In Defence of Body Fat

A person does a body fat measurement with skin calipers

Body fat gets a bad rap when it isn’t well understood. Let’s change that.

I recently found myself looking in the mirror and being grateful for my body fat. It was the first time in my life that I’d ever had such a feeling.

My epiphany was: Body fat has a purpose. It is an integral part of any healthy organism. We all need it if we want to live long, fulfilling lives.

If this is true, why have we all been conditioned to hate body fat and think of it as inert inconvenient tissue? Anecdotally, I was 10 years old when I first asked my mother how I could lose weight. I went on to spend too much of my life vilifying my body’s fat and trying to reduce it. This was perpetuated by competing in a weight-class sport, where being as lean as possible was an advantage that consumed my every decision. In truth, an individual’s healthy body fat range is wider than we’ve been taught and too little, whether for sport or vanity, is not optimal.

We live in a world of extremes, where if something is good then more must be better. We’ve been trained to believe that weight loss is something that we should all be striving for, and that single-digit body fat and 6-pack abs are the ‘picture of health’. Put simply, this is untrue. However, even among those who will acknowledge it, many still chase and promote extreme leanness.

As a society we have broadly demonized all body fat, but here’s the rub: It is a component of the human body that is vital for health which explains why our bodies hold onto it so dearly.

So why do we obsess over getting rid of it? Perhaps it’s because we haven’t understood its function very well. Let’s clear the muddy waters and learn to give ourselves a break in the process.

What’s good about body fat?

From a physiological perspective body fat is not just useless excess tissue. Body fat has an impressive list of functions:

Contains nerve cells and blood vessels
Communicates through hormones with other organs in the body
Helps us regulate our hunger and fullness cues and manage important health markers like blood sugar and cholesterol
Plays an important role in energy balance (think: mood & sense of wellness)

Our bodies are programmed to hold onto fat because it’s our default fallback option for survival should food become scarce. That said, if we have far too much or too little body fat, health problems can arise.

While it’s common knowledge that certain obesity profiles can pose health concerns, the message here is that the optimal amount of body fat isn’t always less.

What about BMI?

Can someone live a long and healthy life with a borderline-obese BMI of 30? Yes.

Can someone have a borderline-underweight BMI of 18 and still live with health and wellbeing? Yes.

Can someone with a “perfect” BMI of 22 succumb to chronic disease? Yes.

The BMI scale is one piece of information in a panoply of measurable health parameters and was designed as a screen, not a prediction or diagnostic tool. Based on our individual genetics we will each have a different range of body fat that can be considered healthy; you cannot accurately judge a person’s health solely based on the amount of body fat they carry.

If we look at epidemiological data (caveat: which identifies correlations, not causations), we actually see that people with lower BMIs <20 (even those on the low end of “healthy range”) are at higher risk for dying of all causes than are people in the “overweight” range of 25-30.

Image credit: The Lancet

Women are predisposed to carry more body fat than men and if you look at the J-curves above you can see that the risk of all-cause mortality for women is actually flatter than it is for men, and that BMIs of both 20 and 35 (the first categorized as “healthy” and the latter as “obese”) carry a similar risk.

These curves and correlations don’t highlight quality of life, but they do point out two things:

The sweet spot for body fat and body composition is in the middle, not super lean and not excessively overfat.
Basing personal value on a number like BMI (or body weight or body fat %) is preposterous. Your value as a person cannot be measured or determined by body composition or gravitational pull.

Why can carrying too much or too little body fat be a problem?

First and foremost, let’s leave the morality police behind: The amount of body fat on a person doesn’t determine who they are as a human. There are a multitude of reasons why body fat may start to over- or under-accumulate on a body, none of which have to do with someone’s character.

Regarding health and well-being, however, carrying too much or too little body fat can have negative impacts on a person’s health and quality of life:

Some health consequences of excess low body fat include:

Low sex hormone levels. In males this can result in low sperm quality and impaired libido. In females, being too lean can decrease fertility and cause amenorrhea.
Decreased immunity, leading to an increased risk of infections and post-surgical complications.
Increased risk of cardiovascular disease and associated health consequences.
Mood disorders and depression (notably in women).
Bone quality concerns such as osteoporosis and low bone mineral density which increase the risk of fractures.

Some health consequences of carrying too much body fat include:

High blood pressure and high cholesterol, important precursors for the development of cardiovascular disease and associated health consequences.
Metabolic disorders and diseases such as blood sugar dysregulation, Type-2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and more.
Sleep apnea and health issues that can occur from sleep impairment.
Reduced range of motion at joints and altered biomechanics; daily movements can become hard or even painful, and demotivate us to walk and participate in physical activity.
Excessive loads on joints leading to increased pain and joint degeneration, once again demotivating us to move and participate in otherwise enjoyable activities.
Depression and anxiety.

The common theme here is that when body fat levels are extreme in either direction it can contribute to a decreased quality of life due to a decline in health. Why this occurs is usually multi-factorial and can differ a lot from one person to the next. All told, if something is interfering with your ability to enjoy life day-to-day, it is something worth addressing in a way that focuses on health and function, rather than chasing a body fat percentage.

Media and unrealistic societal expectations

What if something doesn’t need addressing but we become convinced that it does? In today’s landscape, we are constantly inundated with unrealistic standards for beauty and “wellness”. I use quotations because we’ve lost track of what wellness truly is: The state of being in good health- not just physical wellness- but also mental, emotional, financial, social and environmental wellness.

The “Wellness Industry” is now worth almost $2 trillion globally. The majority of the products within this industry fall into the ‘Appearance’ category (cosmetic procedures & skin/hair products) and the most popular ‘Health’ products are over-the-counter medications, unproven supplements, and personal care products. Here, it becomes obvious that ‘wellness’ is in keeping with ‘unrealistic body standards’.

