The Best Way to Measure Body Fat

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Hey this is JJ Virgin. Thanks so much for joining me. This is Ask the Health Expert. In each episode I put the power of health in your hands and share ways to get healthy, lose weight, heal your gut, detox, and lots more so you can look and feel better fast. If you'd rather watch the video, hey, I did put on my makeup and do my hair, so check it out on my YouTube channel.

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Education should be a right, not a competition. At University of Phoenix, you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for. Simple as that. Explore scholarship options At University of Phoenix, We've been obsessed with weight and only weight as a sign of being healthy for as long as I can remember. But it's time to change the way we think about that weight is only one single measurement. We have so many more tools now that can give you a good read on your health and they can also help you track and improve it. No matter where you start. If you're baking a cake, you're not measuring just one ingredient and then guessing on all the rest. Are you?

Are you?

I didn't think so. So think about your body composition that same way. Your body weight is only one measurement of your overall health and definitely not the end all and be all. You should also be focusing on your body composition by identifying exactly where that weight is coming from. So a body composition test will not only tell you your body fat percentage, but it can also help you fine tune what you need to eat for fat loss and muscle gain, along with pointing out any health risks you might be dealing with. Muscle has a lot of benefits. It makes you look and feel fit, it helps you burn fat, it balances your blood sugar, and it's mission critical for healthy aging. It's why I call it Metabolic Spanx because literally it holds everything in tighter while boosting your metabolism. Lean muscle is so important to having an active quality of life for as long as possible. It does amazing things for our health. So first thing, keep yourself strong and prevent all the decline that comes with losing muscle as you age. And by the way, if you're thinking, oh, but I have not been doing this, it's never too late to start because as you get into midlife and beyond, this is when it gets even more important. So we're going to dig into body composition so you really understand it, know how to measure it, and most importantly, you know how to improve it. So first up, what is it? So body composition is the breakdown of your body into body fat and fat free mass, which is basically everything else weight wise, other than your body fat, mainly muscle and bone. Basically, those two numbers cover everything you're made up of. So it really helps you understand your body weight on a deeper level. And measuring it is the best way to tell if you're losing body fat or gaining muscle. You cannot tell that on the scale alone. Now, if you've ever tried to lose weight but gotten stuck, you know how frustrating that can be. But if you're only relying on a regular bathroom scale, you're just not dealing with the full picture. So you're not setting yourself up for success. The scale can tell you like how much you weigh, but body composition is going to tell you where the weight is coming from, whether you're building muscle or Putting on body fat. And those are such different beasts, right? So just because you aren't losing pounds, it doesn't mean you aren't losing fat. You could be putting on muscle and losing fat at the same time. So this is really important. You got to know how much of your body is fat mass or body fat versus fat free mass. Because what we really need to be focused on here is maintaining or better yet, increasing fat free mass. If you lose weight and it's mainly fat free mass from muscle, that is not a good thing. You are making yourself worse, not better. If you're a woman, the average body fat range is 25 to 31% of your total weight. But that's average. And you don't want to be average. You want to be in the optimal range, right? And so the optimal range or the fitness range is more in the 21 to 24%. And if you're younger or really athletic, it could be 14 to 20%. And guys, guys, your average is 18 to 24% of your total weight. But again, let's not aim for average, right? You want to shoot for the fitness range, which is 14 to 17%. And if you're a real athletic guy, 6 to 13%. Now, whether you're a man or a woman, if you're above those averages I just gave you, you are considered to be metabolically unhealthy. So you're going to want to jump on the information I'm giving you here today. Now, there's a couple of ways you can measure body composition. So this really is step one. There are five main ways you can do this, and you know, they vary dramatically in accuracy. So the first one is the skinfold test. Now this is the test where they use skinfold calipers to pinch your body in a variety of different places. It's one of the oldest ways you can do this, and it's really subject to what I would call user error. I used to do this all the time with clients. If you don't hit the right places and know exactly how to pull the body fat off from the muscle, you'll get the wrong read. The other problem with this type of body composition testing is, is that it cannot see visceral fat. And visceral fat is the most damaging fat. We're going to talk about that in a minute. So this is not the one that I would recommend, obviously. All right. Numbers two and three, hydrostatic weighing, which is when you go underwater, and the air displacement BOD pod, they use your body weight with the Displacement in water or in a chamber. Now, in both cases, you have to go through a company that'll do it. It's going to take like, probably cost about 50 bucks to do it. So there's that hassle. There's also the hassle when you do the underwater weighing. Having done this a whole bunch in grad school, you have