IFSA

INTELLECTUAL FITNESS & SPORTS ACCADEMY

BODY COMPOSITION
What is Body Composition? Let us understand what our body is made off ie: Body
Composition. Whenever anyone wants to check his/her fitness status, he/she will stand
on the weighing machine and check the body weight. But this body weight does not
indicate accurate fitness level. Why? It is because our body weight is made up of two
different compartments. One compartment is the lean body mass (LBM) and the other is
the fat mass or adipose tissue. The lean body mass comprises of bones, muscles,
organs, water, blood, essential fats like visceral fat and many other fluids like hormones
and enzymes. And the adipose tissue or fat mass is the fat we see in the mirror also
called as the subcutaneous fat which is under the skin which gives us the bulk or
volume or size. All this contributes to the total body weight.
Let us now understand the two types of body fat:
Essential body fat and adipose tissue:

Essential body fat: Fat which is present in the brain, around the viscera that is around
the abdominal area where all the organs are situated, bone marrow.
Essential fat is needed by the body for proper physiological functions of lungs, kidneys,
nervous tissue, muscles, heart and bone marrow. In men, a minimum of 3% of essential
fat is needed. In women, a minimum of 12% of essential fat is needed which is sex
specific around the pelvic area, breasts and thighs.
Adipose tissue or storage fat: It is made up of triglycerides which are just under the
skin and in the viscera. This is a very large reservoir of energy in our body. The
percentage of adipose tissue in the body fluctuates very easily depending upon the
BMR of the individual. And the BMR depends on age, sex, medical disorders,
hormones, physical activity, exercise and LBM (LBM explained in detail below).
The ideal storage fat % in men ranges from 8% to 24% and in females from 21% to
35% depending upon the above factors. This fat is essential in limits to give protection
to our bones and vital organs and also to regulate body temperature.
But when storage fat exceeds its range of ideal percentage in the body it contributes to
many medical problems like high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, diabetes
mellitus, obesity and related problems.

Studied & Compiled by: Mrs. Sveta Bhasin

LBM: Lean body mass
It is non-scientific to judge fitness level of an individual merely on basis of body weight
measured on a weighing scale. Thus, it is important to assess his/her storage fat
percentage and his/her LBM (lean body mass). LBM is the active part of the total body
composition. Even at complete rest the LBM is continuously working and consuming
energy, thus do note that BMR depends on the LBM of an individual.
The variant component in the LBM is “Muscle”, during growth from childhood to
adulthood, muscles also grow in size along with the growth of all the other body parts.
Muscle cells do not increase in number, as the number of muscle cells in any individual
is decided at the time of conception, which is the time he/she is conceived in the
mother’s womb. Only the size and the density of the muscles changes with age during
the growth period. We start losing almost 1% of muscle mass every passing year of age
once we cross 30 years, which happens more in women as the testosterone hormone
which is responsible for muscle growth is less in women as compared to men. Also note
that BMR also reduces because the muscles become weaker and reduces in density,
thus resulting in increased fat storage capacity of an individual. This makes it very
important to maintain muscle density of the body so that we can keep our BMR high as
long as possible. In order to do so, we have to exercise. Exercise is not only essential to
maintain the organ systems of the body but also to maintain and continue the growth of
the precious muscles.

VISCERAL FAT:
The fat around the organ system situated in the abdominal area, called as viscera is
termed as visceral fat. Actually, fat in this area is essential to protect the organ systems
situated in this section of the body, for eg: the lungs, heart, digestive system,
reproductive system etc. These organs are very delicate and need protection from any
kind of impact or injury. Low visceral fat: If the level of fat in this area ie: visceral fat is
less than normal levels then it may expose the organ system to injury which may
become fatal ie: can cause death due to any internal bleeding (hemorrhage).
High visceral fat: Whereas, if fat in the viscera is above normal levels it may lead to
health problems like high blood pressure (hyper tension) or diabetes or high cholesterol
or even problems like sleep apnea.
In male this fat should be around 3% and in females it should be around 7%.
Visceral fat may go as high as even 20% which is 3-4 times above normal. Thus, before
starting any exercise regime it becomes very important for an individual to bring down
the visceral fat first, because while exercising these organ systems are the ones which
function to pump blood and oxygen to the working out muscles. If the visceral fat is high
it will hamper the progression in exercise & its intensity due to inability of the organ
systems to provide sufficient nutrients, blood and oxygen to the working out muscles.

