Weight! There’s More
Scales. Body weight. Ugh. I’m not a fan of stepping on a traditional scale. It has been years since that number has tipped in my favor! When you are only 5’1” tall, there’s just not that much room for the body weight number to move within the “healthy” range. I like to tell people that if I were just 1.25” taller I wouldn’t be overweight!
Traditionally, body weight and height have been the measures that magically define your picture of health. Body mass index (BMI) has been used to determine if you fall into the category of underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. One of the biggest pitfalls of using just body weight and height as a measure of health is that it fails to recognize what the weight is coming from - is it muscle, bone, water, or fat? Where is the fat located? Is the fat distributed equally throughout the body or is it targeted in the abdomen around all of our internal organs?
Body composition scales can give us a little more information. A body composition scale can look just like a traditional scale in the sense that it gives you a weight. However, many of the current home versions link via bluetooth to a smartphone and with the appropriate app downloaded, it will give you several numbers to look at rather that just your weight. Here are some of the numbers that you may get:
Weight: Still an important number to look at in the whole picture
Body Fat Percentage: What percent of your body composition is fat? Many apps will even give you the appropriate breakdown of what is a healthy level of total body fat percentage. It’s different for men versus women - so it’s helpful to have an app that shows you specifically where your number falls based on your unique information.
Subcutaneous Fat: this is a measure of our energy stores and it’s important to have a healthy level of subcutaneous fat to help our body regulate temperature and cushion our bones and muscles. However, too much stored subcutaneous fat can also lead to health issues such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or stroke.
Visceral Fat: a measure of the fat in the abdomen around the vital internal organs - we NEED some visceral fat to support our organs, but too much in this area is actually strongly predicts likelihood of developing serious health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
Body Water: a measure of how much of our weight is water weight. Hint - we NEED water in our bodies! Having low body water percentages makes it very difficult to lose weight. Also, if you start to see your weight decrease but it’s all coming from this category - it is NOT healthy weight loss. Water makes every system in our body function with increased ease, so borrowing from this category is definitely more harmful than good.
Skeletal Muscle: this tells us what percent of your body weight is made up from the muscles of your body. I think we can all agree that muscle is a good thing! Muscles are what give us strength to do things, support for our bones, and ultimately having good muscle mass will help us burn calories ingested better than having mostly fat stores.
Bone Mass: having a healthy bone mass is important to avoid fractures and injury to our bones.
Protein: this measures the amount of protein available in our bodies. Proteins are building blocks that help maintain and build muscles, as well as supporting other functions in our body. If our available proteins are dropping we won’t be able to support and build our muscles
BMR (basal metabolic rate): this number calculates what our body is capable of using up in calories each day without additional exercise/activity added to our day. This number is important because if you consistently eat more calories that you expend each day - you will ultimately gain weight, and the opposite is true as well.
That’s a lot of information from one little scale! I think you can see why it’s a better measure of overall health compared to just a scale that gives body weight. At Shift Physical Therapy and Wellness, we use the body composition scale for all of our nutrition and fitness coaching clients. We also use body circumferential measurements (using a tape measure around both upper arms, chest, waist, hips, and both thighs) to further assess progress based on individual goals. Whether the goal is weight loss, fat loss, muscle gain, or just toning - these measurements all help us keep us on track with your goals.
If you’re interested in learning more about your body composition, or interested in working on changing any of those numbers, we can help! Reach out to us via phone, email, or submit a consultation form here.
Written by: Renee Hancock, Physical Therapist and Jackie Giese, Fitness Nutrition Specialist