to blow all your air out and you have to sit on a little scale and not move underwater. It is no fun to do. Now, on the other side, they're pretty accurate. The error ratio is somewhere between 1 and 3%. And the great thing about the Bod Pod is it can also tell you how many calories you burn at rest. So if you're looking at dialing in your overall calorie needs, the BOD pod could be really helpful here. All right, number four is the dexa. And the DEXA scan is the most accurate and advanced body composition analysis you can do. I really think this is something you should do one to two times a year. Now, you probably have heard of this as a bone density scan, but it can also differentiate between subcutaneous and visceral fat and provide a detailed assessment of how much muscle mass and, and fat mass you have down to the pound and also where the heck it is. So this is again one that I would love to see you doing once or twice a year. Obviously you're not going to do this all the time. And if you haven't done a bone mineral density test yet, oh my gosh, come on. These should be something we start doing in our 20s, so make sure that you schedule this right away if you've not done a bone mineral density test or you haven't done one in the last couple years. Now, for most people, and this is really important because this is the way that you can track all along. The best way you're going to do this is by getting a bioelectrical impedance analysis machine. Now, these used to be really expensive. I actually have a $5,000 one that I had for years that I used on all the different TV shows. But now you can get them for a couple of hundred bucks. I've even seen them as low as a hundred bucks for ones that are going to give you your fat free mass, your fat mass, segmental fat and visceral fat. And that's what you really want to be looking for with these bioimpedants. You want to know how much muscle you have, fat free mass. You want to know how much fat mass you have. You want to know where that fat is, even though you think you know, but you really want to know what's called your visceral adipose tissue, your vat. What's cool about these things is that they're portable, they're affordable, they're really easy to use. Now they're going to have a bigger margin for error, like 3 to 8%. But here's the deal. The margin of error is really about your total body water. When you do bioimpedance, it all has to do with measuring your total body water and extrapolating to know how much fat free mass you have. So if you see a big shift in your range one day, you manage the trend, right? So if you're doing this, if you're really doing this, I like to do my weight every day and my bioimpedance at least once a week. But if I see a weird jump in my biome peens, I'll just do it again the next day and I'll look for the trends. So there's a couple different ones out in the market that I really like. I've worked with Tanita for years. T A N I T A Inbody is another great one. Omron's another great one. And again, you want to find one that's going to give you subcutaneous and visceral body fat. If it can tell you where the fat is, even better. And of course your fat free mass. Now we're going to focus here on fat free mass. But if you're wondering, because you've probably heard lean body mass and fat free mass and they're close, but they're not quite the same. Fat free mass consists of bone, muscle, vital organs and extracellular fluid. But lean body mass also is going to include the fat that's in the cellular membranes. So it's just a little bit more. So lean body mass might be a little bit higher, but we're just going to focus on fat free mass because that's what the scales tend to print out from. Now the big thing here with fat free mass is you want to make sure that your fat free mass, which we're really focusing on here is muscle is sufficient and I'm going to say fantastic for your ideal body weight. As we age, we really got to be focused on maintaining or building muscle and supporting fat free mass so that we can stay active for the long haul. When you think about it like where do you want to be in your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s? Because you got to train for that now. You got to get this muscle now so you can stay active, so you can carry groceries up the stairs, right? So you can pick up kids, grandkids, great grandkids. And when you really look at some of the big mortality risks as we age, it's frailty. So I say forget aging gracefully. You want to age powerfully. And by putting on muscle you can totally avoid void that frailty mortality risk. Now the charts out there tend to focus on body fat percentage. So the easy way for you to determine if you need more muscles to do this, here's how you go. You first determine your ideal body weight. There are charts online where you can find height and frame size. So that's the first thing you're going to do is figure out your frame size. The best way to do it is actually at your elbow. And then you're going to figure out your ideal body weight range based on your frame. So then pick the number in that range that you want. Then next up you've got to figure out what is your ideal body fat, what do you want it to be? Now let's say that you say, you know, I want to be fit, so I want to have an ideal body fat of 20%. If you know you want your ideal body fat to be 20%, how much, this is a math question. How much does your fat free mass need to be? Well, 100 minus 20 is 80. Right? So it needs to be 80%. So now we know that we want 80% of our ideal body weight to be fat free mass. What you do is you take the 0.8 and you multiply your total body weight by that and that is what your fat free mass should be. So now you can look at the scale and go, huh, looking at the scale, do I need to put on muscle or do I need to lose overall weight trying to hold on to as much muscle as possible while I lose body fat? Because quite often if you're like have maybe 10, 20, 30 pounds to lose, it may be that you actually