Your BFP: Body Fat Percentage
BFP is often overlooked by many people but it is more important than your BMI or how much you weigh in determining how healthy your actually are. Your BFP is the percentage of your total weight that is strictly fat. It is used to calculate how lean you are or how much muscle you have. Once you are aware of your BFP you should monitor it very carefully over time to make sure you are losing fat and not too much muscle. It is also possible to be very slim but still fall in the overweight category of the body fat percentage chart. How? Look at these pictures and decide which person is overweight.
Before you choose allow me to make a distinction between being Physically Overweight and being overweight based on your Body Fat Percentage.
Physically Overweight
Being physically overweight is what everyone is familiar with and tries to avoid. It is based on your weight relative to your height and can easily be seen by anyone. Basically the rounder you look the more overweight you are according to this measurement. Two people (one being 5 feet tall and the other 6 feet) could weigh the exact same 180 pounds but the shorter person would be considered overweight by this measurement.
Body Fat Percentage
Your BFP doesn't take your height into consideration in it's calculation of the amount of fat you have in your body. It only measures the amount of fat you have relative to the amount of muscle. Again, it is used to calculate how lean you are or how much muscle you have, not how much you weigh. The higher your BFP the less muscle you have. The lower it is the more muscle you have. Because of this a person who is physically underweight can still be "overfat" according to their Body Fat Percentage because it is possible to be slim and still have a high BFP.
Clearly Kirstie Alley is overweight in the picture above. The girl in the picture above is obviously underweight but has dieted so much that she has lost most of her muscle mass. Her muscle mass relative to her fat could be low. If that were the case she would fall into the "overfat" category of the BFP chart. The way to resolve this is by using strength training to build muscle tone and to stop dieting to return to a healthy weight.
More on Bulimia
In my opinion bulimia is a disease that is caused by a misunderstanding of body structure and the difference between being Physically vs. BFP overweight. Bulimic women diet and never see results when they look in the mirror. When they look in the mirror they always see an overweight person looking back at them. This is because bulimic women are striving to be slim and toned. Toned is the key word here. To be toned you need to have a high percentage of muscle relative to fat in your body (low BFP). Bulimic women typically don't do any strength training. They go on diets that cut their caloric intake to malnutrition levels. Some even go as far as eating and then vomiting to keep food out of their system. This creates a huge problem. By dieting without strength training they lose a lot of weight. But for every 1 pound that they lose 60% is muscle and 40% is fat. Remember, the more muscle relative to fat you have the more toned you will look. So by just dieting their diets are eating away at the very thing they need to look toned. They become slimmer and slimmer but less and less toned over time. In their eyes they look saggy and flabby but they don't understand why. So when they look in the mirror and don't see the body they are looking for they continue to diet thinking that this is the way to get what they are striving for. All the while they are unwittingly taking themselves farther and farther away from their goal. The cure for this disease is knowledge. If these women understood how to create the body they would like to have then they would take a very different approach to dieting.
A person can be obviously underweight based on their height and weight but at the same time they can be "overfat" according to their BFP if they have no muscle tone. Knowing what your BFP is can also help you avoid some health related problems associated with storing too much fat in your body. Below you will see two charts that show the healthy body fat percentage by age for women and men. Click on the chart below to see where you stand.
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Losing Belly Fat
Knowing your BFP (body fat percentage) can help solve one of the most dreaded problems for both men and women: Losing belly fat. We can't change the way our bodies store fat because it is determined by genetics. Some people store fat in their glutes, others in their thighs, and then there are the unfortunate ones who store it in their midsection. The weight loss industry loves these individuals because they are willing to try anything to get rid of their stomachs and nothing seems to work. Well here is the simple, no pill or cream, free solution to losing your stomach.
To begin you need to know your Body Fat Percentage, and Lean Body Mass. By monitoring these numbers carefully you will be able to achieve your goal.
