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| August 30 | |
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Body Fat |
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Fifty-five percent of American adults are overweight. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and his organization, Shape Up America, says the best way to determine whether you have a healthy weight is to measure your percentage of body fat. Everyone needs a certain amount of body fat—it helps to store energy and to insulate us, among other functions. Women have more body fat than men, which helps with reproduction. But too much, or too little, body fat can be unhealthy. The most accurate way to measure body fat is to weigh someone underwater—but that’s only done in a research laboratory. For the rest of us, there are a number of methods, such as special scales, or skin calipers that can estimate the percentage of body fat. Most doctors use the body mass index, which is a mathematical formula that takes into account a person’s height and weight. All of these methods have their limitations but they can give you a better measure of your fitness than weight alone. |
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How do you use this information if you’re trying to lose weight? Determine what your body fat percentage should be—there are tables that can show this—and follow your body fat, rather than your weight. Weight loss should only be about two pounds a week, any more and you’ll lose lean body mass, which is not healthy. I’ve heard that the location of fat on someone is important? Women generally have fat in their hips, which tends to give them a pear shape, while men tend to build up fat around their bellies, giving them an apple shape. But both genders can adopt either shape. And it has been noted that people with more of an “apple” distribution are more likely to have health problems associated with obesity. | |
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RESOURCES: Shape up America Understanding Adult Obesity |
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