Brandon Johnsonn asked:


Behold the power of the hip to waist ratio: A 6-foot-tall muscle-bound football player steps on a scale. It reads 220 pounds. Now, a 6-foot-tall football-watching couch potato steps on the same scale. It reads 220 pounds. They must be in exactly the same shape and equally healthy, right? WRONG!

You’d be surprised by how many people live and die by the number that greets them on their bathroom scale; but, as you can see from the above example, this seemingly simple measurement is grossly misleading.

First of all, muscle is more dense than fat. Therefore, even if you achieve the amazing and difficult task of building muscle while burning fat, your overall weight may increase. Then, when you see a bigger number on the scale, you think your hard work isn’t paying off, and you give up. What you don’t realize is body composition is much more important than body weight.

Body composition is made up of two parts: lean muscle mass and body fat. Obviously, you want to concentrate on losing fat, rather than just losing weight. Anyone can starve themselves and lose weight, but they will also be losing valuable calorie-burning muscle.

Hip to Waist Ratio

OK, so how exactly do you keep up with your body composition? If you are willing to spend a few bucks ($50-$200), you can spring for a digital body fat scale. While their accuracy can vary from model to model (and even day to day for that matter), many can at least provide an overview of whether or not you’re improving your body composition.

Another cheaper, but equally effective, method is the hip to waist ratio. All you need for this is a tape measure, or an inexpensive MyoTape to make it even easier:

1. Measure your waist at the thinnest point (around your belly button area), and record the number.

2. Measure your hips at the widest point (under your belly button, closer to your butt), and record the number.

3. Now, simply divide the first number (waist) by the second number (hips), and record your score.

Anything below 0.92 is considered safe; closer to 1.0 or higher means you need to start burning some of that dangerous belly fat.

So, don’t be a slave to the scale anymore. It can tell you you’re not making progress when you are, or it can give you false hope that you’re losing weight, when you’re really losing valuable muscle tissue.

The hip to waist ratio never lies — just don’t cheat and suck your stomach in while measuring!

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FBL asked:


How does obesity affect cardiorespiratory physiology, circulatory physiology and body composition/body build?

Any support with scholar articles?
Thanks

body composition

pttrain08 asked:

exercise doempnstration body composition

body composition

hamilton_krista asked:


I am a 30 year old woman who has struggled with anorexia for six years. I am in the process of getting healthier, and I would like to know how to change my body composition to make myself look more toned as I gain weight. Any suggestions?

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Kris Lee asked:


Fitness, itself, is composed of four different elements: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition.

Cardiorespiratory endurance, or aerobic fitness, relates to the body’s capacity to absorb, transport, and use oxygen during work or exercise. As the body is trained to endure a greater cardiovascular workload, the heart and lungs become stronger thereby increasing an individual’s endurance. A marathon runner would be a prime example of an athlete with a high level of aerobic conditioning.

Muscular fitness can be best described as a balance of strength and endurance. Muscular strength is the body’s ability to generate force at a given speed of movement. Muscular endurance refers to the ability of the body to repeat movements and resist muscular fatigue. A better way to distinguish between muscular strength and endurance would to imagine lifting a fifty-pound weight just one time-strength-versus lifting a five-pound weight ten times-endurance.

Flexibility is often the most overlooked component of physical fitness. Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint or a group of joints. Range of motion is limited primarily by the amount of soft tissue, including muscle and the joint capsule, surrounding the joint. A gymnast would rely on his or her flexibility as well as strength to complete a strenuous tumbling routine without injury.

