What to do about body volume and why you don't need a scale

When a woman is over 40, she tries with all her might to maintain a good figure and control her weight. For this, a woman buys scales. And she does not even suspect that this is an unnecessary thing in the household, because it can do more harm than good. Why?

Libra can cause depression

The scales can show weight. A woman uses it to determine whether she has lost or gained weight. But a woman does not take into account that, with a reasonable approach, fat tissue can be replaced by muscle tissue. In this case, a person is slimmer, healthier, but his weight - alas - does not decrease.

Weight may even increase, but this only means that the woman is doing the right thing by exercising and changing her menu. Why does she gain weight at the same time? Take note of the fact: muscles weigh 6 times more than fat tissue. Therefore, weight and a bad figure are not the same thing.

What happens when you use hormones for weight loss?

If you are prescribed the right hormones that compensate for the lack of some hormones in your body and remove excessive levels of others, you can effectively lose weight.

Write these indicators in a notebook (or fill out a file) every 30 days. This way you will see how the condition of your body changes, whether fat tissue disappears and muscle tissue grows.

• Figure: fatty tissue – up to 30%
• How does waist size compare to hip size - up to 0.8
• Waist size – up to 84 cm
• Body mass index – up to 25

What does the term "physique" mean?

Doctors use this term to describe the ratio of muscles and bones (non-fat tissue) and fats. A person needs adipose tissue to obtain energy, to be able to get pregnant, and also to avoid freezing in cold weather (fat tissue acts as a kind of protective depot).

Why does a person need adipose tissue?

Estrogen hormones are produced in adipose tissue, which have the ability to help you recover from stressful situations.

How much body fat indicates obesity?

The female body differs from the male body in that it has more fat reserves. This is necessary for a woman to conceive a child and to carry it to term.

The facts show this: obesity in women is 33% of body fat; obesity in men is a quarter of body fat in relation to the rest of the body tissues. That is 25%.

Every year, women with a small portion of fatty tissue (up to 25%) have faster bone destruction, more frequent fractures. Therefore, you should not exhaust your body by constantly losing weight. This will harm your bones. Especially at the age of over 30.

Know that 25% fat is the mark below which a woman over 30 should not go when removing fat from the body.

Optimal amount of fats

It is quite difficult to determine. There are scales that help a person do this. However, they have a low level of accuracy. More reliable methods are electrical resistance, hydrostatic weighing and ARL.

There is another method – purely visual. When you step on the scale, you can see minor changes in weight – an increase or loss of only 1-2 kilos. But you will see that the outlines of your figure have changed.

Clothes fit you differently, your waist and hips become more defined, the folds in your back disappear, and your belly magically shrinks.

This means that some of the fat tissue has been converted into muscle. You become slimmer, you can move more easily, and you feel better.

And the weight has hardly changed, because bone and muscle tissue weighs much more than fat.

What is your body type?

There are different types of figures. They are usually compared to vegetables and fruits - this way people can navigate more easily. The degree of obesity makes a person's figure look like a pear or an apple. A pear is a heavy lower part, especially the buttocks and thighs, and the upper part - the chest and shoulders - is quite narrow.

An apple is a large deposit of fat in the abdominal area; such a person has almost no waist.

Women are more likely to have a pear-shaped figure, while men are more like apples.

Both types of obesity are dangerous for the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and there may be a risk of developing diabetes. The ratio of your hips to your waist circumference will tell you what type of figure you have. How can you determine this more accurately?

Apple or pear?

Take a regular sewing tape measure and measure your waist at its thinnest part. Now your hips – at their fullest part. If you divide your waist by your hips, you get a figure that will show your body type.

A normal figure is a ratio for women less than 0.8 (we take the measurements not in centimeters, but in inches). For men, this indicator is more lenient - up to 1.

If the figure is higher, then you have apple or pear obesity – determine this visually. If you don’t like to bother with calculations, just measure your waist. If your waist is more than 83-84 cm, then your weight is above the norm.

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What is body mass index?

It is abbreviated as KMT. It is calculated using a formula with height and weight data. To calculate KMT, you need to divide the weight (in kilos) by the height in meters, squared.

What your body mass index is and whether you are obese can be found in special tables with BMT data.

For those over 35. If your BMT is over 27, then you are obese to some degree.

At age 35, obesity is a BMT greater than 27.

Under 35, obesity is a BMI of under 25. If at this age your body mass index is 30 or more, then this is a very severe stage of obesity. In this case, you may suffer from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory problems.

Are the tables showing the relationship between weight and height correct?

You shouldn't rely on them literally, taking into account every figure. The fact is that these tables can differ dramatically. In addition, each age assumes its own ratio of weight and height.

The tables are imperfect because they do not take into account the weight of fat, muscle and bone tissue. Therefore, a person with dense and heavy bones may appear overweight according to the table, although in practice this is not the case.

So, to determine whether you are obese, additionally consult with an endocrinologist.

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