What is Your Body Composition?
Body composition is simply the ratio of lean body mass to fat body mass. Too much fat can lead to health problems like heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and other serious conditions. If you keep your body fat within a reasonable level, you'll be healthier and, of course, slimmer.
Body composition (percent fat and lean) reflects the results of both physical activity and nutritional practices. Body weight alone can be very misleading. The scale cannot tell the difference between a pound of fat and a pound of muscle. Over time, people tend to gain fat and lose muscle without an obvious change in their weight. And, even though we need a certain amount of fat in our bodies to insure good health, excess body fat has been found to increase the risk of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now declared obesity an epidemic, with 61% of adult Americans either overweight or obese (having excess body fat). On the other hand, too little body fat can also pose a number of health risks, especially for women.
Only by accurately measuring body composition will you learn the amount of fat and lean tissue that makes up your weight, enabling you to make sensible decisions regarding nutrition and exercise programs. It’s the best way to get the whole picture of what's really going on in your body
For women, a body fat of 10-12% is essential, 14-20% is considered a healthy range for athletes, 21-24% is healthy for fitness, 25-31% is considered an 'acceptable' range and anything above 32% is considered obese.
For men, 2-4% body fat is essential, 6-13% is an athletic body fat range, 14-17% is considered a 'fit' range, and 18-25% is acceptable. Anything above 26% for men is considered obese. So, how do you find out what your body fat is?
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Why Do I Want You to Know Your Body Composition?
Knowing your body composition at the beginning of the program allows you to see how far you've come. It is positive reinforcement. Consider it your “Bench Mark” . Before your first day of Hard Knox Boot Camp, I recommend you get these measurements not for me but for you.
Through experience with strength training you tend to gain muscle and it tend to off set the weight scale and making people think they’ve gain weight creating this negative thoughts that can and will effect you mentally. I want to prove to you that muscle is good because the more muscle you have the more you burn FAT!
When you get your measurements please bring me a copy so that I may record it because when the end of the course draws near I want you to go back and get your final measurements to see your RESULTS!
All I ask is that you GET IT DONE! BUT DO I REQUIRE IT…WELL NO!
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| Measuring Body Composition with the Bod Pod |
The Bod Pod |
The BOD POD uses air instead of water. This makes testing highly accurate while being safer, faster, more easily repeatable, and better able to accommodate a wide range of body sizes and types. Subjects don’t get wet, pinched, exposed to radiation, or have to deal with difficult compliance issues. In fact, the BOD POD is ideally suited for research, and is currently used by many prestigious research facilities in the areas of obesity, exercise physiology, human performance, kinesiology, and nutrition.
To schedule a Bod Pod session, contact:
(865) 974–6040
Department of Exercise Sport and Leisure (Hyper Building)
University of Tennessee
1914 Andy Holt
Knoxville, TN
37996-2700
Cost: $40.00
(payable at time of measurement) |
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