Why is it important to point this out when discussing body fat? Because living with a healthy amount of body fat has become something that many people are trying desperately to avoid in the wellness industry. When all we see are celebrities, podcasters and influencers looking extra lean while promoting products that indicate to us that we should all be trying to be thinner, it takes a mental toll. It makes us question our bodies and appearance and makes us feel lesser-than: Even in many cases where people are fully able, healthy by all measures, and living with a high quality of life.

The rich and famous promoting these images of “optimal wellness” have all the resources and none of the stress of the average person. Yet despite this disparity, the overwhelming sense in society is that we could all be thinner if we just tried harder.

The reality is that our modern environment is built to make it very easy to accumulate excess body fat. When this starts to happen, we are then programmed to try one of the many ‘weight-loss’ diets or tools that are fashionable in the media- a variation on what’s being going on since the late 1800s. Inevitably the plan fails because it wasn’t ever geared towards truly improving the health/wellness of the individual. From here, shame and self-doubt set in because we must ‘just not have tried hard enough’ and the cycle repeats.

If external sources are constantly telling us how we need to be and what we need to look like, it becomes hard to hear what our own bodies are telling us. Feelings of inadequacy will decrease wellness in its truest sense and diminish the drive to act in one’s self-interest. Be cautious of the media that you are exposed to on a regular basis and prioritize well-being by drawing your focus beyond body fat to actionable measures of health and fitness.

Did you know? Total body composition (inclusive of body fat percentage) is a strong predictor of VO2 max, which is a leading measurement of overall fitness. If you're concerned about your body fat percentage, focus instead on improving your cardiorespiratory fitness. 
Working on your cardiorespiratory fitness can be a roundabout way of helping your body shift towards carrying the amount of fat that it needs. More importantly, improving your V02max with or without changes in body weight, reduces your risk of cardiovascular diseases and all cause mortality.

So what body fat percentage is ideal?

The aim of this article is to help people understand that there is no correct answer to this question. We each have one body and one lifetime within which to experience it. Body fat is a vital component to health, and experiencing gratitude for a healthy body is a far kinder mental state than self-directed resentment.

Instead of focusing on a number, you can choose to focus on your daily quality of life and the actions associated with improving it:

Are you physically unable to do some of the things you want to do in life?
Do you feel unhealthy or unwell in your mind or body day-to-day?
Do you feel too fragile to take on new physical demands or adventures?
Are you dealing with any diagnosed afflictions that are compounded by carrying too little or too much body fat?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above: Your true desire is to improve your felt sense of health and wellness, not just change body weight or body fat. A couple of facts to consider:

You can improve health and fitness without losing weight
You can improve wellness and happiness without losing weight

Hopefully by now you can appreciate that having a lower body fat percentage does not guarantee that you will be healthier, fitter, happier or more fulfilled in life. The following primary ways in which improved health and wellness can be addressed have nothing to do with targeting body fat or weight in isolation:

Walking or ambulating daily. Hitting a minimum of 3,000 steps a day sets a baseline for cardiovascular health. Increasing towards 8,000 steps a day can further increase these benefits.
Incorporating and then accumulating a minimum of 150 moderate to vigorous activity minutes each week helps reduce your risk of chronic health conditions. If you’re just getting started, this level of effort might be achieved by uphill walking.
Incorporating some form of resistance training relative to your current needs and capacity. Doing so preserves your muscle mass as you age, keeps you strong enough for daily tasks, and increases your physical resilience.
Improving your sleep quantity, quality, and consistency. Poor sleep is at the crux of many health issues and in many cases, there is a lot that can be done to improve it in simple and free ways if someone chooses to care for it.
Eating in a way that is supportive of your body’s energy demands, digestion, and sleep needs. This includes leaning into supporting your circadian rhythms with meal timing.

Putting your entire focus on changing your body fat percentage or weight- when the true goal is to improve how well you feel in all aspects of daily life- can inevitably leave you feeling unsatisfied with your efforts. At worst, weight loss without a focus on health and function can leave you less fit to handle the demands of your daily life. This is especially true if you’re using the scale as your only measure of success.

How you choose to measure success determines how much success you will have, and it starts with establishing if there’s even an issue to address in the first place. If you’re physically active on a regular basis, are taking care of the four bullets above, are not suffering from a chronic disease, and can do all the things you want to do in daily life, it’s quite possible that your body is carrying just the right amount of fat to keep you as healthy as possible.

In Summary

Body fat is metabolically-active tissue that secretes hormones and plays a vital role in the maintenance of health and well-being.
Less is not always better: Having too little body fat can carry greater health risk than being overweight (based on BMI).
A six-pack is not the picture of optimal health; some people are naturally predisposed to this, others are not and will make themselves sick chasing it as a metric.
Avoiding both extremely low and high levels of body fat is the key to health; the sweet spot is in the middle.
A healthy fitness level is a strong correlate to a healthy body fat level.
Modern media has set body standards in an unrealistically lean place, while our modern environment predisposes us to the opposite outcomes. Try taking a 30 day break from social media and see how much better you feel.
Weight loss does not by default equate to happiness or improved wellness.
Health and well-being can both be improved without being focused on body fat.
If you are physically active, sleeping well, eating mindfullly and can comfortably enjoy all the things you want to do in life, then your body fat percentage is likely in the right place for you.
Last but not least, your body fat percentage will naturally change over the course of your life, without direct correlation to changes in health or well-being.

Additional Reading

Rethinking Weight Loss

Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

The Complete Protein Guide

Why Weight Loss Won’t Make You Happy

References

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