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Muscle

Mar 10 2023
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Workout during Ramadan

How to Retain Your Muscle During Ramadan Fasting?

By Body Composition, Body Composition Analysis, Diet, Muscle, Nutrition

Ramadan is a month of fasting observed by Muslims worldwide. During this time, Muslims abstain from food and drink from dawn until dusk. Depending on the location, the fasting period can last up to 15 hours.

With such a lengthy fasting period, it can be challenging to maintain muscle mass during Ramadan. However, with a few tips and tricks, it is possible to retain your muscle mass even during this fasting period.

Workout during Ramadan

Plan Your Workouts Wisely

Strengthening exercises are essential to maintain muscle mass during Ramadan. However, it is recommended to decrease the volume and intensity of your workouts during the first week of Ramadan. This allows your body to adapt to the fasting routine and helps prevent injury.

It’s important to note that working out in a fasted state may not be the best option for your body. It can be tough on your body’s homeostasis, especially if you’re already dehydrated. You definitely don’t want to risk passing out in the gym.

When it comes to fitting in workouts during Ramadan, it can be challenging to find the right time that works for you. However, you may try scheduling your workouts between Maghrib (sunset) and Isha (night) prayers, or after Isha prayers at night. Another alternative is to work out right before Sahur in the morning.

Listen to your body and see how it responds to working out at different times of the day.

Protein intake

Keep Track of Your Protein Intake

You must be familiar with the role of protein in your diet, which is essential for muscle growth and repair. During Ramadan, it is essential to keep track of enough protein to maintain muscle mass. Consuming enough protein helps in muscle recovery and prevents muscle loss.

Include protein-rich foods during meals in Sahur and Iftar, such as chicken, beef, fish, eggs, dairy products, and legumes. It is recommended to consume protein-rich foods during the evening meal and before the pre-dawn meal.

In addition to preserving muscle mass, consuming a high-protein meal n has been shown to reduce hunger. This may help you stay focused throughout the day by reducing your food cravings.

Studies have demonstrated that protein is more filling than carbohydrates or fats. Additionally, protein has a high thermic effect, meaning that the body burns more calories during the digestion and absorption of protein compared to carbohydrates and fats.

Pastry after Ramadan fasting

Don’t Lose Control Of Your Calorie Intake

During the month of Ramadan, it’s important to be mindful of your eating habits. Although fasting for long hours without food and water can be challenging, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overeating during the night.

This is because the Ramadan bazaar is filled with a wide variety of high-calorie foods that are readily available just around the corner. From Murtabak to Ayam Percik, the options are endless and tempting.

To avoid overindulging, try to stick to your pre-Ramadan diet and keep track of your calories as much as possible. This can help you maintain a healthy eating habit and make it easier to return to your routine and diet once Ramadan is over.

What Happens to Your Body During Cyclic Overeating

Hydration after Ramadan fasting

Keep Hydration in Check

During Ramadan, it is crucial to maintain proper hydration levels throughout the day to avoid dehydration. Although you may be tempted to drink a lot of water all at once, it is essential to avoid this, as it can cause bloating and discomfort. Instead, try drinking small amounts of water throughout the night to replenish fluids lost during the day.

In addition to water, consider incorporating hydrating fluids such as coconut water or sports drinks to maintain optimal hydration levels. You can also consider incorporating more fruits and vegetables (foods with high water content) into your diet during the night to keep you hydrated.

Additionally, dehydration can lead to reduced blood flow and muscle weakness, so it is essential to stay hydrated to maintain your physical strength and performance during workouts after “berbuka puasa”.

Muscle changes during Ramadan fasting

Keep An Eye On Your Muscle Mass during Ramadan fasting

Retaining muscle mass is challenging during fasting, so it is important to have a good understanding of the muscle mass you already have. Tracking changes in your muscle mass throughout the month can help you make adjustments to your diet and exercise routine to ensure that you are maintaining your muscle mass. This is where a body composition analysis comes into play.

