Ever wonder how much fat and lean muscle mass you are carrying? If yes, then you’ll want to get your body composition analysis done. While weight is a common metric, it doesn’t distinguish between fat and muscle mass. In contrast to BMI alone, body composition analysis reveals the proportion of fat and muscle, giving a more complete picture of your health. Body composition analysis helps you get the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in our bodies. It can give you a good picture of your current health and fitness. It is a good tool to gauge where you need to focus in terms of exercise and nutrition to improve your lifespan.
Knowing all about your body composition can help you determine the general state of your overall health. Even if you appear to be healthy on the outside and weigh in at a seemingly normal weight on the scale, you may still have an unhealthy or altered body composition.
Three reasons why body composition analysis is a key tool for creating your longevity roadmap are discussed below:
1. Helps you Understand Your Body Fat Percentage
Body composition provides us with total fat percentage and fat mass. Body fat percentage is a measure of how much of your body is made up of fat vs. bone and muscle. For example, a body fat percentage of 20% would mean that one fifth of your body is made up of fat and 80% is muscle and bone. The body fat percentage is helpful in assessing our metabolic health. Two individuals at the same height and same body weight can have different health issues because they have different amounts of fat mass and muscle mass. Knowing your body fat percentage puts your weight into context. The ideal body fat percentage for age groups can be seen in the chart below:
| 20-29 yrs old | 30-39 yrs old | 40-49 yrs old | 50-59 yrs old | 60+ yrs old | |
| Female | 16-24% | 17-25% | 19-28% | 22-31% | 22-33% |
| Male | 7-17% | 12-21% | 14-23% | 16-24% | 17-25% |
If your numbers are higher than these ranges that means we need to shift the body composition to have lower fat mass and higher muscle mass. Knowing your fat percentage gives professionals key insight. It allows them to create a customized exercise and nutrition plan to improve your body composition for better health and longevity.
2. Helps with Targeted Fitness Plan
Understanding your body fat percentage and muscle mass helps build a more targeted fitness plan. This can focus on increasing lean muscle and reducing fat, tailored to your body type. With exact numbers you or an exercise professional can create exercise programs that focus on optimal strength training and cardiovascular exercise routines. Cardiovascular exercise activates lean muscle to burn calories. High intensity interval training (HIIT), in particular, helps burn fat at a high rate and continues to burn fat after exercise. Two to three days of steady state cardio is important for improving long term fat metabolism as well. It helps to build and strengthen muscles. Strength training is also important for better posture. Exercise physiologists at Princeton Longevity Center use the body composition analysis to create a detailed exercise program to improve your body composition and your aerobic capacity in addition to correcting your movement patterns.
3. Reduced Risk of Chronic Disease
Body composition analysis helps assess the balance between metabolic load (factors that increase disease risk) and metabolic capacity (factors that protect against disease). Excessive fat mass, particularly visceral fat; fat that’s wrapped around our organs is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and early mortality. Sufficient lean mass, including muscle, is crucial for metabolic health, bone density, and overall function. Knowing your body composition can help you with enhancing physical performance and strength.
Takeaways
Body composition is the amount of fat, bone, and muscle in your body. A healthy body composition is an important part of improving your lifespan, as having too much fat can increase your risk of diseases. If you’re interested in finding out your body composition, contact Princeton Longevity Center to book an appointment for a comprehensive health assessment.