Weight: What does it really mean

Weight: What does it really mean? Gravity is a force. On Earth, it makes things fall to the ground. Things that are pulled by gravity have mass (physics 101). The pull on an object’s mass is called weight. Sir Issac Newton and Albert Einstein have their own theories on gravity, but I’m sure so do all of us…it sucks!. We fight it all the time. Breasts and butts always want to go south, so we keep pushing north, doing squats and chest presses. But what I want to talk about today is the pull of gravity on the whole mass known as you. When you step on a scale, the pull of gravity is our weight. How much is too much? How much isn’t enough? Can we really measure our fitness by the scale? To answer these questions you need to understand that our “mass” is made up of fat and lean. Fat is exactly what it states…FAT. Lean is made up of everything else in our bodies besides fat, and that includes among other things..muscle. And if you don’t know by now, muscle weighs a lot more than fat. So if you are a 150lb female, heavily muscled, you will probably look lean and fit. If you are a150lb female mostly made of fat, well you’ll look …ugh FAT! You need to look beyond the scale to get an accurate measure of your fitness. You need to determine how much of you is lean and how much of you is fat. To accomplish this you need to have your body either hydrostatically weighed (submerged in water, most accurate) or measured via skin calipers, (measures subcutaneous fat [marginally accurate]) or measured by electrical impedance devise (minimally accurate). Another measure, which you may have heard of is BMI or Body Mass Index. This is a scale that is derived from a ratio of height and weight. It places you in an index according to these ratios. But alas, this is not accurate because it just considers weight not lean body mass which weighs more. We at Roberts do track your lean body mass via calipers. It is fairly accurate, and if you would like it done (free) just ask any trainer. Knowing how much fat you have and how much muscle you have is instrumental in tracking your progress. Body fat percentage and lean body mass percentage is what your weight is all about, not the scale. Oh by the way, if you can be very honest with yourself, looking at the mirror is another way to determine your body fat to lean mass ratio. But we can and almost always do have a distorted image of what that mirror shows us. Stick to the calipers. Healthy fat % for a healthy female…Top athletes…..13%-20%-----Males…7%-12% Fit Women……..21%-24%---- Males---13%-16% Healthy/Acceptable..25%-32 Males----17%-28% Overweight………33% plus----Males-----29%plus There is much more to come on FAT….stay tuned… Robert J. Caltabiano, IFBB Pro Roberts One on One Fitness Studio 17 Ravine Road Malvern, PA 19355 610.296.8505 www.robertsoneonone.com This is where fit happens