By analyzing your body composition, you can get a better understanding of your Skeletal Muscle Mass, Percent Body Fat, and other important metrics. Armed with this information, you can make more informed decisions about your diet and exercise routine during Ramadan to stay intact with your gains.

How often should you test body composition?

Start tracking your progress with an InBody machine today and see the difference it can make. Find the nearest location for an InBody test here.

Conclusion

Maintaining muscle mass during Ramadan fasting can be challenging, but it is possible with a few tips and tricks. Consuming enough protein, staying hydrated, and exercising with a flexible routine during the non-fasting hours can help retain muscle mass during this period.

Remember to consult with your doctor before making any dietary or exercise changes during Ramadan if you have any medical condition. With the right approach, you can maintain your muscle mass and stay healthy during Ramadan fasting.

Feb 08 2023
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An elderly man wonders how to measure muscle mass.

How to Measure Muscle Mass Accurately: A Gym Beginner’s Guide

By BIA, Blog, Body Composition Analysis, Health, Muscle

Congratulations on taking the first step towards your fitness journey by subscribing to a gym membership! Building muscle and seeing progress can be exciting, but it’s also important to track your progress accurately. This beginner’s guide will cover how to measure muscle mass over time, including a particular focus on using an InBody device.

Download the guide to get an accurate InBody test.

Gym beginner works out with coach

How to measure muscle mass?

There are several ways to keep tabs on your progress, each with its advantages and drawbacks. Some of the most popular approaches are listed below:

1. Visual Inspection

The simplest way to track muscle growth is through visual inspection. This usually involves looking in the mirror or taking photos of your body to see if there is any noticeable change in muscle size. This is why so many gymgoers enjoy posting their accomplishments on social media.

This method is quick and straightforward, but it is also somewhat arbitrary. If you’ve just started working out, it might be difficult to see changes in your muscles within a few weeks.

Even though you are making gains in muscle, it may let you down if the changes aren’t immediately visible in the mirror.

Gym builder inspecting his progress in the mirror

2. Tape Measurements

Taking body circumference measurements using tapes, such as bicep and thigh circumference, is another way to track muscle growth. This method is more accurate than visual inspection.

However, the tape measurement result may be inaccurate, especially if you are overweight. According to research, even medical professionals may struggle to prevent tape measurement errors for their obese patients.

3. Weightlifting Progress Tracking

Monitoring the progression of your weightlifting can help you observe your muscle mass growth. This can be done by recording the weight lifted, repetition count, and set quantity for each workout.

You may download progress-tracking apps like InBody and Strong to assist you. If you see an increase in the weight you can lift or the number of reps you can perform, it is likely that your muscles have grown.

4. Body Composition Analysis

Body composition analysis is a more advanced method of tracking muscle growth.

There are numerous methods for body composition analysis, ranging from a DXA scan, which is one of the gold standard measurements, to a body weighing scale that claims to be able to check your body’s muscle mass.

💡 As one of the high-accuracy alternatives to DXA scanning, InBody devices would be appropriate and cost-effective tools for you to track muscle mass over time.

The InBody devices are currently being used in a growing number of gym settings. Consider finding a convenient location to take an InBody test and track your muscle growth.

Where can I get the InBody test?

An elderly man wonders how to measure muscle mass.

Tips to help you effectively track your muscle mass:

1. Be consistent with your tracking methods.

Always remember that it’s crucial to track your progress using the same method and device. This is due to the fact that different devices may use a different technological and algorithmic approaches to measuring muscle mass. In progress tracking, comparing your results with different devices every month would be misleading.

2. Be mindful of the precautions and steps of measurement.

Many gym goers are not concerned about when to measure and what to look for during the measurement. However, improper posture and measuring right after workouts and meals, for example, definitely lead to inaccuracies in measurement. Your efforts in the workout may be disguised by inaccurate measurement results.

Download the guide to get an accurate InBody test.

3. Track progress regularly, such as every two to four weeks.

Tracking your progress consistently will help you see how far you’ve progressed since the baseline. Knowing whether your current workout and diet plan are appropriate for your specific situation is important. If the results do not match your expectations, you may know it’s time to review your fitness approach.

