This Truth About Fat May Be Hard to Digest

Many people believe that we can look at a person and assess whether he or she has too much body fat. It is safe to assume that an obese person may have an excessive amount of body fat. On the other hand, not all skinny or “healthy weight” people are metabolically healthy.

Understand extracellular water to keep your health in check

Extracellular water is body water that is not inside the cells. Water found inside the cells is called “intracellular water.” Add the water inside the cells and the water outside the cells, and you get your “total body water.”

Know Your Body Composition, Even If You are Thin

Many people spend countless hours trying to achieve a certain number on a scale, so they can achieve their optimal weight. But an ideal total body weight in pounds generally doesn’t necessarily equate to optimal health. Looking at how much muscle, fat and water is in those pounds will tell you much more about the state of your health and may provide a launching pad for further investigation. For example, if you have what is usually considered to be a very healthy weight with 40 percent body fat and low muscle mass, it’s not your weight that needs to change – it’s your body composition.

The skinny fat phenomenon: Why being thin doesn’t mean you’re healthy

Being “fat” doesn’t always mean what you think it means. If you’re imagining a large figure, visible rolls of fat and big numbers on a scale, you may not be aware of the “skinny fat” phenomenon. Take this woman, for example, featured in The New York Times, weighing in at just 119 lbs., but with fat around her organs, she developed problems associated with obesity like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a fatty liver. Not what you’d expect for someone who looks skinny and is just 119 lbs.! Looking “thin” can be misleading when you are skinny fat.

Know the dangers of a high body fat percentage

It is often assumed that a skinny person is healthy and that a heavier person is unhealthy. But simply looking at the outside doesn’t tell you enough. For example, a thin female who loves yoga and never seems to gain weight may look like the picture of health to some, but a body composition assessment might show that she carries a lot more fat than she should and not enough muscle. Likewise, a heavyset football player may be strong and muscular, but have a high body fat percentage that’s putting his health at risk. You could have a high body fat percentage whether you’re 100 lbs. or 300 lbs.

Ditch the scale

You are unique. That’s why one-size-fits-all doesn’t really work when it comes to your health. So why are you still using a scale? Two people may weigh exactly 150 lbs. but have drastically different body shapes, builds and sizes, with very different ratios of muscle and fat. Their fitness goals and the way those goals are reached are going to be totally unique.

Fluid retention: Swollen ankles a sign of something more?

Humans – we're made of water, right? So why is fluid retention a problem? Generally speaking, the normal water content in a female body is between 45-60 percent and 50-65 percent in a male body, and these percentages tend to decrease with age. So for example, a 160-pound person may contain just under 100 pounds of water. But sometimes water pools where it shouldn’t, such as in the lower legs and ankles, the abdomen, the fingers or the face.

Why you shouldn’t rely on your BMI

Olympian Kerri Strug. NBA player Yao Ming. Actor Peter Dinklage. Model Twiggy. People come in all shapes and sizes, yet doctors have been taught to measure them all the same way for the last 40 years. Yes, we speak of the infamous BMI, or body mass index.