Like many people, you may have a love-hate relationship with your bathroom scale. According to the International Food Information Council, 33% of adults in the United States are eliminating major food groups or following a strict eating plan to see the number on their scale go down.
While your total body weight matters, it’s not the only measurement you need to take into consideration when it comes to weight loss and good health, Your body composition is also an important reference factor.
Why, you may wonder, does my body composition matter? Well, because your health and wellness depend on more than just your total body weight -- the number you see on your bathroom scale.
Body composition analysis
It’s no secret that excess body fat isn’t good for your health. Being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing many chronic health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, joint pain, and heart disease.
Though the scale helps you track the total number of pounds lost, it can’t tell the difference between fat loss and muscle loss. Excess body weight is a strain on your body, but excess fat — whether you’re overweight or underweight — is a strain on your health.
The body composition analysis differentiates fat mass from fat-free mass (muscle, bone, and organs). You perform a body composition analysis to assess your initial health and track the changes as you lose weight.
Your body mass index (BMI)
There are several methods available for assessing body composition. One of the simplest measurements is BMI, which is a mathematical equation that compares your weight to your height.
What your BMI means:
- 18.5 or lower = underweight
- 18.5 to 24.9 = healthy weight
- 25 to 29.9 = overweight
- 30 or greater = obese
Though BMI is a simple and effective tool for measuring body composition, it can be misleading in some cases. For example, a bodybuilder may have a high BMI that puts them in the overweight category, but they have a low overall body fat percentage.
Measuring your body fat percentage
To get a better idea of your body composition, you can get yourself a BodyPedia Smart Scale, which has been proved to be the first accurate smart scale to be used at home. More than 10,000 tests comparing with medical devices show BodyPedia Smart Scales have around 97% correlation to the Gold Standard method (DXA).
Many factors influence your body fat percentage, including your age, sex, genetics, and hormones. For optimal health, your body fat percentage should fall somewhere between 18-31%.
In general, men tend to have more fat-free mass than women.
Seeing an improvement in your body composition, even without a change in the number on the scale, is a non-scale victory that can make you feel good about your progress.
Improving your body composition
When it comes to weight loss, your bathroom scale may not be your best source for inspiration and motivation. A body composition analysis provides more information about what’s really happening on your weight-loss journey. BodyPedia Smart Scale has been proved to be the first accurate smart scale for body compositions. It can help you target improvement areas, develop effective training, adjust diet, set attainable goals and track changes of body composition over time for success.