How frequently should you track your fitness progress?

4. Discuss your progress with an expert.

Discuss your workout plan with a professional regularly. If you receive an InBody result, as shown below, it will be easy for both you and the expert to understand your current progress.

The image above from InBody results clearly illustrates the muscle mass in different body parts.

This can make it easier for you to communicate with an expert, like a physiotherapist or personal trainer. They can give you a lot of personalized advice and point out areas where you can improve.

5. Celebrate your progress, no matter how small.
You might think your progress is insignificant after scrolling through the attractive physique photos posted by gym enthusiasts. This could be demotivating somehow.

However, they put in a lot of work and it takes them years to succeed. And yet, it’s not surprising to hear that they’ve already been through what you’re going through. It’s worth a blast of celebration even if you discover that you broke your Personal Record (PR) or that you gained 0.1 kg of muscle.

A women is happy with her gains

Conclusion

Measuring muscle growth is an important step in tracking your progress toward your fitness goals. With the right tools and mindset, you can have an idea of how to measure muscle mass accurately and reach your muscle growth goals sooner.

By using these methods and tips, you’ll be able to effectively measure your muscle growth and track your progress toward a stronger, healthier you.

 

 

 

Dec 07 2022
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Are protein bars good for fat loss?

By Body Composition, Body Composition Analysis, Diet, Muscle, Nutrition

Protein bars are popular because they’re convenient, and they make it easy to get your protein fix without having to cook or even think about it.

But are they actually good for you? Are they good for fat loss? 

protein bars on the table

What’s inside protein bars?

Protein bars are often marketed as a healthy snack option for people who want to lose weight or maintain their weight because they contain fewer calories than regular candy bars or other sweet treats.

Most protein bars contain 150-400 calories and 10-20 grammes of protein per serving, though some contain closer to 30 grammes of protein per serving.

The protein source of the could be varies. Some of them could come from dairy products like yoghurt, whey, and milk; some of them could be mostly plant-based products like soybeans and nuts.

This convenient feature of high-protein foods has demonstrated why it has become a gym rat favourite, as it helps them save time while ensuring adequate protein intake per day.

A women is showing her fat loss result

Are protein bars good for fat loss?

Eating fewer calories than your body uses and needs in a day is the main key to fat loss.

Protein bars can be beneficial for fat loss when used properly as a meal replacement to reduce your calorie intake. One example of calorie reduction is replacing a 650-calorie burger set meal with a 200-calorie protein bar.

However, replacing only one of your meals throughout the day is generally recommended. Replacing more than one meal may result in an excessively low calorie diet, which may result in a weight loss rebound effect.

According to a study, people who follow a low-calorie diet may experience short-term weight loss benefits, but most of them regained fat mass, particularly in the visceral area. To prevent weight loss rebound and detrimental health effect, think twice before overly restricting your calories.

In addition, some of the protein bars contain a lot of sugar and use unhealthy sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which has been linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases if consumed on a regular basis.

By reading the ingredient list carefully, you would be able to determine how the protein bars could fit into your fat loss diet.

A man is eating protein bars after a workout

Are protein bars the best source of protein?

Protein bars aren’t the only way to increase your protein intake. To meet your protein needs and promote a healthy lifestyle, it is a good idea to include whole foods that are high in protein in your meals and snacks.

Natural food with high protein source

 Source: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein/

World Health Organization (WHO) establishes 0.83 g of protein per kg of body weight per day as the Safe Level of Protein (SLP), which is expected to meet the protein needs of 97.5 percent of the world’s healthy adult population.

Protein requirement for each population

However, protein requirements may be higher for pregnant women, body builders, and the elderly. You may consult a physician and a clinical dietitian to learn more about how much protein you need based on your current health.

Check your improvement over time

However, it is still preferable to monitor your body fat and muscle changes on a regular basis to determine whether your current diet and lifestyle are effective enough. You can use the map we created with our incredible partners to find the nearest InBody location and check your body health improvement on a regular basis.

