Body composition refers to the relative proportions of fat and fat-free mass in the body. Percent body fat is a key measure used to define body composition. Essential fat is necessary for normal body functions, while excess body fat can increase health risks like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Body composition is influenced by factors like gender, age, genetics, lifestyle habits, and diet. It is important to assess body composition, not just weight, to understand health and fitness status.

1. Chapter 7 - Body Composition
Basics

2. Coming Up..
• Understand basic composition
• factors that influence your body
composition
• relationship between body
composition and health
• Body Comp Measurements

3. 6packs are Just a Shortcut
Away Right?

4. Guess the Weight in each
photo

5. Basics of Body
Composition
• Body composition
• The relative proportions of different types of body
tissues (all tissues)
• Fat
• Fat-free mass
• muscle, bone, organs, fluids
• Percent body fat is the measure most often used to
define and evaluate body composition

6. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Storage fat
• Visceral fat
• Found deep within the abdominal cavity
• Surrounds internal organs
• Subcutaneous fat
• Found just beneath the skin
• Insulates the body and regulates temperature

7. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Essential fat
• 8-12 % in females and 3-5 % in males
• Necessary for normal body function
• Found in the central nervous system, bone marrow,
and other organs
• Surrounds nerve fibers in the brain allowing for the
transmission of messages
• Key component of cell membranes
• Important in healthy hormone production

8. What Do you think each
Body Fat is in this Picture?

9. Well..

10. Compare

11. Fig 7-1 Body composition of young adults
(ages 20-24)

12. Fig 7-2 Visceral and subcutaneous fat in
the abdomen
.

13. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Metabolism
• A processes that requires energy (calories from foods) and
maintains body functioning.
• Energy balance

14. Metabolism is…
• The amount of energy your body requires depends on
three criteria:
1. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
• (AKA basil metabolic rate)
1. Dietary thermogenesis
2. Physical activity

15. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• RMR
• Energy required to maintain essential body processes
at rest
• Depends on genetics, body size, and body
composition
• Muscle is more metabolically active than fat
• Resistance training increases RMR

16. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Dietary thermogenesis
• The energy required to digest and process food
• Protein burns more calories than carbs to diegest
because it takes more calories to break it down and
convert it to glucose!

17. Example
• FRED and BILL both weigh 200lbs and have a BMR of
3,500 kcal a day. They both want to lose weight.
• Fred eats 2,500 kcal or protein, 450 fat, and 50carbs
• Bills eats 1,500kcal protein, 400 carbs, and 100 fat
• Who do you think will drop more lbs.

18. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Physical activity
• Energy expended in daily living as well as formal
exercise

19. Carmen Question: Spot
Reduction
• Question: “In the book it said, “it is impossible to target
one area for fat burning. You can strengthen the muscles in
a particular area of your body through exercise, but such
workouts will not reduce fat from specific area” but if you
are building muscle in an area aren’t you reducing fat in
that area to make room for the new muscle? “
• Answer: Muscle and fat are different types of tissue, they
can both grow and they can both reduce simultaneously .
One can also grow while the other can reduce…
• Examples…

20. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• How do we get fat?
• 3,500 calories is the equivalent of a pound of body weight
• Most fat is stored in fat deposits, which are about 80
percent fat and 20 percent support cells, immune cells,
and blood vessels.
• If you gain weight as fat, these fat cells enlarge, storing
more fat. If you lose body fat, your fat cells shrink

21. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Overweight
• Overweight is excessive weight for height and does
not consider body composition
• Based on large-scale population studies
• Potential issues?

22. Basics of Body
Composition (continued)
• Obesity
• Higher degree of overweight, characterized by
excessive body fat; obesity may also be defined by
body weight or a related measure
• The prevalence of obesity among Americans has
increased significantly, particularly in the 1980s
• 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese..

23. Fig 7-4 Average percent of body fat by
age and gender

24. Factors Affecting
Body Composition
(continued)
• Gender
• Age
• Genetics
• Lifestyle
• Sleep
• Diet
• GENDER AND AGE???
• Apple/pear paradox
• Hormones

25. Figure 7-5 Body-fat
distribution

26. Carmen Question
“Why does eating too little and burning excess calories
through exercise not cause your body fat percentage to
decrease, but instead decreases your lean muscle mass? I
thought that when the body was in distress due to not
enough calorie consumption the excess fat was the first type
of tissue that gets consumed. “

27. Carmen Question
• “While reading over the chapter, calories and weight were
talked about frequently. Well, I know when anyone tries to
lose weight they stay away from eating bad calories like
candy and chips, even though they crave it. My question
is….are “cheat” days really okay to do? I know it won’t
affect your weight too much if you are consistently
working out and lifting, but say you just ate awful for a
whole day…what affect would that have on your body, or
does it depend on the person?”

