computer.
That's why including some kind of regular exercise is so important . It preserves muscle tissue, helps you maintain a healthy weight and body fat level and reduces the risk of long-term ill health.
The benefits of regular exercise include:
• Major reduction in the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and osteoporosis (brittle bone disease)
• Increased stamina
• Better posture
• Higher energy levels
• Stronger, more toned muscles
• Better shape and appearance
• More self-confidence
Start Gradually...
Try to cut down on the amount of time you spend on sedentary activities. Look for ways to increase your daily activity level.
You could:
• Get out of your chair whenever you can at home and work. Why not make a point of standing up when you're on the phone?
• Take the stairs instead of the lift. Park on the other side of the car park rather than next to the shops/stairs. Walk to the local post box, newsagent or cinema.
• Treat housework or DIY as an aerobic workout by turning on some music and getting stuck in.
Eventually you should aim to incorporate at least 20 to 30 minutes of a specific exercise on most days of the week. Plan activities you enjoy and which fit easily into your lifestyle.
It might be walking, swimming, gardening, dancing or low impact aerobics. Try a variety of exercises - you'll find it more interesting.
Ready For More?
Think about joining a gym or at least trying some resistance training to increase muscle strength and tone.
Resistance or strength training involves working the muscles to make them stronger.
Exercises like weight lifting, sit-ups and toning classes may not burn excess fat directly, but they enable muscles to work more efficiently.
They also help rebuild lost muscle and strengthen bones, ligaments and tendons.
You should also carry out regular cardiovascular activities like cycling, jogging or skipping.
These are designed to get your heart pumping and will also help improve your co-ordination, endurance and stamina, as well as tone muscle.
Exercise videos are an excellent way to keep fit at home, with many combining an aerobic workout with strength training, giving your body a full and thorough workout.
How Dieting and Exercise Affects Your Body Fat Reading
It is important that you combine sensible eating with physical activity if you want to lose weight and reduce your body fat level.
Quick fix, fad diets, that promise dramatic weight loss, do not work in the long term.
Yes you may lose weight quickly in the beginning, but once you stop following the diet (which is almost certain) you will simply put this weight back on and probably more!
The dramatic weight loss is due to the fact that you are losing body water, not body fat.
Your body uses up the easiest available energy sources first, which are the carbohydrate stores (glycogen) in the muscles.
As water is stored with the glycogen, this means you could lose several pounds in water alone.
Once all the glycogen has gone, then your body uses the protein found in the muscles, leading to loss of muscle mass.
Your metabolism slows down, meaning you need less and less calories in order for your body to function.
To continue losing weight you need to eat even fewer calories.
When you return to your normal eating habits, your slower metabolism will store the extra calories it doesn't need as fat, meaning you regain the weight lost.
Your body fat percentage reading will also go up, putting you at greater risk of health problems.
By following a sensible long-term healthy eating plan, combined with regular exercise, then you should see your body fat percentage readings decline at a slow, steady rate, along with your weight.
When you begin a new exercise routine, particularly if it includes resistance or strength training, do not be alarmed if your weight increases slightly.
This is because you are building muscle tissue, which is denser than fat. But by regularly monitoring your body fat level you will see your body fat percentage decrease over time.
Your total blood pressure reading is determined by measuring your systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
While these two numbers make up your overall blood pressure, only one of them needs to be high for you to have high blood pressure, or hypertension.
Systolic blood pressure, the first number or top number, measures the force your heart exerts on the walls of your arteries each time it beats.
Diastolic blood pressure, the bottom number, measures the force your heart exerts on the walls of your arteries in between beats.
The Diastolic number should be lower than the first.
Here’s what the numbers mean:
• If your reading is less than 120 over 80, you have normal blood pressure;
• Between 120 to 129 over 80 , you have Elevated blood pressure;
• Between 130 to 139 over 80 to 89, you have Stage One Hypertension;
• If you have a reading that is greater than 140 on top and 90 on the bottom, you have Stage Two Hypertension.
