I was talking with a friend who was trying to decide if he needed a trainer. He told me that he was "holding his own" because he still weighed 150 pounds, the same as 25 years ago when he was a senior in High School. I congratulated him on his ability to maintain a scale weight that, for his height, might reflect good health on some accepted charts out there and then asked what size clothes he was wearing now compared to 25 years ago. In High School his waist size was a 28, he was now moving into a 36. He had been backing off on how much food he was eating, but his pant size seemed to continue to grow. I suggested that it would be interesting to know how much of those 150 pounds from 25 years ago was lean mass (or muscle) and how much was fat. Something had definitely changed if his waist had increased by 8 inches. My friend, like many other people, had mistakenly used the scale as the only means of measuring his progress through the years. Later, when we compared a High School picture to his current appearance, the difference was very noticeable.

In high school, out of the 150 pounds of scale weight, 10 percent could have been fat, leaving the other 90 percent as lean mass (muscle, bone, body fluid, vital organs, brain, and skin). This would pan out to be 15 pounds of fat and 135 pounds of lean mass. At 43 years old that same 150 pounds could have increased to 25 percent fat leaving 75 percent as lean mass. This would be 30 pounds of fat and 120 pounds of lean mass. That's an increase of 15 pounds of fat and a loss of 15 pounds of lean mass / muscle. Since each pound of muscle burns an additional 30 to 60 calories per day, that's why my friend needed to reduce his daily calories to maintain the same weight. That also would explain his need for larger clothes.

In this article, I will address measuring body composition, which helped my friend understand what had happened over the last 25 years. Body Composition (BC) is also called body fat percentage and can be a significant tool for measuring the effectiveness of an eating and / or exercise program.

WHY KEEP TRACK? Keeping track of one's progress, gains, and losses is one of the most important keys to physique transformation success. This area is often overlooked because it seems confusing, too time consuming, or too "technical" to learn and accurately track. Trust me, over the years I have seen both sides. Some people keep impeccable records to track their progress while others "fly by the seat of their pants". It never seems to fail that the people who spent the time to learn how to measure and monitor their results have better and more consistent results than those who don't. DO NOT OVERLOOK THE IMPORTANCE OF MEASURING YOUR PROGRESS!

Height / Weight charts have been very popular to determine if a person is "overweight" but give no indication of BC. The term "overweight" only refers to total scale weight in excess of some standard - we need to ask, "What or whose standard and what was it based on?" Being "above average" or "not ideal" by height-weight charts does not dictate whether or not you need to go on a weight loss program.

The body mass index (BMI) is also very popular as another way that people measure their degree of fatness or obesity based on comparing body height to body weight. BMI doesn't distinguish between fat weight or lean mass / muscle weight, and only uses total weight which ends up making it a less than ideal way to gauge body composition how to develop zero figure.

BC measurement determines approximate fat mass / weight and lean mass / muscle weight (muscle makes up the greatest percent of lean mass weight). For purposes of this discussion, lean mass (LM) will be viewed as muscle. BC can help us know how to structure our eating plans based on total LM / muscle.

When you measure your BC, it should be done under as similar of conditions as possible (first thing in AM on an empty stomach before any exercise, same day of week, same eating / hydration plan). BC should be avoided during water gain / loss associated w/ different phases of the menstrual cycle. Measurements should occur every 2 to 4 weeks. More frequent measurements, unless you are training for competitive events or getting ready for a bodybuilding competition, are usually a waste of time.