Body composition

Body fat

Body fat percentage is the amount of body fat as a proportion of your body weight. Everybody needs body fat to be healthy.

Body fat is vital to basic bodily functions such as regulating body temperature, storing vitamins and cushioning joints.

Tanita's Body Composition Monitor automatically compares your body fat percentage reading to the healthy body fat range chart.

Visceral fat

Visceral fat is the fat in the abdominal cavity (stomach), surrounding the vital organs. A rating from 1 - 12 indicates you have a healthy level of visceral fat; continue monitoring your rating to ensure that it stays within the healthy range. If you have a rating from 13 - 59 you have an excess level of visceral fat; consider making changes in your lifestyle, possibly through diet changes and/or increasing exercise.

Segmental fat

Your segmental fat percentage is your fat mass rating for five body segments. This includes the core abdominal area and your arms and legs.

Monitoring the body fat percentage of each of your arms, legs, and core abdominal area will help you see and understand the impact of your training programme over time.

Bone mass

Bone is the framework of your body. It is living tissue that changes constantly. The bone mass is the bone tissue within the skeleton. Bone mass is influenced by genetic factors, which you are born with and cannot change. However, environmental factors, like diet and exercise habits, can also influence density. Calcium, exercise and quitting smoking can benefit bone mass.

BMI

BMI is short for Body Mass Index. A BMI is a calculation of your body fat that takes into account your age, weight and height. Your BMI can be calculated by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in metres). BMI is a good general indicator for population studies but has serious limitations when assessing on an individual level.