Body Weight and Composition

1
Body Weight and Composition

• Body Weight
• What does your body weight depend on?
• Your height and frame size. Long and thick bones
  are heavier.
• How much muscle and fat you have (muscle is
  heavier than fat).
• Your sex. Males are heavier than females.
• Body Composition and Sport
• You can be the correct medical weight but be
  unfit e.g. you could have lots of fat and only
  small muscles. So body composition is a better
  measure of fitness. It shows how much fat you
  have compared with muscle, bone and other tissue.

2
Obesity

• A certain amount of fat is needed, it form a
  protective cushion around the kidneys and other
  organs. The layer of fat also keeps you warm and
  acts as a store of energy.
• But Obesity means you have an abnormal proportion
  of fat. It makes exercising difficult or even
  dangerous. It causes
• Joint and back injuries
• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Liver Disease
• Underweight?
• You are underweight if you are below the normal
  weight range for your height. Exercise will make
  underweight people feel weak and tired.
• Anorexia
• This is the extreme loss of weight due to harsh
  dieting. This can occur when there is a lack of
  carbohydrate, so your body uses stored fat for
  energy. Then it runs out of fat and starts using
  proteins. This is taken from your body tissues
  and can stop your organs working properly
  eventually.

3

• How to Lose Weight
• How do people lose weight?
• Eat a healthy balanced diet
• Muscle takes up less space than fat (making you
  look slimmer)
• Regular exercise increases your basal metabolic
  rate
• Regular exercise reduces your appetite.

Homework Find out what Carboloading is. What
does it do and when is it done? What type of
sportsperson would carboload? Use resources such
as the internet and text-books.