The Problems of Excess Body Fat

There are a number of important reasons why excess body fat is harmful to your health:

 

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  • It represents a combination of improper training and poor eating habits.
  • Stored body fat produces inflammatory chemicals that are a serious threat, not just to injuries and recovery from training and competition but to overall health. Chronic inflammation is the first step in the development of various physical injuries.
  • Higher body fat adversely affects athletic performance for most sports (with some exceptions, such as sumo wrestling or long-distance cold-water swimming).
  • As body fat rises, changes in body composition are associated with further age-related reductions in oxygen uptake and athletic performance.
  • Higher levels of body fat are a source of extra—sometimes excess—estrogen, which could have adverse effects on overall fitness and health.
  • Body fat content in athletes varies considerably. I’m not going to assign any numbers or range of percent body fat because they are not meaningful for athletes. Instead, those with obvious excess levels, including those who have gained body fat compared to previous years already know they are carrying around too much.
  • The size of your waist is a good general indication of changes in body fat. The fittest period of my life was during high school and college sports. Today, I’m still about the same size in my waist. While my muscle mass may be a bit lower and body fat a bit higher—a normal pattern in optimal aging—it’s still within a reasonable, healthy level. In many cases, athletes will see their waist size increase by two, four, or more inches—an indication that there is probably excess body fat. That’s because that extra fat takes up a lot of room.

Measuring your waist on a monthly basis may be the best overall method of tracking body fat content. Do this at the level of the umbilicus, the belly button.

Most people consider excess body weight and body fat as synonymous. But this is simply untrue. Because we are a weight-conscious society, stepping on the scale each morning is a powerful ritual—and one difficult to break. A lot of the weight the scale measures is water, and most of this water is in the muscles and other body areas, not fat. Body fat weighs much less. However, body fat takes up much more space than water. In fact, many of the patients I helped lose body fat often didn’t lose weight—and some actually gained weight while losing inches off their waist. The reason is that as body fat is reduced, muscle function and weight are improved.