Find your nearest test centre

 

Sep 23 2022
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Sports Nutritionist and Athletes' performance

How does the athlete’s body composition impact their performance?

By BIA, Body Composition, Fitness, Muscle, Nutrition

When most people think of nutritionists, they think of “healthy eating” and weight loss. However, the importance of sports nutritionist to maximise the athlete performance is fundamentally linked to diet and body composition too.

See Min, a professional sports nutritionist who works at the National Sports Institute Malaysia, recently joined the Malaysian contingent to the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi to support the national team, shared her experience with how she accurately tracks athletes’ body composition using Bbioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA).

How does the BIA application provide a better strategy to maximise athletes’ performance?

Bioelectrical impedance analysis, as See Min mentioned, is one of the convenient methods for monitoring body composition in the sports nutrition field. It is utilised to monitor segmental lean mass for sports in a mass group, such as team sports, especially when regular assessment is required at different training phases. This is highly useful when sports nutritionists want to monitor changes in athletes’ body composition as the sports seasons change and adjust the dietary plan to assist athletes in achieving body composition goals that allow for maximum performance during competition.

By referring to the result sheet printed out from the BIA devices, sports nutritionists are able to explain body composition changes to athletes and coaches with ease. This allows the athletes to understand how their dietary practice and training programme could affect their body composition and performance in competition.



Watch the video to learn more about how BIA can assist sports nutritionists in helping athletes to achieve optimum body compositions for optimum performance in each phase of their training.

May 10 2022
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Can you be too old for weight training?

By Health, Muscle, Nutrition

“Sarcopenia” is the gradual loss of muscle mass that begins for most people after age 35. Contrary to popular belief, this decline in muscle mass and strength is not only due to aging process; rather, it’s due to inactivity.

However, current dogma around resistance training among elderly women has been a barrier. Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs as a result of “normal ageing.” It is not entirely due to sickness but is also a normal aspect of the ageing process. This is not to be confused with cachexia, which is the uncontrollable loss of muscle and/or body fat mass. While cachexia is most commonly associated with malnutrition caused by illnesses such as cancer, sarcopenia is defined as a progressive loss of muscle mass caused by changes in nutrition and physical activity. This is significant because sarcopenic people can keep their fat mass, resulting in a “thin fat” body composition. Sarcopenic obesity has more serious health effects, as we will discuss in another chapter.

“Few would argue that some form of resistance training should not be part of a complete exercise program; however, the bulk of literature on the cardio-protective effects of aerobic exercise has continued to make this form of exercise preeminent and the central focus of many physical activity guidelines in Canada, the United States, and many other countries.”

Studies show that resistance training is the best way to prevent and reverse the loss of muscle for older adults. For women, in particular, resistance training is an effective long-term strategy to preserve muscle and positive changes in body composition.

The science is clear: improving your muscle mass is something anyone can (and should) do.

May 10 2022
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Can women gain the same relative amount of muscle mass as men?

By Body Composition, Body Composition Analysis, Fitness, Health, Muscle

If you’re like most women, you’re curious about whether doing the same routine as the men in your CrossFit class will give you the same results. On average, baseline muscle mass in men is 36% greater than in women. In terms of muscle distribution, women tend to have less upper body muscle mass compared to men.

Men have a slight genetic advantage over women because of their higher baseline muscle mass, particularly in the upper body. However, that doesn’t mean that women will gain less muscle mass than men, despite lifting the same amount of weights.

When men and women exercise for the same amount of time, they can accomplish the same amount of gains in muscle mass. While the increase in size was similar between men and women in the study, the relative strength of women actually increased more than men because they were starting with a smaller overall body size.

In addition, it’s worth noting that muscle mass gain may be more affected by individual variations in terms of sensitivity of resistance training responses rather than gender differences.

Does Weightlifting Causes Women To “Look Bulky” ?