• If you have a reading that is greater than 180 on top and/or 120 on the bottom, you have Hypertensive Crisis, the most severe form of high blood pressure. Consult your Doctor immediately.
To get an accurate blood pressure measurement, you should evaluate your readings based on the average of two or more blood pressure readings at three or more visits.
Ranges may be lower for children and teenagers.
We all need some body fat to be healthy. It's vital for basic body functions
like regulating body temperature, storing vitamins and cushioning joints and
organs.
But too much fat can damage your health and could put you at greater risk of
developing serious medical conditions. Excess body fat is known to contribute to
heart disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes mellitus and some forms of
cancer.*
Body fat is not always visible to the naked eye. You may have an acceptable
weight and figure, but could still be carrying more body fat than you think.
Weight alone cannot distinguish between the pounds that come from body fat and
those that come from lean body tissue, such as muscle and bone.
Reducing excess body fat will help you improve your body shape and appearance.
You'll feel better, look better and enjoy a better, fitter quality of life.
* (Source: National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute - Clinical Guidelines.)
Abby will automatically compare your personal body fat reading to
the Healthy Body Fat Range chart below.
Normal Body Fat Index
|
20 to 39 years old |
40 to 69 years old |
70 and older |
| Man |
8 – 19% |
11 – 22% |
13 – 25% |
|
20 to 39 years old |
40 to 59 years old |
60 and older |
| Women |
21 – 33% |
23 – 35% |
24 – 36% |
Women's bodies are biologically designed to have more body fat than men. By
nature, a woman's body is developed to protect her and a potential foetus. As a
result, women have more fat-storing enzymes and fewer fat-burning enzymes. The
hormone oestrogen also activates fat-storing enzymes, causing them to multiply.
Women experience much greater changes in their hydration level than men because
of their menstrual cycle. This will affect your body fat percentage readings.
Retaining fluid may also cause your weight to fluctuate day-to-day, causing
additional variations in your body fat readings.
In order to understand your natural monthly body cycle, you may find it useful
to monitor and record your weight and body fat readings every day for a month.
This information will enable you to establish the most reliable baseline and
help you understand the full range of normal fluctuations in your body fat
readings.
Hormonal changes during menopause can also cause water retention and measurement
variations.
To successfully monitor your progress, remember to compare weight and body fat
percentage readings taken under the same conditions over a period of time,
paying attention to fluctuations caused by your menstrual cycle.
And stay within the women's - not the men's - healthy body fat range!
There is no health risk associated with using Abby during pregnancy.
However, when you are pregnant, the body's hormones go into overdrive to provide
optimum conditions for the growing baby. Fat is stored around the stomach and
hip areas to provide warmth and protection for the foetus and is not as evenly
distributed around the body as it would be at other times. This impacts on the
reading given by Abby.
There have also been insufficient research studies in relation to body fat
during pregnancy, meaning suitable equations and "healthy" ranges have not been
validated for pregnant women.
Too little body fat...
It is possible to have too little body fat. Young women are especially at risk
of anemia and insufficient calcium could lay the foundations for osteoporosis in
later life. Amenorrhoea - missing menstrual periods - is common and could lead
to infertility.
Too much body fat...
Obesity has become a serious health threat for women at every stage of life.
Female-specific conditions attributable to being overweight include an increased
incidence of breast cancer after menopause (particularly for women taking
hormone replacement therapy (HRT)), and higher rates of endometrial cancer. Also
associated with obesity are various birth defects, obstetric and gynaecological
complications and infertility. Obesity has also been documented in connection
with stress incontinence in women
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height.
BMI does not measure body fat directly.
BMI is used as a screening tool to identify possible weight problems for adults.
However, BMI is not a diagnostic tool. For example, a person may have a high
BMI. However, to determine if excess weight is a health risk, a healthcare
provider would need to perform further assessments.