28. Answer
Muscle tissue burns 7 to 10 calories per pound per day.
Fat burns 2-3 calories per day per lb
if you replace a pound of fat with a pound of muscle, you
can expect to burn only approximately 6-4 more calories a
day
That's 450-900 more calories burned per month, or
5,400-10,800 more calories burned in a year—
that's about a 3-pounds per lb of muscle replacing
fat!

29. Obesity Paradox
• Component of health-related fitness
• Some fat is healthy
• Maintaining an appropriate level of body fat is vital to a
healthy, longer life

30. Body Composition and
Wellness (continued)
• Problems associated with excess body fat
• Cardiovascular disease
• High blood pressure and fat in the blood
• Type 2 diabetes
• There is a direct relationship between excess body
fat and type 2 diabetes
• Cancer
• Increase risk of cancer of the breast, prostate,
colon, pancreas, esophagus, endometrium, and
kidney

31. Assessing Body
Composition
• It is hard to define ideal weight
• Consider body composition
• Ideal weight
• Percent fat better than scale weight
• BMI
• Weight (kg)/Height2 (m)
• BMI does not take into account
muscle mass
• An Indirect Measure of Body
Fat

32. Carmen Question
• “Genetic factors significantly contribute to body
composition, how much does environmental factors
contribute to body composition and what is rate that
children deviate from how their parents behave in regards
to fitness?”

33. Body Composition and
Wellness (continued)
• Factors that can make a difference
• Body fat distribution
• Visceral or abdominal fat increases the risk of chronic
disease
• Other health risk factors
• Additional risk factors
• Lifestyle
• Obese people spend a greater portion of their life with
disabilities

34. Carmen Questions
• Body Composition Question:
• I am a pretty fit individual. While I would say I am slightly
overweight, I am still very active in strength training,
cardio, five intramural sports/ semester, etc. My BMI still
comes out to be 28.4ish. This means I am on the threshold
of being high risk- obese. When do tests like these provide
incorrect results? Is there a better test I should use?

35. Carmen Question: Body
Comp Testing
• Who can do this:
• ANYONE!!! There is no right time to do this.
• You can even get it done for free at the bottom floor of the
PAES building in the exercise science department!
• Is it accurate? Let’s see…

36. What do you think is the most appropriate
measurement for your group’s goal?

37. Measure Body Fat
Percentage #5: DEXA
S• cUpasnide
• Very accurate
• Downside
• Expensive: Around
$250
• Not repeatable
(unless you don’t
mind spending
$250 every couple
weeks)

38. Measure Body Fat Percentage
#4: Hydrostatic Weighing
• Upside
• Very accurate,
considered Gold
Standard
• Downside
• Impractical
• Expensive
• Not repeatable (unless
you liked repeatedly
getting dunked in a
tank and spending
$150)

39. Measure Body Fat Percentage
#3: Anthropometric
• Upside
• Easy to Administer
• Cheap
• Downside
• Questionable
Accuracy (Body fat
is not directly
measured)

40. Measure Body Fat Percentage
#2: Bioelectric Impedance
Analysis
• Upside
• Very easy to administer
• Inexpensive (most
weight scales around
$50 or even less have
BIA)
• Downside
• Questionable Accuracy
• Variability of results
dependent on
hydration level

41. Measure Body Fat Percentage
#1: Skin Fold Caliper
• Upside
• Accurate
• Dependable (when skilled at
measuring)
• Repeatable
• Downside
• Variability of measurement
(same exact spot needs to used
each time)
• More than one-site test
requires a skilled fitness
professional (I’ve done these
thousands of times!)
• For people 35+ pounds
overweight, fat may not fit
within caliper, so it’s less
accurate

42. Carmen Question: activity
and body fat
• Question
• “Is high-intensity exercise better than low-intensity exercise
for fat loss?”
• “Is aerobic exercise better than resistance exercise for fat
loss?”
•
• “How does body fat affect gaining muscle? Does having
more body fat increase the ability to gain muscle?”
• Answer: get out your note pads!

