Body Composition

Body composition refers to what various tissues, organs and other things make up your body.  For purposes of exercise and training we break the body down into two compositions...fat and lean mass.  Lean mass includes everything but the fat tissue; ie., muscle, organs, tendons, ligaments, etc.  People often step on the scale to weigh themselves as an indicator of their health status.  This really is not an effective measurement because it only tells us how much we weigh but it doesn't tell us what composes that weight.  A more useful health measurement for body composition is body fat testing.  There are various methods to test one's body fat but the point here is that by receiving a body fat test you know what percentage of your weight is fat.  The balance, then, is your lean mass.  If I weigh 185 lbs. and I am at 5% body fat, that means that 9.25 lbs of my body weight is fat.  This is an excellent/elite body composition.  A healthy body fat percentage for men is considered to be 12 to 18% and for women 18 to 22%.