need to put a little bit of muscle on. It's not as much of a focus as losing the fat. Next we're going to look at your body fat. And what I want you to look at here is your visceral fat. Again that's usually called vat, visceral adipose tissue. Now we want that number as low as possible, but here's the benchmark. It needs to be 10% or less of your total fat. So let's say you weigh 150 pounds. You have 20% body fat. So 20% body fat for 150 pounds is what I'm have to do math on the fly 30 pounds and that means you should have 3 pounds or less of visceral fat. Here's the thing. If you find that you tend to have a bigger belly fat, but you can't, it's not really pinching itch, it's deep internal this, this is the dangerous, dangerous fat. And this is what we really need to focus on. Another key way you can look at this number is you want to look at your height versus your waist and your height divided by your waist should be less than 0.5. So that is another way that you can start to watch this because you want to make sure is that as you're losing weight, you're losing your waist, as you're losing weight, you're holding on to muscle and dropping fat. Now if you have a lot of mass to lose, you're going to lose some of that fat free mass too. It's actually supporting your fat. But as you get close to where you want to be, it's all about holding on to or building muscle as you lose fat. So now you know what to focus on and that'll help you see what's working and what isn't working. And you got to not be afraid of this here. The scale is a biometric tool. It is not a mean friend. It's on your side, it's helping you out, right. But you got to look at the right numbers here and go and just be curious and be open. If you go, wow, I'm stepping on the scale. Why is my body fat going up with everything I'm doing, then it can allow you to make some shifts in your, in your program. Right. Really knowing your body composition is the first step in transforming your body and understanding your progress. So if you're just getting started working on your weight or fitness, a body composition scale is going to give you that benchmark and put you way ahead of the curve. Now I want you to weigh in daily, but you don't need to monitor your body fat daily. You can, but what you're really looking for are the trends. And again, because it really fluctuates based on total body water. If you're a little dehydrated one day you might see your weight drop a lot and your body fat go up. That's dehydration. Or if you start to see your weight go up and your body fat go down, you might be a little over hydrated. So you watch the trends over time, right? You really want to see what's going on with your body fat percentage, what's going on with your muscle mass. And again, you're watching those trends and then that's going to allow you to fine tune your nutrition and your fitness habits based on your body composition goals and the results. What's happening in real time. So here's how you make the biggest shift in your body composition, because I'm sure that was the next question, right? All right, so what do I do with this? So you always hear diet and exercise, diet and exercise, diet and exercise. And guess what? Diet and exercise are both going to play a role here in improving your body composition. Nutrition to start, is going to make the bigger impact. To start, if you want to lose body fat, you've got to change what's at the end of your fork. Now, when you eat by the plate and you focus on protein first, that's going to help you hold on to or build muscle, lower your sugar impact, right? Really go protein, non starchy vegetables, a little bit of healthy fat and reduce your overall calories, maybe by throwing in some intermittent fasting. That can help here. But if your goal is weight loss and it's fat loss, right, you want to make sure that you're still holding on to muscle because muscle is key here. So that's why we don't go and drastically cut calories, because if we do, we could lose some of that muscle too. We want to make sure that we're holding on to muscle as we're losing fat. All right, so the other challenge there is if we do that, try to stick to a low calorie diet for any amount of time. If you're especially working out. Now, if you want to gain muscle mass, you're going to need to increase the amount of protein you're eating and have a video called what to Eat, when to eat and why for muscle mass. That will tell you all about this, give you tons of strategies and tips for building lean muscle. So be sure to check that out. If your goal is to maintain your weight and change your body composition, you're going to use the scale to keep an eye on which foods and how much of them help you dial in that goal. And I'll tell you one thing that's important here. That's called recomping. Where you drop body fat, you put on muscle. And the deal with re comping is you can do this if you're coming in and you haven't really worked out. But if you are already a fairly fit person, you generally have to Decide if you're putting on muscle or if you're losing fat. You really can't do both at once. Once you're at a fairly decent fitness level, if you've been working out. Now, if you want to lose weight, your goal of course is to lose more fat than muscle. And depending on how much weight you need to lose, if you have a lot of weight to lose, you're going to lose more of that fat free mass as well. But you really want to make sure the percentage is going to be higher from fat. And if you want to gain weight, your goal is to gain more muscle mass than fat, right? So dialing in your macros is going to help you here dramatically. So I want you to check out my video on the right macros to fill your plate. You want to make sure you're getting enough protein to support your lean mass and also help you build that additional muscle mass. If you don't have the surplus you need there, you won't be able to build. And then you adjust your fats and carbs according the type and intensity