Body composition is the fourth and final component of fitness. There are two distinct elements with body composition: fat mass and lean body mass. Fat mass, as it implies, is the percentage of fat, both essential and nonessential, that makes up an individual’s body. Essential fat can be found in bone marrow, nerve tissue and in various internal organs.Woman have a significantly greater percentage of essential body fat, around 12 percent, than men, around 4 percent, due to the demands of child bearing. Nonessential fat can be found subcutaneously, or beneath the skin, and is primarily used for excess body fat storage. “Based on data from physically active young adults, it would be desirable . . . to strive for a body fat content of 15% for men (certainly less than 20%) and about 25% for women (less than 30%)” (McArdle et. al. 1996, 570). Lean mass, on the other hand, is comprised of everything in the human body other than fat, such as muscle mass, bone mass, and the weight of the internal organs. An ideal body composition, therefore, would be an individual possessing a healthy body fat percentage: 15-20 percent for men and 25-30 percent for women.

These four components are essential for maintaining optimal health and fitness while preventing injury and muscular imbalances. Imagine a long-distance runner who spends her training time running without any regard for strengthening or stretching.While her cardiorespiratory endurance and body composition are favorable, she neglects her muscular strength and flexibility and can possibly set herself up for serious injury in the future. Along similar lines, imagine an amateur bodybuilder who spends a large amount of time lifting weights and increasing muscle mass, but who neglects his cardiovascular health and flexibility. He, too, increases his chance of injury by ignoring two very important components of fitness.

While it is ideal to have a balance of cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and a favorable body composition, it is not something that is easily attainable. Good health takes work, but it does not have to resemble work.

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Kerem asked:


Assuming someone was to do 2 months of serious exercise (eg >30mins cardio per day, gym sessions 5 times a week) and a healthy diet, how much difference could one notice in their body composition, appearance, etc…
Has anyone had experience with this?

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Joe asked:


I have been told by some, that sending an electric charge through your body daily, may not be the best for it.

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Milton Yates asked:


Most people that begin to think about changing their habits wonder exactly where they should start. There are 5 Major Components to Body Composition Change: Nutrition, Cardiovascular Exercise, Supplementation, Weight Resistance Training, and Professional Assistance. It is very important to understand why we focus more on body composition as opposed to weight. The fact is that NOBODY knows how much you weigh except you and your doctor and NOBODY cares. Therefore, it does not matter what you weigh; what matters is how you feel and how you look in your clothes. That’s it! These 5 components focus on just that. Trust me.

Today we are only going to deal with the first and most important component and that is Nutrition. It does not matter whether you are trying to gain weight, lose weight, or stay exactly where you are; nutrition is the critical. 75% of how you look, is what you eat.

Here are the basics. Initially, HOW you eat is much more important than WHAT you eat. Here are today’s tips:

* More than 55% of your calories should come from carbohydrates
* Less than 30% of your calories should come from fat
* Your protein intake in grams should be 80% of your body weight in kg (to determine your weight in kg, divide your body weight in lbs by 2.2)
* Consume less than 2400mg of sodium per day
* Eat every 3 hours while awake (every time you digest you burn calories)
* Eat more times, not more food
* Portion Control: Your body can metabolize a certain amount of calories at one sitting. The metabolic process involves digestion and the use of energy. Anything that your body does not metabolize WILL get stored as FAT.
* You CAN eat before you go to sleep, eating before you go to sleep does not make you GAIN weight, and Eating more is the BEST way to lose weight.

Check out my portion control guide below:

Beef, Poultry, and Venison

One serving = 3 ounces Roughly the size of a deck of cards or 2 cassette tapes

Fish, Shellfish, and Mollusks

One serving = 3 ounces Roughly the size of a checkbook

Starches

Two servings = 1 cup of rice or pasta is the size of a tennis ball, ice cream scoop
One serving= 1 pancake is the size of a compact disc (CD)
One serving= 1/2 cup cooked rice is the size of a cupcake wrapper full
One serving =1 piece of cornbread is the size of a bar of soap
One serving=1 slice of bread is the size of an audio cassette tape
One serving =1 cup of cereal flakes is the size of a fist

Stay tuned to Part 2 – Cardiovascular Exercise

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DrExercise asked:

Basics of fat, muscle, and body density, and how hydrostatic weighing is used to estimate body density and thus body fat.

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