BMI is calculated the same way for both adults and children. The calculation is
based on the following formulas:
|
Measurement Units
|
Formula and Calculation
|
|
Kilograms and
meters (or centimeters)
|
Formula: weight (kg) / [height (m)]2
With the metric system, the formula for BMI is weight in kilograms
divided by height in meters squared. Since height is commonly measured in
centimeters, divide height in centimeters by 100 to obtain height in meters.
Example: Weight = 68 kg, Height = 165 cm (1.65 m)
Calculation: 68 ÷ (1.65)2 = 24.98
|
Interpretation of BMI for adults
For adults 20 years old and older, BMI is interpreted using standard weight
status categories that are the same for all ages and for both men and women. For
children and teens, on the other hand, the interpretation of BMI is both age-
and sex-specific.
According to the BMI weight status categories, anyone with a BMI over 25 would
be classified as overweight and anyone with a BMI over 30 would be classified as
obese.
It is important to remember, however, that BMI is not a direct measure of body
fatness and that BMI is calculated from an individual's weight which includes
both muscle and fat. As a result, some individuals may have a high BMI but not
have a high percentage of body fat. For example, highly trained athletes may
have a high BMI because of increased muscularity rather than increased body
fatness.
It is also important to remember that weight is only one factor related to risk
for disease. If you have questions or concerns about the appropriateness of your
weight, you should discuss them with your healthcare provider.
The BMI ranges are based on the relationship between body weight and disease and
death. 1
Overweight and obese individuals are at increased risk for many diseases and
health conditions, including the following: 2
• Hypertension
• Dyslipidemia (for example, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high
levels of triglycerides)
• Type 2 diabetes
• Coronary heart disease
• Stroke
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
• Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
Although the BMI number is calculated the same way for children and adults, the
criteria used to interpret the meaning of the BMI number for children and teens
are different from those used for adults. For children and teens, BMI age- and
sex-specific percentiles are used for two reasons:
• The amount of body fat changes with age.
• The amount of body fat differs between girls and boys.
Because of these factors, the interpretation of BMI is both age- and
sex-specific for children and teens.
1 World Health Organization. Physical status: The use and interpretation of
anthropometry. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization 1995. WHO
Technical Report Series.
2
Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of
Overweight and Obesity in Adults. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity
For an adult, a normal resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute
(bpm). For a well-trained athlete, a normal resting heart rate may be as low as
40 to 60 bpm. In healthy adults, a lower heart rate at rest generally implies
more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness.
Keep in mind that many factors can influence heart rate, including:
• Activity level
• Fitness level
• Air temperature
• Body position (standing up or lying down, for example)
• Emotions
• Body size
• Medication use
Although there's a wide range of normal, an unusually high or low heart rate may
indicate an underlying problem. Consult your doctor if your resting heart rate
is consistently above 100 bpm (tachycardia) or below 60 bpm (bradycardia) —
especially if you have other signs or symptoms, such as fainting, dizziness or
shortness of breath
A decrease in resting heart rate is one of the benefits of increased fitness due
to exercise. Before starting into any exercise regimen, however, be sure to
consult with your personal physician.
Your heart is a muscle and will respond just like any skeletal muscle in that it
will become stronger through conditioning. If your heart muscles are stronger,
then your heart rate will decrease. In other words, your heart will be putting
out less effort to pump the same amount of blood.
When undertaking an exercise program it is important to have a goal and a target
range that you are trying to accomplish in each workout. To be of benefit, you
want the workout to be neither too hard nor too easy. There is a simple formula
to predict your maximum heart rate that is used in the fitness industry:
Take 220 and subtract your age.
This will give you a predicted maximum heart rate.
For example, if you are 42 years old, subtract 42 from 220
(220 - 42 = 178).
This means that your maximum physiological limit as to how fast your heart
should beat is 178 beats per minute.
Most exercise programs suggest that when someone is just getting started that
their heart rate during exercise should not exceed 60 - 70% of their maximum
heart rate. Therefore, given the example above, 60% of 178 = 107 beats per
minute. As you progress in your exercise, the percentage of your maximum heart
rate to be set as a goal can be gradually increased.