of your exercise. All right, so how much protein is enough? What a huge question this is out there. And the deal is there's a range, the absolute floor. The least amount you should get, no matter what, is about a half gram per pound of ideal body weight every day. But that is, I'm telling you, the absolute floor. Like if you're intermittent fasting, reality is you should be getting more like three fourths of a gram to a gram per pound of ideal body weight. And if you're really looking to put on muscle, you're going to want to stay on the higher end and maybe even above that. Especially if the demands on your body are high. Like if you're under stress or you're really lifting heavy and working to put on muscle, or if you're injured or healing or you're ill. So none of that's the case. Then you know, shoot for three, four of a gram to one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Remember I keep saying ideal body weight. Right? Now, if you're eating animal protein, here's the good news. It's going to give you all the essential amino acids your body needs. And specifically here I'm talking leucine, methionine and lysine are really important for helping you trigger mtor and build muscle, especially leucine as the trigger element there. But remember, you are what you eat ate, right? Meaning not just what you eat, but what the animal ate too. So you Gotta choose wisely. That means pastured beef, not corn fed cows. Think of those corn fed cows like they are the white bread of beef and choose wild salmon rather than factor factory raised. Right, that factory farm raised salmon. Again, think of those factory farmed animals and fish as the junk food because the difference in their fatty acid profile compared to a wild or pastured one basically takes a healthy option and starts to shift it into the unhealthy zone, changes its fatty acid profiles, can add in stress hormones, maybe extra hormones. So really focus there. Now if you are a plant based eater, you probably know you really have to focus focus on getting enough protein without overdoing the fat or the carbs. Like example, if you're relying on beans, lentil seeds, nuts and things like that, you're going to be getting a lot of carbs and fat just to get enough protein. So here's a tip. You want to make sure all this great protein is actually getting metabolized and utilized. So if you're over the age of 35, you may want to add a little trial of digestive enzymes. In fact, definitely you're going to want to do this because that's just about the age when ours start to naturally decline. By the way, if you're under any kind of stress, happens sooner than that. Now also when you eat protein, new research is showing that when you eat the right amount of protein at the right times, it's better for your overall health and it's the best way to gain muscle and lose fat. So the what when combination is also important because if you're just focusing on weight loss, as I said, you're going to lose some muscle too. And that just starts to slow your metabolism down, right? So you could end up losing a little weight the front end and gain fat in the back end. That's not what we want to have happen. So you want to make protein the first thing you put on your plate to build muscle and maximize fat loss. In fact, when you really look at how you should eat protein, your bumper meals, what you eat first in the day and what you eat last in the day are so key important with at least 30 grams in each of those meals and you can eat somewhere in the 30, probably up to 60 grams and still assimilate most of that protein. So do not worry about that. Okay. Then just moving more obviously is going to help you burn calories and lose body fat. But to build muscle, you got to incorporate strength or resistance training. Lifting weights, lifting heavy weights is a great way to support your lean Mass and when you have more lean mass, you're going to burn more fat. Bodyweight exercises can work great here. It's really about what challenges you. So you know, push ups might be a great one. If you get super strong on the push ups, then maybe you're going to need to use blocks to be able to go a little harder, right? Or get up on a ball to do them. Pull ups, another good one, you might think you can never do them. I challenge you on that and then you remember, you got to commit, you got to do this, you got to stick with it. That is the only way real change happens. Going to the gym for one week or eating more protein for one week is not going to do anything. It's consistency over time. You got to stick with it and do the work. Now that does not mean you need to suffer, right? You can make these small changes that you can handle and build on them. And that's really how you do resistance training. And you got to be patient. Pick a small goal like hitting your daily macros and keep working on that one thing till you nail it. Then do another one like, I'm going to start getting to the gym, then do that one till you nail it and all of a sudden you'll look around like six months later and go, holy smokes, looks what happened. Because if you want to add muscle, this takes time, right? If you can add a pound of muscle a month, that's amazing. So you got to give yourself time for success here. All right, thank you so much for joining me. And for those of you don't know me, I'm JJ Virgin. I'm a four times New York Times bestselling author and a Fitness hall of famer. And I have lots more I can share with you to help you get your body composition and your health where you want it to be. So check out and like my other videos on how to increase your lean muscle mass and I I will see you next time. For more info on this and other health topics I cover or to rate and review, find me on Instagram, Facebook and my website, jjvirgin.com and don't forget to subscribe to my show so you won't miss a single episode. Go to subscribetojay.com thanks again for being with me this week. Foreign.

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