Body composition refers to the percentage of body fat, bone, and muscle mass in your body. This term was borrowed from the chemical interpretation of body composition and is used in the fitness world. Unlike weight alone, body composition provides a better understanding of how healthy you are. By measuring body composition, you can identify areas to work on to improve your overall health and wellness. This is a common scenario that people of the same sex and body weight may look completely different from each other because they have different body fat and muscle percentages.
Benefits of a healthy body composition
Having a healthy body composition has numerous benefits, including:
- Decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease
- Increased functional ability,
- Better calorie-burning metabolism throughout the day
- And a lean and toned body
Body Composition and Nutrition
Calories, protein, and fibre are important factors to consider in your nutrition. If you consistently eat more calories than your body uses, you will gain weight. Conversely, if you consistently consume fewer calories than your body needs, you will lose weight.
Protein and fibre are essential components of your nutrition, especially if you are actively trying to gain muscle or lose fat. Fiber also brings other health benefits to the table and can increase the pleasant feeling of satisfaction after each meal. You can obtain fibre from a variety of plant-based foods, including beans, whole grains, nuts, and vegetables.
Additionally, calories are one of the most important factors to consider. You will gain weight if you consistently eat more calories than your body uses. Likewise, if you consistently consume fewer calories than your body metabolism need, you will lose weight.
Between exercise and nutrition elements of physical fitness, the nutritional part is the game changer. When your diet is free of connivence foods and filled with low-fat fresh meals, you will notice the beginning stages of body fat reduction, along with an energized feeling during the day and a better sleep quality.
Body composition and metabolism
Our metabolism is a measure of how many calories we are burning over a period of time, including all the required daily processes of our body. A higher metabolism is favorable for weight loss and health benefits. However, your body requires more calories to maintain its muscle than its fat. Therefore, having a higher percentage of fat-free mass or muscle mass can increase your metabolism. Dieting without exercise could lead to muscle loss, which would decrease your metabolism.
Body composition and genetics
Have you ever noticed that, for the most part, families have similar body shapes and sizes? Your genetic health can be determined by your mother’s overall health (and even her nutrition) while she was pregnant with you, in addition to the genes you inherited from your parents.
Heredity is responsible for up to 90% of the variation in your Body Mass Index (BMI). However, certain metrics, such as the fat mass and fat-free mass of your body, are not measured and determined, so the measurement of BMI might be an imperfect metric to represent your health. According to several studies, heredity has a greater impact on body composition than age, gender, number of children, and exercise level. Your genetic health can be determined by your mother’s overall health (and even her nutrition) while she was pregnant with you, in addition to the genes you inherited from your parents.
