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Safe Body Fat Levels: How much is too much?

By Patricia on September 27, 2011 in

When starting up on a fat loss diet plan, very often a great deal of energy and focus is placed right on the exact body weight that you’re at.  You want to weigh a certain number of pounds or kilograms and that’s all that you have on your mind: reaching that goal weight.

But, one thing that you should stop and think about for a second is what level of body fat you’re at both at your current weight and what you will be at when you reach your goal weight.

Maintaining a safe level of body fat is incredibly important as there are negative health risks associated with being on either end of the spectrum.

Let’s have a look at this issue further so you can see for yourself where you should stand.

The Dangers Of Too Much Body Fat

Most people are already quite aware of some of the biggest dangers of having too much body fat, but to summarize, when you have  too high of body fat levels, you’ll likely be experiencing higher overall cholesterol levels which could set you up for heart disease, you’ll also be at risk for diabetes as the body tends to respond less to insulin when too much fat is present, and you’ll also be putting your bones and joints at risk for health problems due to all the excess weight coming down on them.

All in all, carry too much body fat and you’ll really be doing a detriment to your overall health and well-being.

The Dangers Of Too Little Body Fat

On the flip side of the coin, if you don’t have enough body fat you could run the risk of nutrient deficiencies. Since many of the vitamins that the body needs are only fat soluble, if you aren’t eating enough dietary fats in the first place, you likely won’t be taking these nutrients in, and then since the body has such low fat stores, there won’t be any place to store them.

Having too low of body fat levels can put your bones at risk for osteoporosis as well, especially if you’re a female.

Those females who do suffer from very low body fat levels will also notice that they stop menstruating, so that’s another negative health effect to be aware of.

Finally, when you have very low body fat levels you’re also going to notice that you feel tired on an ongoing basis, are constantly hungry, and may not even be able to focus and think as clearly as you normally would.

Your Optimal Range

So what’s the safe body fat range?

For females who do require more essential fat, you want to be between 21-33% if you’re 20-40 years of age and be 23-35% if you’re over the age of 40.  This is the recommended amount to maintain proper health and going outside of these ranges are what will bring about the problems listed above.

For males, they can be quite a bit leaner and have a healthy range of body fat set to 8-19% for the age group of 20-40 years and have a healthy range set to 11-22% for those that are 41-60 years of age.

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No fat is no good – Why fat is important to your body?

By Patricia on September 27, 2011 in

With so much focus always placed on losing weight and dropping body fat, often we completely overlook the fact that body fat does play some key roles in the body and is necessary for good health.

While you definitely don’t want to be carrying around and excessive amount of body fat, if you start to take your body fat too low, that’s definitely going to cause you to experience some serious problems as well.

Let’s have a quick look at all the different functions on fat in the body so that you can understand more about this often hated body tissue.

Reproductive Function

One of the first things to note about body fat is the fact that women will have higher overall essential levels of body fat compared to males and this is strictly due to the fact that the female body needs to be capable to give birth to a baby.

Fat stores in the body are going to help to maintain better hormonal concentrations that support the development of a baby and will also signal to the body that it has a lot of stored up energy should starvation set in during the pregnancy period.

When women start to take their body fat levels too low, their menstrual cycle will stop and this indicates that they are not able to give birth any longer until it’s brought back upwards again.

Appetite Regulation

Another role that fat plays in the body is to regulate the appetite. The body has strong defence mechanisms that kick in during periods of prolonged undereating that will prompt you to begin eating so that your body weight doesn’t drop down to an unhealthy and unsafe level.

This regulation is brought on by hormones that are produced within the fat cells that will signal to the brain the current level of body fat in the body.

Without body fat tissue, you would feel very little satiety after eating a meal and would instantly become hungry.

This is often why when dieting, the leaner you get after a period of being on that diet, the more you’re going to feel hunger taking place. At this point the body isn’t making as much of these hormones that regulate appetite, therefore the brain is going to prompt you to start eating more.

Insulin

Another important role that body fat plays in the body is that it will help to provide insulin during colder weather so that you don’t freeze to death. This is again why after a period of successful dieting you may notice that you feel quite a bit cooler at any given temperature than you used to – you have less insulin present to keep you warm.

Protection

Finally, the last big role that body fat plays in the body is that it will help to protect all the vital organs as it acts as a cushion.  If you’re struck with something in the abdominal cavity and have very little body fat, there is a much greater chance of injury than if you do have some fat present.

So as you can see, while you definitely don’t want too much fat as that will pose negative health problems, some fat is definitely necessary.

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Can body fat cause diabetes?

By Patricia on September 27, 2011 in

As the it seems that the world just keeps growing heavier and heavier, one of the largest diseases that’s showing upwards growth trends is diabetes.

More and more people are becoming affected by diabetes and sadly, it’s not just adults. Diabetes is now being seen quite regularly in our youth, indicating just how large of a problem this is really coming to be.

Both adults as well as children are being affected by diabetes as their weight continues to take a steady trend upwards into the obese category.

But how does body fat play a role in diabetes and what’s the connection that you need to know about?

Let’s have a closer look at how body fat is connected to diabetes so you can see for yourself the link that’s coming into play.

The Body Fat-Insulin Connection

The first issue that’s going to come into play is the fact that the more body fat you have on the body, the greater the level of insulin that will be required in order to deliver the glucose to the cells after carbohydrates are eaten.

If the insulin is not secreted in appropriate amounts, the glucose will stay in the blood stream causing high blood glucose which is the entire problem with diabetes in the first place.

As more and more body fat comes to accumulate, more and more insulin will constantly be needed and this overproduction of insulin can really wear on your body’s system.

The Nutrient Consumption Risk

If you have high levels of body fat, this is also going to be indicative that you’re not eating a diet that contains sufficient levels of fruits and vegetables in most instances. Instead, those who are suffering from high levels of body fat more often eat fast foods, high fat snack foods, highly processed breakfast and cereal bars, and so on.

Because they’re filling their body with these nutrient devoid items rather than the highly nutritious fruits and vegetable that you really need, this is going to place extra stress on your pancreas and make it even more difficult to secrete the level of insulin required to take care of the glucose in the blood.

Receptor Issues

Finally, when there is elevated fat in the blood stream due to high levels of body fat, this can stimulate a certain receptor in the body known as GPR40, which typically responds to high levels of blood sugar by promoting a high increase in insulin production.

But when fat is also present in addition to the sugar in the blood, this stimulates these receptors even further, therefore you get an even higher production of insulin.

Again, over time this begins to wear on the pancreas until eventually it’s burnt out and just not functioning properly.

So there are multiple ways in which body fat is linked to the development of diabetes that you should know about. One of the largest recommendations for those who are currently at risk for diabetes is to reduce their overall level of body fat and these are the primary reasons why.