Studied & Compiled by: Mrs. Sveta Bhasin

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate
What is BMR? BMR is when our body is at rest, not doing any physical activity but we
are still consuming some calories. How? Let’s assume that you are sleeping for one full
day, which is for 24 hours. Your body is circulating blood through the blood vessels, you
are breathing, your brain is thinking, you are digesting your food. All these activities
need energy, which are calories. The energy needed to sustain the metabolic activities
of cells and tissues and to maintain circulatory, respiratory, gastrointestinal and renal
processes expressed in kilo calories per day is the BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate of an
individual which is measured 10 to 12 hours after consuming any food, drink, alcohol or
nicotine.
Thus, how many calories do a person need to maintain life or at rest depends on his/her
BMR. Higher the BMR more calories the person uses at rest which helps to maintain the
weight and fat of the body under control. Every individual has different BMR which
depends on many factors like age, gender, genetics, lifestyle, food habits, medical
condition, physical activity, exercise, stress, weather conditions, body structure, body
composition etc. BMR of the same person may vary from time to time depending on the
above factors too. For e.g. A person may have a high BMR when he/she was 25years
of age because he/she was young and had high muscle density as compared to when
he/she may be 45years old when he/she has lower muscle density because of ageing.
In cold weather the BMR increases as the body has to use more calories to maintain its
body temperature as compared to very low temperature outside the body.
It is one of the main reasons for weight gain as people age. But, with right kind of food
habits, exercise and lifestyle this age related lowering of BMR can be maintained.

Factors affecting BMR

1. Body Size :
A person who has a larger and broader structure will have a higher
metabolism as compared to a person with a smaller frame. Larger body
structure means more surface area exposed. (Whitney and Rolfes, 2002) If a
person who is large due to obesity may also have higher BMR but that is due
to the effort involved by the organ systems to sustain activity under the heavy
load of the fat or adipose tissue. Good lean body mass should be the
contributing factor for high BMR. (Molnar and Schultz, 1997).

2. Body Composition :
Higher the lean body mass higher the metabolism. This is the metabolically
active tissue of the body. An athlete may have as high as 5% more BMR as
compared to a nonathletic person.

Studied & Compiled by: Mrs. Sveta Bhasin

 3. Age :
BMR is the highest in the first two years of life. Since the BMR depends on
the lean body mass, mainly the muscle tissue younger individuals have higher
metabolism. As you age you tend to lose almost 1% muscle tissue with every
passing year. This is the natural phenomenon of ageing which leads to
reduction in the BMR thus contributing to an increase in the adipose tissue
with ageing. However, exercise can help maintain the lean tissue thus
maintaining the BMR high till as late in age possible.

4. Sex/gender:
Women have lower levels of the hormone testosterone which is responsible
for building muscle thus have lower percentage of muscle tissue whereby
have almost 5-10% lesser metabolism as compared to men. Again, an
intensely exercising woman may have a higher BMR at the same age as
compared to a non-exercising man. Provided the rest of the parameters are
maintained like nutrition, rest, genetics etc.

5. Hormonal status:
Hormonal profile of an individual contributes largely to the BMR of an
individual. Hormonal disorders like hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism,
Diabetes mellitus, Poly cystic ovarian disorder, uterine fibroids, emotional
stress ovulation and pregnancy all contribute to fluctuations in the BMR.

6. Body temperature:
Every degree increase in the body temperature increase the BMR by 7%.
Fever causes sudden increase in the demand of calories by the body. This
demand is met by the energy supply by the muscle glycogen.

Studied & Compiled by: Mrs. Sveta Bhasin