Having the habit of weighing yourself on the “bathroom” scale is very common for many. Even today, people have the idea that total weight is a good parameter to assess our body composition, however, it is far from being, in isolation, a reliable method.
Human body composition
Our body weight is basically composed of our muscles, bones, viscera and fats, in addition to water. When we want to increase or decrease weight, we have to keep in mind that basically what will change is our lean (muscle) or fat (fat) weight, since our organs and bones have a tiny variation in this process.
Body assessment methods
That said, the first process to get the real situation of our body composition is to do a physical assessment. The most common and accessible methods of evaluation are skinfolds and bioimpedance. These assessments are extremely important for your nutritionist and physical trainer, because based on these values of lean mass and percentage of fat, the diet can be calculated with greater precision and will serve as a parameter to measure the athlete’s evolution.
Importance of body assessment
Now let’s exemplify why not just rely on your body weight. Let’s create a hypothetical scenario of an individual weighing 80 kg, with 15% body fat. After 2 months of dietary adjustment and bike workouts and bodybuilding, this individual noticed that he lost only 1 kg. Is this a sign of wasting time? Not necessarily.
Redoing the physical assessment we can see that he lost 3 kg of fat and gained 2 kg of lean mass, reducing his percentage of fat to 11.5%. That difference will add up to just 1 kg of total weight loss, yet your body composition has totally changed.
In addition, factors such as: hydration level, menstrual period (in the case of women), characteristics of the diet, medication use, metabolic disorders, among others, can increase or decrease your total weight due to the accumulation of fluids in the body. So, don’t just rely on your total weight, it can mask a good evolution for individuals who train.
Stay tuned:
Normally, when you notice a large variation in total weight in a short period of time, especially in sedentary individualsa large part of this loss is due to a decrease in water retention, that is, the person becomes less swollen, in addition to a great loss of lean body mass, which is essential to avoid.
Published by Bicycle Magazine
By Raphael Lombardi
Sports Nutritionist, Specialist in Exercise Physiology (UFRJ). CRN 17100663.
Source: Maxima
I am an experienced author and journalist with a passion for lifestyle journalism. I currently work for Buna Times, one of the leading news websites in the world. I specialize in writing stories about health, wellness, fashion, beauty, interior design, and more. My articles have been featured on major publications such as The Guardian and The Huffington Post.