Percent Body Fat Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Percent Body Fat?
Percent Body Fat is a measure of the amount of body fat a person has as a percentage of their total body weight. It is an important measurement which helps us determine our overall health and fitness levels.Body fat can be classified into two main categories: essential body fat and storage body fat. Essential body fat is necessary for survival and plays an important role in energy metabolism, insulation, cushioning and other physiological functions; while storage body fat consists of excess energy stored in white adipose tissue. A healthy level of percent body fat depends on many factors including age, gender, activity level and genetics. Generally speaking, men tend to carry more muscle mass than women and therefore require less percent body fat to maintain optimal health; while women need higher percentages due to their reproductive needs. Having too little or too much percent body fat can lead to health concerns such as increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, diabetes or even certain types of cancer. For this reason it’s important to regularly check your percent body fat levels in order to make sure you’re within the accepted range for your age group and gender (this information can be found online). There are several methods used to calculate a person’s percent body fat but bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) remains the gold standard method due its accuracy and convenience. This method uses an electric current that passes through the whole-body tissues which measures resistance based on how quickly it passes through the different types of tissues; this allows us to estimate how much water volume there is inside each tissue type (which translates into lean mass versus fatty tissue). Overall, Percent Body Fat is an important measure when assessing overall health since having too much or too little can result in significant consequences for our well-being. It’s best practice then to take regular measurements using methods such as BIA so we can remain aware of how our bodies are changing over time enabling us to make any necessary lifestyle adjustments accordingly.