BC1 Bc1 Muscle Body Fat Analyzer Weight Loss Lose NEW

Weight and appearance alone can be deceptive indicators of a person's overall health. Measuring body composition, on the other hand, has become important in the health and medical communities because it is often a much more relevant, useful and accurate way to determine a person's general state of health, and evidence is rapidly accumulating that understanding body composition can help physicians understand the level of risk an individual has of developing certain diseases associated with poor physical fitness.

But what is body composition? What does it mean? What are we measuring?

Most body composition analyses divide body composition into two components: body fat and lean body mass. We'll start with body fat. A certain amount of body fat, about 3 percent of total body weight, aptly dubbed essential fat, is necessary to sustain normal body functions. Women have approximately 9-12 percent essential fat that is considered sex-specific, and is associated with normal sex hormone functioning. Dropping below 3 percent body fat for men or 9-12 percent for women is considered unhealthy and can be dangerous or even life-threatening.

What is a healthy amount of body fat? This depends on who you are and what you do. The healthy, fit range is from 18-22% for women and from 12-17% for men. Athletes on strict training and diet regimens may have as little as 14-18% for women and 6-12% for men. Having over 32% percent body fat for women and 25% for men increases the risk of disease and is considered obese. If your body fat percentage is higher than the healthy, fit levels yet is lower than the obese levels, you may benefit from a healthy diet and exercise, but your health is not considered at risk based on your body composition.

The other side of the body composition equation is what's left, which is collectively termed "lean body mass." Lean body mass includes everything in your body except fat – muscle, bones, organs, fluids, etc. By exercising regularly and eating a healthy, balanced diet, it is possible to achieve and maintain a desirable ratio of fat to lean body mass.

Resistance (weight) training can increase muscle mass, which increases your lean body mass. Another benefit of increasing lean body mass is that it can help your body become a better calorie-burning machine. It's true. By increasing muscle mass, you will increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and burn more calories all day long! Why? Because muscle tissue contains little organelles called mitochondria, which, put simply, are little energy producing machines. The more muscle tissue you have, the more mitochondria you have, and the more mitochondria you have, the more calories you burn!

Fat cells, on the other hand, aren't helpful like mitochondria. While storage fat can feed the mitochondria and help keep your body running, high levels of body fat can adversely affect temperature regulation, and overtax the body's organs and systems over time.

A last point to note is that your body weight is about 60-70% water, with muscle tissue being 70-75% water and fat 10-15%. Women will generally be slightly less hydrated than men, due to their higher levels of essential fat.

Water is essential to life – it's present in all of your body fluids and tissues. In blood, water transports nutrients and oxygen to your cells, and picks up waste products for elimination. In sweat, water helps cool your body, and in saliva and digestive fluids it helps break down the food you eat. Water is even a key ingredient for healthy, radiant skin!

While weight relative to height is good to know, your body composition is a much better measure of your health and risks related to being overweight (or, more precisely, of having too high a body fat %).

The BC1 Body Composition Analyzer allows you to accurately monitor your body composition in a quick, easy, painless way, providing invaluable diagnostic information that can be used in determining overall health status and risk of obesity or weight-related health issues. Used in conjunction with the CT1 Calorie Tracker and Stayhealthy's website monitoring tools, it provides the ultimate toolkit for you to take control of your healthy and get and stay healthy.