What This Means For Women:
It’s possible to gain as much muscle mass as men, but it may take more work on your end because of your slightly lower baseline muscle mass. However, if you’re worried about getting too big, it’s also unlikely to happen due to differences in testosterone (we’ll cover that later,) and how you train.

The first step toward achieving enough amount of muscle mass is to do a body composition analysis to determine how much you have. Click here to read more about the various types of BIA devices that analyse body composition.

May 10 2022
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Does Weightlifting Causes Women To “Look Bulky” ?

By Body Composition, Body Composition Analysis, Health, Muscle

Many women believe that resistance exercise causes weight gain and a “bulky appearance”. Yes, strength training can lead to weight gain. You can almost certainly count on that. That is, nonetheless, totally acceptable.

If the gains you’re seeing are in Lean Body Mass, your weight may stay the same or even rise, but you’ll appear more lean and toned.

Women muscle from the back

Understanding How Muscle is Gained

To begin, let’s be clear about how muscle is gained. Muscle growth occurs when the rate of muscle protein synthesis exceeds the rate of muscle protein breakdown.

In other words, you can only gain muscle through a process in which resistance training breaks down muscle fibers and then repairs them with enough nutrients from diet and rest. As a result, the muscles will grow in size, resulting in [muscle hypertrophy](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950543/#:~:text=Muscle hypertrophy occurs when muscle,muscle protein breakdown [8].).

It is important to note, however, that muscle hypertrophy occurs at different rates for different people. Building “bulky” muscles take time and effort, and it is not a common result able to be achieved through weightlifting for the majority of women.

Women’s Muscle and Hormone

Women and men muscle difference

It’s understandable that seeing selfies of men in the gym with massive muscles while scrolling through social media can be frightening. And you might worry that working out in the gym will only lead to a bulky appearance.

Contrary to popular belief, women do not have the same level of testosterone as men, which is the primary hormone responsible for muscle hypertrophy. In general, women’s bodies only contain 10% to 20% as much testosterone as men’s bodies. As a result, women are much less likely to gain significant muscle mass from weightlifting.

Can women gain the same relative amount of muscle mass as men?

Have You Eaten and Lifted Enough?

Women cooking for her meals

You might have to eat more calories than you needed to in order to appear “bulky.” This is due to the fact that gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus.

Several studies have shown that women tend to have low-calorie diets and, worse, low protein intake. This dietary habit was strongly linked to sarcopenia or progressive muscle loss. Instead of being concerned about gaining too much muscle, the problem of muscle loss should be prioritized among women.

Aside from that, muscle building requires progressive overload in weightlifting. This is because muscle gain will adapt to the same weight carried during your exercise routine. To achieve greater muscle gain, you must gradually increase the weight lifted.

Learn how much muscle you can gain in a month

The Benefits of Weightlifting for Women

women having a rest after weightlifting

Not only does weightlifting not lead to significant increases in muscle size for women, but it also has numerous other benefits.

Weightlifting can improve bone density, which is particularly important for women as they are more prone to osteoporosis than men. It can also improve balance, coordination, and flexibility.

In addition, weightlifting can boost metabolism and help you burn fat. This is because muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, even when you’re not exercising. As a result, incorporating weightlifting into your fitness routine can help you achieve your weight loss goals.

Think of weight training as an investment that pays serious dividends down the road. The more muscle you have, the more visceral fat in your body can burn over time.

How to Safely Incorporate Weightlifting into Your Fitness Routine

Women training with coach

Before starting a weightlifting routine, it is important to consult with a certified fitness professional. They could guide you with proper form and technique, which are also crucial to avoiding injury and getting the most out of your workouts.

It is also important to gradually increase weight and intensity and to incorporate rest and recovery time into your routine. This will keep you in good condition and allow you to perform weightlifting exercises safely.

The Importance of Tracking Progress

One of the keys to success in any fitness or nutrition journey is tracking your progress. This is where a body composition analyzer like the InBody machine can be incredibly useful.

Track muscle mass with InBody

By measuring your body composition, you can see how much muscle mass you have gained and how much fat you have lost. This information can help you fine-tune your nutrition and exercise plan so that you can keep making progress toward your goals.

