Bodycomp News & Views Issue#1 March 2010

In this issue:

  1. Body composition - What's ideal for me?
  2. Borrowed recipes - Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Chocolate Avocado Mousse
  • 1 Avocado
  • 1/2 C Dates
  • 1.5 C nut milk (Hazelnut, Almond, Brazil nut, or your favorite)
  • 1/3 C Raw Cacao (use a combo of cacao nibs, cacao powder, and carob)
  • 1/4 C Pecans
  • 1 T Maca Powder
  • 1 t Vanilla
  • Pinch of Sea Salt

Puree all until smooth. Serve chilled.

 

Body composition - what's ideal for me?

One of my greatest challenges in helping people manage their body composition is once the scan has completed, having a client ask what their BMI is. Body mass index has been engrained into our society as the standard of appropriate body weight based upon height and gender. The problem is that it does not account for individuals with more or less muscle mass than normal. A weight lifter will be obese on the BMI scale, while a distance runner might be considered "dangerously lean", even though we know that these two athletes are likely more fit than average.

At Bodycomp I have the privilege or seeing the variation in individuals and body types. If you want to be a fast runner for a full marathon, additional muscle mass in your legs will not help you with your time. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a football player simply needs mass (both muscle and fat) to avoid being thrown about like a rag doll.

We arrive at a slightly complicated situation where the ideal percent fat of an individual depends entirely on what their goals are. Most of my clients simply would like to be healthy and don't want to carry excess body fat to the point where it can cause disease. I use reference values provided by the American College of Sports Medicine when interpreting percent fat. They state that women should keep their percent fat below 35% and that men should keep it below 22% to minimize the risks of diabetes, cancer and health disease. There are also lower limits to healthy percent fat. Although excessive body fat is problematic, a certain amount is required for energy storage, functional padding and normal hormonal function. Men can safely drop their body fat down to about 5% without health implications, although it is very difficult to get that lean for most guys. Women should stay above 15% body fat due to the different needs of their bodies.

So we now know the recommended body fat ranges to minimize disease risk, but what about for sport performance? Body composition by DXA provides us with three tissue measurements; bone mass, lean tissue mass and fat mass. We can typically ignore bone mass in the equation for sport performance as every athlete wants strong bones and their total weight is not something that we would attempt to reduce for performance gains. Muscle mass is a key aspect of power development and endurance. Many gains in speed and technique can be made by improving the quality and response of the muscle, but to keep increasing strength, more muscle mass will have to be developed. Not all sports benefit from this increase in power. Speed and distance athletes like runners and cyclists typically want smaller, highly efficient muscles with a bare minimum of body fat. For general performance and aesthetics many men want larger muscles and a level of body fat that allows the definition of the muscle groups to be seen; this contouring is typically visible at sub 10% in men and sub 20% in women.

A bodycomp scan will tell you precisely how much muscle and fat you have in your torso and limbs. The second step is setting goals with this information that are achievable and beneficial for your lifestyle. Come and talk to me if you are interested in modifying your own composition. Once you begin looking at your body as something you can sculpt and change your personal goals can be achieved with a few months of consistent eating and informed fitness choices.