How Your Body Composition Shapes Your Health

An easy mistake people make whenever they are trying to lose some weight is exactly that—focusing on their weight. Your body composition will be a much better indicator of your health since it will let you know how much of your body is made up of fat, bone, water, and muscle. Learn in more detail how your body composition shapes your health below.

Fat

The first area people tend to pay the most attention to when it comes to body composition is their fat. While fat protects your organs, there are other areas of the body where a lot of it can be harmful to your health. Here are some types of body fat you should be aware of and some of the dangers of them:

• Belly or visceral fat is often associated with obesity and other diseases. This type of fat is more prevalent in men than women because of sex hormones.
• Subcutaneous fat is stored underneath the skin, in areas across the body like limbs, hips, and the buttocks. Subcutaneous fat provides protection for your muscles, body insulation, and helps your body store energy. Subcutaneous fat is important for your body, but having too much can lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other diseases.
• Intramuscular fat that occurs in your muscles can be a great source of energy during exercise. However, like the other fats on this list, too much of it can lead to health conditions related to obesity and more insulin resistance.

Bone

The next part of your body composition makeup is your bones, which also plays a role in protecting important organs. When it comes to body composition, bones store minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. These minerals help with the pH balance in the body.

Water

Many people are aware of how crucial water is to your health as it makes up more than half of our body. Not having enough water in your body can lead to dehydration, which can affect your mood, memory, motor coordination, and blood in negative ways. This can lead to even more health complications like kidney failure, heat exhaustion, seizures, and more.

Muscle

Your muscle is another part of how your body composition shapes your health. Muscles give your body strength and allow you to remain active, which is the key to your survival. What some people might not realize is that our heart is a muscle, and it also happens to be our strongest one.

There are many methods that you can use to measure body composition to see where you stand, such as skinfold calipers, hydrostatic weighing, body circumference measurements, and others. To improve your body composition, the best thing you can do is adopt a fitness routine and improve your diet. Start your road to a healthier life and buy exercise equipment from Top Fitness Store today!