43. Table 7-2 Body mass index (bmi)
classification and disease risk

44. Table 7-4 Approximate
calorie costs of selected
physical activities

45. Female Triad
• Problems associated with too little body fat
• Female athlete triad
• Energy availability
• Menstruation
• Amenorrhea
• Bone health

46. Figure 7-6 The female
athlete triad

47. Body Composition and Wellness
(continued)
• Body composition and athletic performance
• Many factors beyond body composition determine
performance
• All being equal, a decreased level of body fat (that is still in the
healthy range) might improve your performance and reduce
your susceptibility to performance-related injuries
• There is no ideal percent body fat for each sport
• Or is there?

48. Body Composition and Wellness
(continued)
• Body composition, body Image, and emotional wellness
• Body image—a mental picture of your own body
• Body dysmorphic disorder—preoccupation with imagined
defect in appearance
• Muscle dysmorphia—obsessed with idea that being muscular
isn’t enough

49. Body Composition and
Wellness (continued)
• How do you feel about the social media pressures
to be thin or very muscular?

50. Figure 7-7 Average young
women versus fashion models
and Miss America (1920s-2000s)

51. Fat Facts
• 1. Fat has dif ferent
colors.
• When you think of fat, you
most likely think of the
white stuff on your tummy,
hips and thighs that stores
energy until you need it.
• there's also brown fat, more
prevalent in newborns that
helps them keep body
temperatures stable without
shivering.

52. Fat Facts
• 2. Not everybody has
brown fat.
• However, brown fat is limited in
obese individuals
• adults have about 50 grams of
brown fat that can burn energy
equal to roughly 10 pounds of
white fat a year.
• people start losing brown fat in
their late 40s and early 50s,
and he suspects this could be
related to age-related obesity.
•

53. Fat Facts
• 3. Fat keeps us warm, and not
just by insulating us.
• All fat cells -- not just brown ones --
can sense temperature directly, and
they respond to cold by releasing
their energy as heat
• 4. Exercise could change the
behavior of your fat cells' DNA.
• The amount of fat your body carries
is partly determined by genetics, but
exercise could play a role in switching
on or off certain genes that have to
do with fat storage.
• six-month regimen of spinning or
aerobics classes twice a week. At the
end of the six months, the men had
dropped weight and were healthier.
But many of the genes in their fat
cells had also been altered, some
having to do with fat storage and the
risks for developing obesity or
diabetes.

54. Fat Facts
5. Not all fat cells are
created equal.
• Some obese people are metabolically
healthy, while others have metabolic
diseases such as diabetes, high blood
pressure and high cholesterol levels
and it turns out you can see the
• fat cells of unhealthy obese people
swell and lead to inflammation and
fat storage on organs like the liver
and heart.
• The fat cells in healthy obese people,
are smaller and make new fat cells
when more fat needs to be stored.
Healthy v. Unhealthy

55. Pause, Carmen Question!
• “If a lack of sleep increases body fat, specifically abdomen
adipose tissue, can insomnia have even more drastic effects
on fat accumulation across the entire body? I ask because I
do have insomnia and I have had an increase in body fat
over the past year. “

56. Fat Facts
• 6. Fat cells need sleep,
too.
• If you skimp on sleep, you
might be hurting your body
fat's ability to respond to
insulin= Insulin resistant!
• 8.5 hours in bed for four
consecutive nights switched to
4.5 hours in bed for four
consecutive nights with idential
food intake (study)
• After four nights of short
sleeping sessions, the fat cells'
insulin sensitivity had decreased
by 30 percent

57. Fat Facts
• 7. APPLES V PEARS.
• Love handles, flabby forearms and
double-chins; while these visible (and
grab-able) signs of excess fat can be
troubling, it's the visceral fat, or fat
you can't see, that should be of more
concern.
• Fat right under the skin, or
subcutaneous fat, acts as our
insulator and cushion in addition to
an energy storage unit.
• APPLE
• visceral fat, which is embedded deep
within the abdomen, fills in the
spaces between our organs and
pumps out chemicals that can
increase the risk of cardiovascular
disease, hypertension and diabetes
• PEAR