How much body fat is considered normal? & bull; hello healthy

So far, all you have been paying attention to may have been your weight. Being overweight can increase your risk of developing diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. In fact, there is actually something more important for you to pay attention to than just body weight, namely body fat levels. Why is it important?

What is body fat?

Fat is one of the compositions that make up your body. The composition of fat in the body contributes value to your body weight, in addition to bones, muscles, tissues and organs. There are two types of fat in the body, namely essential fats and nonessential fats.

Essential fat is the minimum amount of fat the body needs to perform its normal functions. Such as to maintain body temperature, absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K, as a cushion for organs and tissues, maintain healthy skin and hair, and much more.

The amount of essential fat needed by the body to perform these functions is approximately 3-12% of the total calories needed by the body. So, the amount of excess fat that the body does not need (other than essential fats) is called nonessential fat.

What is the normal level of body fat?

Fat is really needed by the body, but too much fat in the body is also not good for health. According to The American Council on Exercise, good body fat levels are:

Women with body fat percent above 32% and men with body fat percent above 26%, meaning they have excessive fat levels and can be categorized as obese.

Why is it important to keep body fat levels normal?

The continuous accumulation of fat in the body can make a person obese. But make no mistake, those of you who are small do not necessarily have normal fat percent, it could be that you have almost abnormal fat percent. Meanwhile, those of you who are big also do not necessarily have a large percentage of fat.

Excess fat levels can increase the risk of various obesity-related diseases, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. So, it is important for you to keep fat levels within normal limits so that you avoid these diseases.

To find out how much fat you have, you can measure it with a tool called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) or the skinfold method. It's a good idea to visit your doctor if you want to find out what percentage of body fat you have.

Measuring body fat levels may be very useful for those of you who are losing weight. So, you know that what you lose from your body is the weight of fat, not just the weight of water.

For those of you who are developing muscle mass it may also be important to know the levels of fat in the body. It is useful to know that what you gain in your body is muscle mass not fat mass.

Measuring fat content is a good indicator of health

The percentage of body fat content can be an indicator to see a better overall health status, compared to simply measuring the Body Mass Index (BMI). This has also been proven in many studies.

One of them is a study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This study suggests that body fat percentage is a better indicator of risk of obesity-related disease than BMI.

Other research published in the journal Sports Health also corroborates this research. This study reports that the measurement of body fat percentage is more accurate in indicating whether a person is obese or not, than BMI.

This is because measuring body fat can show more specific results to determine the actual fat content in your body. Meanwhile, BMI only measures body weight in general.