Calculating a target heart rate zone is often desirable. To do so:
1. Start with your maximum heart rate as shown above.
2. Multiply your maximum heart rate by 0.8 to determine the upper limit of your
target heart rate zone (divide this product by 6 to get the rate for a
ten-second count).
3. Multiply your maximum heart rate by 0.6 to determine the lower limit of your
target heart rate zone (divide this product by 6 to get the rate for a
ten-second count).
Example:
For a person 42 years old:
220 - 42 = 178 Maximum Heart Rate
178 X 0.8 = 142 Upper Limit of Target Heart Zone (142/6 = 24,10 sec. count)
178 X 0.6 = 107 Lower Limit of Target Heart Zone (107/6 = 18, 10 sec. count)
Note: Your maximum heart rate is the most your heart should reach after a
strenuous workout.
Your Heart Rate should be measured during warm-up, halfway into your workout, at
the end of your workout and at the end of your cool-down period. If during
exercise you exceed your upper limit, decrease the intensity of your workout.
Conversely, at the end of your workout if your heart rate is much lower than
your target, you need to work harder next time.
One way to determine if you are reaping the benefits from exercise is to
calculate your Recovery Heart Rate, a measure of how quickly you return to your
resting heart rate after a workout. To calculate your recovery heart rate:
1. Take your pulse ten seconds immediately after you have finished exercising.
Write down the number.
2. One minute later, take your pulse again and write it down.
3. Subtract the number for the second pulse check from the number for the first
pulse check. This number is your Recovery Heart Rate. The greater the number,
the better shape you are in!
Exercise programs help to increase the strength of the heart. Declines will be
seen in resting heart rate, and hopefully, blood pressure, and stress levels as
well. Overall body changes will also be experienced including weight loss and
increase of lean body mass.
Remember, however, that it is important to check with your doctor and seek out a
qualified exercise physiologist before your get started. An exercise stress test
may be advised to help ensure the training parameters that are best for you.
If your metabolic age is higher than your actual age, it’s an indication that you need to improve your metabolic rate.
A Healthy Body Fat % along with increased exercise will build healthy muscle tissue, which in turn will improve your metabolic age.
Body water is an essential part of staying healthy. Over half the body consists of water. It regulates body temperature and helps eliminate waste. You lose water continuously through urine, sweat and breathing, so it’s important to keep replacing it.
The amount of fluid needed every day varies from person to person and is affected by climatic conditions and how much physical activity you undertake. Being well hydrated helps concentration levels, sports performance and general wellbeing.
Experts recommend that you should drink at least two litres of fluid each day, preferably water or other low calorie drinks. If you are training, it’s important to increase your fluid intake to ensure peak performance at all times.
The average Total Body Water% ranges for a healthy person are:
Female 45 to 60%
Male 50 to 65%
Extracellular water is body water that is not inside the cells. Water found inside the cells is called “intracellular water.” Add the water inside the cells and the water outside the cells, and you get your “total body water”.
Between 20 and 85 years old, a healthy ratio should fall within the range 0.36 to 0.39.
A value closer to 0.36 (or below) is commonly observed in athletes and reflects more Intracellular Water, Lean Body Mass, and strong cellular nutrient retention.
In certain diseased states, the ratio will exceed 0.40.
An increase in extracellular water (or the water outside your cells) can cause excess weight and swelling in your limbs. It can be an early sign of an imbalance in your body. Such imbalances may include hormone, protein, sodium, potassium, magnesium and pH. As a result of these imbalances, you can develop hypertension, decreased mental alertness, nausea, dizziness, headaches, fatigue and shortness of breath.
Yes. Researchers believe that increased extracellular water is a key element in increased body fat. This is because an increase in body fat is accompanied by an increase in extracellular water as well. In other words, body fat lacks adequate amounts of intracellular water.
