Janet Bond Brill - Intermittent Fasting For Dummies

A healthy and safe rate of weight loss that virtually guarantees you’re losing almost all body fat and not precious muscle mass is a maximum of 1 to 2 pounds per week. Furthermore, experts have shown that people who lose weight gradually and steadily are more successful at keeping weight from returning.

However, the BMI calculation does have its limitations, which include the following:

It may overestimate body fat in athletes and others who have a muscular build.

It can underestimate body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle.

You can use a tape measure to measure the circumference of different sites of your body as another monitor of change. When using this tool, make sure the measuring tape is around your waist because when it comes to your weight affecting your health, it may not be how much fat you have but where the fat is stored.

Most people store body fat in one of two distinct patterns:

Apple shape: Having an apple shape (extra weight carried around the stomach, often referred to as extra belly fat ) is associated with a greater risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Pear shape: Having a pear shape means you carry most of your extra weight in your hips, upper thighs, and buttocks. Pear-shaped people are significantly healthier than those people with apple-shaped bodies. Fat deposited on the hips is less likely to travel around the body, reducing the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

A waist circumference measurement is a simple screening technique to determine what your shape is. If you fall into this increased health risk category (unhealthy BMI and an apple shape), then following an intermittent fasting plan is a wonderful way to help you lose that stubborn belly fat.

The following waist measurements are red flags, suggesting that you carry fat around the abdominal area:

Women 18 and older: Waist of 35 inches or more

Men 18 and older: Waist of 40 inches or more

Follow these steps to accurately measure your waist with a tape measure:

1 Relax and stand.With a tape measure, start at the top of your hip bone and then bring the tape measure all the way around your body, raising the tape until it’s at a level slightly above your belly button.

2 Make sure the tape isn’t too tight and that it’s straight, even on your back. Don’t hold your breath while measuring because doing so can affect the results.

3 Check the number on the tape measure right after you exhale.When you place the tape over the skin, do so just to make contact but don’t compress the skin in any way.

4 Take all measurements twice and average them.Taking the measurements twice, consecutively, and then averaging the results ensures greater accuracy.

5 Record to the nearest half-inch.

You can repeat this measurement every few months and record the number in your journal. Tracking all your numbers in your journal, over time, gives you a motivation-boosting visual and a reward for all your hard work.

Weight alone isn’t a clear indicator of your health because it doesn’t distinguish between pounds that come from body fat and those that come from muscle. Excess body fat is the culprit when promoting disease, so knowing what your percentage of body fat is important. The most reliable method of figuring out how much fat is in your body is to use measurements of body composition.

You can refer to professionals to measure your body fat or you can do it yourself. The following two sections examine these options in greater detail.

You can get reasonably accurate results from fitness centers or universities where specially trained fitness professionals use valid tools ranging from simple measurements to expensive tests to measure your body fat. Some of these techniques include skin fold calipers, underwater weighing tanks, air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pods), and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) equipment.

If you try several of these methods, you may receive different measurements. You basically get what you pay for. Obtaining an estimate of your body fat from unscientific methods (such as scales and untrained fitness professionals) produces notoriously erroneous results. Underwater weighing, magnetic resonance imaging, computerized tomography (CT) scans, and air displacement plethysmography are the most accurate, but they’re also the costliest, unless insurance covers them. If you’re able to use more than one tool, be sure to keep track of changes in your body fat over time in your journal to keep you motivated.

Some people think that the lower the amount of fat in the body, the better. However, that’s not true, because the body needs a minimum percentage of fat, called essential fat that is lower in men (3 percent) and greater for women (12 to 15 percent) for good health. (Only elite athletes ever come close to these extremely low body fat numbers.)

You can also estimate your percent body fat yourself using a tape measure. Just follow these easy steps to get your percent body fat estimate:

1 Measure the circumference of your waist (at the narrowest point), hips (at the widest point) and neck (at the narrowest point).

2 Take the measurements twice and follow the same guidelines that I discuss in the “ Gauging your inches to link your weight and health ” for measuring your waist.

3 To calculate your body fat percentage, go to the online calculator ( http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy ), enter your gender, weight, height, and your measurements.Voila. Your percent body fat estimate.

Here is an example using Debbie from the earlier “ Guesstimating accurately” section:

Debbie is a female, weighs 150 pounds, and is 5-5. Her waist is 35 inches, her hips measure 38 inches, and her neck is 12 inches. According to the U.S. Navy formula, her body fat percentage is 36 percent. By referring to Figure 2-2 and using her age (50), you can see that Debbie’s body fat percentage puts her in the overweight range — meaning her weight could put her at risk for numerous health problems.

If you determine that you’re not happy with the category you’re in, then you can use that info as another means to motivate yourself to exercise and stick to your intermittent fasting plan.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 2-2:Percent body fat categories.

Chapter 3

IN THIS CHAPTER

Scrutinizing your intermittent fasting progress