Knowing your BFP (body fat percentage) can help solve one of the most dreaded problems for both men and women: Losing belly fat. We can't change the way our bodies store fat because it is determined by genetics. Some people store fat in their glutes, others in their thighs, and then there are the unfortunate ones who store it in their midsection. The weight loss industry loves these individuals because they are willing to try anything to get rid of their stomachs and nothing seems to work. Well here is the simple, no pill or cream, free solution to losing your stomach.
To begin you need to know your Body Fat Percentage, and Lean Body Mass. By monitoring these numbers carefully you will be able to achieve your goal.
Many people who have trouble with their stomachs can lose a lot of weight and still see very little change in their waist. This is because their bodies primarily store fat in their stomachs because of genetics. To get rid of their stomachs these individuals may have to lower their BFP (body fat percentage) to as close to "underfat" as possible (21% for women and 8% for men). Doing this will make them very lean with little fat overall. However since they are genetically predisposed to storing fat in their midsection they may still have a small stomach. By continuing with a proper workout routine that includes strength training and cardio they will burn the only fat that they still have in their bodies. Since most of this fat will be in their midsection after lowering their BFP, it will be burned off and their stomach will disappear. This is the basic idea but how do you go about lowering your Body Fat Percentage?
There are a number of ways to lower your body fat percentage:
1. Taking fish oil daily. Studies have shown that fish oil may lower your body fat while helping you to maintain muscle mass.
2. Restrict your fat intake to 20% of your total caloric intake. (not the easiest thing to do)
3. 30 to 45 minutes of aerobics daily. Make sure you keep your heart rate in your fat burning zone or around 10 points above it. This will ensure that you burn the most fat possible while doing aerobics. Go above this number and you will start to burn a lot of calories but you won't burn as much fat as you would in your FBZ (fat burning zone).
4. Build muscle through strength training.
The best way to lower your BFP is to build muscle. It doesn't matter how many calories you burn or how much weight you lose. If you don't decrease your body fat percentage and build muscle through strength training you may never lose your stomach. You also need to keep track of your Lean Body Mass. Carefully monitor your LBM to make sure it stable and not decreasing too dramatically. If you are successful in both decreasing your BFP and maintaining your Lean Body Mass. You will lose your stomach. It's not the easiest thing to do but it works and that is more than I can say for any cream or pill that claims the same.
There are a number of ways to lower your body fat percentage:
1. Taking fish oil daily. Studies have shown that fish oil may lower your body fat while helping you to maintain muscle mass.
2. Restrict your fat intake to 20% of your total caloric intake. (not the easiest thing to do)
3. 30 to 45 minutes of aerobics daily. Make sure you keep your heart rate in your fat burning zone or around 10 points above it. This will ensure that you burn the most fat possible while doing aerobics. Go above this number and you will start to burn a lot of calories but you won't burn as much fat as you would in your FBZ (fat burning zone).
4. Build muscle through strength training.
The best way to lower your BFP is to build muscle. It doesn't matter how many calories you burn or how much weight you lose. If you don't decrease your body fat percentage and build muscle through strength training you may never lose your stomach. You also need to keep track of your Lean Body Mass. Carefully monitor your LBM to make sure it stable and not decreasing too dramatically. If you are successful in both decreasing your BFP and maintaining your Lean Body Mass. You will lose your stomach. It's not the easiest thing to do but it works and that is more than I can say for any cream or pill that claims the same.
Do not confuse being "underfat" with being underweight or skinny. A person could be "underfat" and not look skinny at all.
For instance, in this picture Arnold Schwarzenegger is very lean and has a low BFP. His BFP is most likely in the "underfat" range in this picture but no one would say that he is skinny.
In the second picture of Arnold he has a high body fat percentage. His BFP is in the "overfat" range. Notice how his body is saggy and his stomach is more pronounced even though he weighs less in this picture than in the previous one. Do not confuse being lean and "underfat" based your BFP with being underweight. These are two completely different things. Your BFP is used to calculate how lean you are not how much you weigh.
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