Mindset & Nutrition:
Body fat is the percentage of fat your body contains. Keep in mind, that a certain amount of fat is necessary for your body to function and stay alive! Too low of a body fat can be very dangerous! You need body fat to cushion your joints, protect internal organs and help regulate body temperature. Body fat is your long term energy source too!

For example, if you are 140 pounds and 20% bodyfat, it means that your body consists of 28 pounds fat and 112 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else). When attempting to lose weight or lower body fat, it is important to know your lean body mass, so you can be sure you are losing fat and not valuable muscle! Remember, weight loss doesn't always mean fat loss!

The following describes general body fat ranges and their associated categories. This is from American Council on Exercise (ACE): Classification: Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat:
Women (% fat) 10-12% ;
Men (% fat)2-4%
Athletes:
Women (% fat) 14-20%;
Men (% fat) 6-13%
Fitness:
Women (% fat) 21-24%;
Men (% fat) 14-17%
Acceptable:
Women (% fat) 25-31% ;
Men (% fat)18-25%
Obese:
Women (% fat) 32% plus ;
Men (% fat)25% plus

Using the above example we can determine realistic goals. Let's say Suzie Slimdown is 140 lbs, 20% bodyfat and wants to lose 20 lbs. Is that realistic? I don't think so! Suzie has 28 lbs of bodyfat and will need at least 10-15 to maintain bodily functions and health. That means, even if she was very lean she would still have an unrealistic goal. Lowering her body fat to 17% and keeping her lean muscle, would mean she should weigh around 131, only 9 lbs less!

Bodyfat scales aren't always accurate, they depend on your the water displacement in your body. If using the scale that you step on and reads the weight and bodyfat, then an afternoon or evening reading for bodyfat will be more accurate. (Yes, the weight may be more). You can take it around 5 or 6 pm to get the best accuracy. Listen to the podcast to learn the various types of bodyfat measurements and more on the ideal ranges.

Training:
Exercise of the month continues with Planks! You should be able to hold a plank for a minute or more. Test yourself, how long can you hold it! Exercises that use the Plank position and thus more core: Alternating Dumbbell row in the plank position, Push-ups of all kinds, and squat thrusts!

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Here's a link to the show: Fit 077: Bodyfat Percentage and More!