Forget about losing weight, focus on Body Composition

Are you tired of battling with your weight?  Does it feel like no matter how strict your diet or how many times you go to the gym, you just can’t seem to shed the pounds?

If you really want to transform your body and feel great, it’s time to stop thinking about your weight and start thinking about your body composition!

What you need to know

Your body is mainly composed of muscle, fat and water.  When you exercise more or start dieting, your body composition will change, even if your weight stays the same. This is because:

As you exercise more, you develop more muscle mass and reduce fat.  Your weight may even increase at a certain point, as your muscle mass increases.

Quick-fix, crash diets may produce speedy results, but the weight loss will be in the form of body water and healthy, lean muscle tissue.

Very low calorie diets may force your body into ‘starvation’ mode, storing body fat rather than burning it.  So even if you lose weight, your fat ratio will increase.

If you measure it, you can manage it

Our Tanita Body Composition Monitor will help you to understand the impact your fitness and diet plan has on your fat, water and muscle levels.  By monitoring your progress in terms of fat loss and muscle gain – even when your weight stays the same – you will be able to adapt your approach and stay motivated.  If you’re really serious about transforming your body, the key to success is to focus on building your lean muscle, staying well-hydrated and losing the fat.

By thinking ‘Body Composition’, you’ll not only look fantastic, but you’ll also understand how to maintain a healthy balance.  You’ll be able to work on improving other factors that are essential to long-term health and well-being too; such as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), visceral (abdominal) fat and bone mass.

So forget the latest fad diet; use a Tanita Body Composition Monitor to take control of your weight loss and make sure that this time you lose weight safely, healthily and most importantly, permanently.

 

USING A BODY COMPOSITION MONITOR TO REDUCE YOUR BODY FAT

If you want to achieve long-lasting, healthy weight loss, you need to make sure you lose actual fat and not lean muscle tissue or water.  Be realistic and be good to yourself – by working on your body composition rather than focusing on your weight, you will find it easier to make the changes necessary to see a long term improvement.

Aim for a loss of no more than 1-2% of your total body fat per month – this  will require gradual changes to your diet and lifestyle rather than drastic action, misery and deprivation.  Slowly increase the amount of exercise as you progress and make small changes to your diet – you’ll soon adapt to this new, healthy lifestyle and will find it easy to stick to it.

Don’t forget that when you begin a new exercise routine – particularly if it includes resistance training – your weight may increase slightly.  This is because the new muscle tissue you are building is denser than fat – so this will show in changes to your body composition as your muscle mass increases and your body fat percentage goes down.  Increasing lean muscle tissue will give you a better, leaner shape and you’ll feel healthier, happier and more confident as a result.

 

What is metabolic age?

Tanita Body Composition Monitors also use the information from your analysis to provide a metabolic age rating.  This compares your BMR to that of other age groups.  BMR decreases with age as muscle mass naturally depletes, so to ensure that you maintain healthy muscle levels, you will need to increase your activity levels and adjust your diet accordingly.

If your metabolic age is higher than your actual age, then it’s time to change your lifestyle!

Increasing your activity levels will build healthy muscle tissue which will burn more calories and consequently improve your metabolic age rating.