User Manual BC310
ABOUT BODY COMPOSITION_
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ABOUT BODY COMPOSITION
Body Composition
Human body consists of body fat and lean body. Lean body means non-fat constituents of human body
like body water, muscles, mineral, etc.
Body water is divided into intra- and extra-cellular water and the ratio between them is controlled and
maintained within a certain range. Body fat is piled beneath the skin and between abdominal organs. Body
fat is hydrolyzed to make energy needed to normal physiological function when energy supply through
food intake is not sufficient, but excessive fat in the body itself is a kind of disease and causes lifestyle
diseases.
Healthy people maintain the balance of body composition in a steady proportion but unhealthy people
persons fail to keep this balance. When the balance in body composition is broken, diseases like obesity,
malnutrition, osteoporosis, etc. can be caused.
Obesity
Various methods can be used to assess obesity but the key factor in obesity assessment is the amount of
fat accumulated in the body.
In general, obesity is defined as the state of not only excessive weight compared with height (visible obese)
but also excessive body fat compared with weight (invisible or visible obese).
Strictly speaking obesity is the state that body fat occupies considerably high ratio to weight.
Necessity of Body Composition Analysis
Body Composition Analysis is a good indicator in finding possible health problems. Body composition
analysis enables professionals to find obesity or imbalance in body composition at an early stage and
helps subjects keep their body healthy.
Waist to hip ratio
Waist to hip ratio (W.H.R.) shows the distribution of fat stored in one
’
s abdomen and hip. It is simple but
useful to assess body fat distribution. Body fat is stored in two distinct ways. They are often categorized
into and called 'apple' and 'pear' type. Apple type shows bigger girth of waist than hip and pear type has
bigger girth of hip than waist. If body fat in abdomen increases more, the risk to cardiovascular diseases,
diabetes, etc. becomes higher.