Start tracking your progress with an InBody machine today and see the difference it can make. Find the nearest location for an InBody test here.

Summary

To summarise, weightlifting is a safe and effective form of exercise that will not make you “look bulky” in the majority of cases. Weightlifting is a valuable addition to your fitness routine because of its numerous benefits, including increased bone density, metabolism, physical strength, and mental health.

By incorporating weightlifting into your exercise routine and dispelling the myth of “bulky muscles,” you can meet your fitness goals while also improving your overall health and well-being.

So, jump off your treadmill and give the free weights a try! By doing so, you’ll not only dispel this myth but also reap the numerous benefits that weightlifting has to offer.

Feb 14 2022
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Why building lean mass is important for everyone (even you!)

By Blog, Fitness, Health, Muscle

People have all sorts of reasons for working out and developing lean body mass (LBM).  Athletes are interested in muscle building to improve their performance on the field. Bodybuilders want muscle growth for that trophy-winning physique.  For us regular joes and janes who struggle to find enough time to diet and workout, it can be as simple as looking losing weight and looking lean.

Whatever the reasons, recent research has made a very strong case that building lean body mass has health benefits far beyond aesthetics and athletic performance.  Sufficient amounts of LBM are actually critical for building a healthy life over the long-term.

This doesn’t mean that you have to work out twice a day lifting heavy weights. Male or female, young or old, everyone can benefit from increased lean body mass.  Here are four important health benefits that you gain from developing your lean body mass.

1. Lean body mass combats obesity

Based on the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) Malaysia 2019, 50.1% of adults are overweight or obese (30.4% overweight and 19.7% obese) and the numbers keep on rising. With this current situation in Malaysia, it’s hard to avoid advertising that guarantee weight loss in X number of weeks, or a new workout technique that promises to shred fat off of your frame, or that new diet that promises to increase your metabolism and burn body fat.

However, most of these shortcut approaches fail to address the basic issue regarding weight gain: it’s about calories in vs. calories out (energy balance).

“Energy imbalance” in this context refers to consuming more calories than your body needs.  Do this for a long enough period of time, and you’ll gain fat. Gain enough fat over a long period of time, and you can become overweight or obese.

“Energy intake” refers to how many calories you consume through eating and drinking, in other words, your diet.  This is what many people think of when they think about calorie reduction.

However, its “energy expenditure” where you can really make a big effect on balancing your calories in and calories out, and this is why developing your lean body mass is so important.

Lean body mass is associated with your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – the amount of calories you burn at rest.  The greater amount of LBM you have, the greater your BMR will be. This means that people with greater amounts of lean body mass will have a greater energy expenditure while doing nothing, helping to avoid calorie imbalances, and ultimately, obesity.

2. Lean body mass helps you battle diseases

When you become sick and your body becomes stressed, your body’s immune system gets kicked into high gear.  When that occurs, your body’s nutritional demands change. In order to support the immune system and contribute towards recovery, your body requires protein – and a lot of it.  Diet alone won’t supply the amount of protein required to defend against illness. Where will your body find protein reserves? Your lean body mass.

For example, in burn victims, the need for increased protein can increase tremendously: around 4 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, or about four times the normal daily intake of protein. Too much protein for a person to consume through a healthy diet.  This demand for protein exceeds the demands put on the body during fasting (times where you aren’t bringing in calories), which is when muscle breakdown occurs.  The same trend was also found in cancer survivors. In those whose overall body protein decreased due to cancer and cancer therapy, the rate of recurrence of cancer increased.

In both cases, the ability to survive these serious conditions ultimately came down to how much lean mass each patient had to begin with, and how much their bodies lost due to increased demand for protein.

Bottom line: your lean mass can act as protein reserves that your body can draw off of when the immune system is triggered.  If you have built sufficient lean mass through diet and workout, your body will have a much easier time fighting off infection because it will have enough protein in reserve to power the demands caused by the immune system.