Be proactive about your health and take steps to ensure that your organs are functioning optimally. Certain routine lab tests can generally identify an organ that is not functioning at it’s best. A balanced diet and regular physical activity also helps.
Maintaining a balanced ratio of approximately 3:2 is ideal for optimal health. If you find that this ratio is beginning to fall out of balance, there are some things you can do. Maintaining a healthy diet, staying hydrated by drinking enough water, and exercising regularly.
Avoiding excess ECW is ideal. From a dietary standpoint, one simple change that can work to reduce excess ECW is reducing the amount of sodium (salt) in your diet. Sodium is located primarily in your ECW, and when excess sodium is introduced into the body, the body’s natural response is to draw water out of your cells at the expense of your ICW. Reducing your sodium intake has a number of positive health benefits, so this tip can be considered simply a best practice for optimal health in addition to being a tactic for reducing high ECW.
On the flip side, increasing your ICW can be achieved by increasing your Lean Body Mass/increasing muscle mass through exercising. As the muscle cells increase in size, they will require more water to maintain their function. Exercise has the additional benefit of combating obesity, and as fat mass is reduced, ECW increases due to obesity will decline over time.
As you can see, body water can be an important indicator of your overall health. Without a healthy ICW:ECW ratio your body will begin to have problems.
The best thing you can do for proper body water balance is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you can achieve a healthy lifestyle, your body water will fall into balance naturally. The first step would be to find out where your body water levels are today, so you can start planning for a healthier life now.
Intracellular water is the water located inside your cells. It comprises 70% of the cytosol, which is a mix of water and other dissolved elements. In healthy people, it makes up the other 2/3 of the water inside your body.
Increasing muscle mass will speed up your basal metabolic rate (BMR). A person with a high BMR burns more calories at rest than a person with a low BMR.
About 70% of calories consumed every day are used for your basal metabolism.
Increasing your muscle mass helps raise your BMR, which increases the number of calories you burn and helps to decrease body fat levels.
Your BMR measurement can be used as a minimum baseline for a diet program. Additional calories can be included depending on your activity level.
The more active you are the more calories you burn and the more muscle you build, so you need to ensure you consume enough calories to keep your body fit and healthy.
As people age their metabolic rate changes. Basal metabolism rises as a child matures and peaks at around 16 or 17, after which point it typically starts to decrease.
A slow BMR will make it harder to lose body fat and overall weight.
Daily Calorie Intake (DCI) is the sum of calories for basal metabolism (BMR), daily activity metabolism (activities including daily household chores),
and diet-induced thermogenesis (energy used in connection with digestion, absorption, metabolism, and other eating activities). Use this as a guideline in your daily meal planning.
Consuming fewer calories that your predicted DCI value will help you lose weight, be sure to maintain good physical activity so you don't lose muscle mass.
Oxygen saturation (SpO2) is a measurement of how much oxygen your blood is carrying as a percentage of the maximum it could carry.
For a healthy individual, the normal SpO2 should be between 96% to 99%. High altitudes and other factors may affect what is considered normal for a given individual.
Fat-free mass is one of two human body components. Fat-free mass (FFM) includes internal organs, bone, muscle, water, and connective tissue.
i.e Everything else in the body , excluding the fat . Fat-free mass differs from fat mass.
This is the weight of the protein and mineral content in your body.
Protein makes up most of your muscle. Dry Lean Mass excludes body water.
If your Dry Lean Mass increases, then this is generally a sign that you have gained muscle mass.
Protein is an important part of a healthy diet. Proteins are made up of chemical 'building blocks' called amino acids. Your body uses amino acids to build and repair muscles and bones and to make hormones and enzymes. They can also be used as an energy source.
There are hundreds of minerals – they are usually classified as either major or trace minerals.
Although the amount you need differs between minerals, major (or macrominerals) are generally required in larger amounts. Some examples include calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, sodium, chloride, magnesium.
Trace minerals (microminerals), although equally important to bodily functions are required in smaller amounts. Examples include iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and iodine selenium.