How much body fat is normal?

Body fat: risks, side effects and methods of measurement. An ordinary scale reveals her weight only half the story, since it does not permit differentiation of muscle mass and body fat. How can conceal an ideal weight too much unhealthy body fat, while a high weight does not necessarily refer to a lot of fat.

Our body needs fat to store nutrients, regulate the water balance and protect organs and joints. Therefore diets that have goal the complete degradation of fat reserves the is not only foolish but dangerous. On the other hand, however, too generous fat reserves are anything but healthy. In particular, an excess fat stored in abdominal is associated with vascular disease and an increased risk of heart attack. In women the age group between 20 and 30 years the proportion of body fat in the total weight should not exceed about 29 percent, while as men in the same age group already should not exceed 23 percent in causes of hazardous to health.

How to measure fat percentage in body?

There are various methods which represent the relationship between body fat and muscle mass. One of the most popular methods is the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), makes use the different conductivity of various tissues. Meets the current passed through the body mild electrical impulse much resistance, body fat percentage is relatively high. Commercial Body fat scales work on the principle of the BIA, but have the disadvantage that they are more likely to measure the fat in the lower body and only provide comparable results when external factors such as time of day and water resources remain similar.

Another common method uses the so-called caliper, a device for measuring the thickness of skin folds. Using these values, it is concluded about total fat content of the body. This method must always be carried out on the same parts of the body and requires some practice.
An exact reproduction of the body fat percentage is the preceding methods, unfortunately, impossible. Controversial, however, is their suitability for monitoring the course of a diet can be helpful, whose achievements should be based not only on the loss of fluid.