A lot of people, especially women, are really sensitive towards body weight, but do you know that your weight on a scale does not reflect your true health? We can see that everyone tries to categorise those below 60kg as considered thin and more than 60 kg as considered being overweight; this is what social media feeds us. Other than that, people also choose to determine their health based on BMI classification as below:
Based on the Malaysian population, a BMI of more than 27.5 is considered obese but the BMI is solely based on weight and height, not the entire body composition. Thus, even though you are already obese , BMI doesn’t mean that you are not healthy! But why is that?
First of all, what does weight actually reflect on your body? The domestic measuring scale only shows your weight, but your weight is actually more than that!
What is our body made of?
a. Water - About 70% of the human body is made of water. It is important to know how much water your body contains.
b. Muscle Mass - This includes skeletal muscles that help in movement, smooth muscle (organs), and cardiac muscles at the heart. As you know, more muscle can increase metabolism and strength.
c. Fat - There are two types of fat in the human body, which are subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat is the fat that is underneath your skin, whereas visceral fat is in your abdominal area, the fat that surrounds your internal organs.
d. Organ and other tissue- It might be a small amount, but it is still considered part of the body.
The domestic measuring scale is unable to measure all of it and this is why it is not accurate at all. Two different people might have similar weights, but the amount of fat and muscle varies. A person with higher fat is associated with at risk of getting a disease and considered not really healthy, but it is a different story for someone with high muscle mass. You might don’t have the overall picture of the body composition analysis, and here we show the real example.
BCA Composition Report Sample and Interpretation
This is a report from Inbody Body Composition Analysis, it is a machine that uses small electric charges around your body to measure everything in the body. This method is called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). When people step on the scale, it will send a small and harmless electrical current through the body, and the resistance encountered by the current will go through different tissues in the body, which includes fat, muscles, and water, to calculate your body composition.
This is why people are required to step on the analyzer barefoot so that the electricity is able to pass through the body; a sock is an insulator and the analyzer is unable to work well to pass through the electricity with socks on.
It’s important to know your real body composition and it might reflect what are the health risks that you might get in the future. Sometimes, a single body composition analysis will lead to other discoveries, such as a high cholesterol level or even heart disease.