If you don’t have sufficient lean mass, your body will have a much more difficult time defeating and recovering from illnesses because it won’t have the type of nutrients it needs to power the immune system.

3. Lean body mass contributes to strong bones

One common concern that both men and women have as they age is the onset of osteoporosis or frailty in general.  These conditions can put people at serious risk in the later stages of life because they can lead to falls and broken bones.  Sometimes, these falls are so serious that some people never walk again.

What can preserve bone density and bone mass later in life?  Maintaining sufficient and healthy amounts of lean body mass.

In the Mediterranean Intensive Oxidant Study, researchers found that lower amounts of skeletal muscle mass, a significant and major component of lean body mass, was correlated with weaker and thinner bones in elderly men.  Because lean body mass is made up of multiple components that cannot be readily increased, such as the weight of body water and internal organs, increasing skeletal muscle mass is the primary means of increasing lean body mass. This, in turn, builds up greater bone strength and density.

In order to protect against thin and weak bones, maintaining and developing sufficient skeletal muscle mass is key.

4. Lean body mass can protect against (and potentially reverse) insulin resistance

Insulin resistance occurs when the body is unable to clear the blood of excess glucose due to the presence of free fatty acids (FFA).  The release of FFA into the body is generally associated with high amounts of body fat mass, which lessens insulin’s ability to clear glucose from the blood.  If this insulin resistance becomes significant over a duration of time, the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus can occur.

Once again, developing sufficient amounts of lean body mass can help prevent the onset of insulin resistance/Type 2 diabetes. Because insulin resistance/Type 2 diabetes can strike anyone at any age, ensuring that your LBM levels are sufficient while keeping your body fat mass low (i.e. a healthy body composition) is very important for everyone.

In a large-scale study of over 13,000 people over a 6-year span conducted by the UCLA School of Medicine, the researchers concluded their findings by illustrating an inverse relationship between skeletal muscle mass and insulin resistance.  Not only that, they found that for every 10% increase in skeletal muscle mass, there was an 11% decrease in insulin resistance.  For people without diabetes, the decreases were even more pronounced.

Developing your lean body mass also has the added benefit of increasing your BMR, which will increase your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) all on its own, which, when combined with proper diet and nutrition, causes body fat mass reduction.  This reduction contributes to less release of free fatty acids into the body in the first place, which will, in turn, make it easier for the body to clear excess glucose and transport it into muscle cells.

Fitness for Long-Term Health

Muscle building isn’t something that only bodybuilders and athletes should worry about; for long-term health, everyone can benefit from building their LBM.

For this reason, it is important to monitor the changes in your lean body mass by having your body composition measured. InBody body composition analysis can divide your weight into its various components – Body Fat Mass, Lean Body Mass, etc. – which will give you a much clearer picture of your overall fitness and health.

Building lean body mass is an investment in your future. The more LBM you build while you are still young and healthy, the more you will have in reserve when you really need. But before you start adding protein shakes and resistance workouts to your daily regimen, you need a plan. The first step to building a healthy level lean body mass is to measure how much you have with a body composition analysis.  You can learn about the different types of BIA devices that analyze body composition and the types of outputs for each devices.

Aug 26 2021
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Body Fat Percentage doesn’t always give a complete picture 

By Blog, Body Composition, Fat mass, Fitness, Muscle

If you’re using body composition tools like calipers to measure your body fat percentage to assess your health, then you’re already ahead of most (like those who are still using BMI).

But be aware that body fat percentage doesn’t always paint a complete picture when it comes to body composition. What’s more, decreases in your body fat percentage don’t always mean fat loss.  That’s because body fat percentage is a simple equation of your fat mass divided by your total weight.

Percentage Body Fat = Body Fat Mass / Total Body Weight

In some ways, body fat percentage is the most basic of all body composition results, because it only requires your Fat, Fat-Free Mass (or Lean Body Mass), and total weight.

While fat and fat-free mass are enough to give you a body fat percentage value, it isn’t always enough to explain changes in body fat percentages or give enough information to determine whether your body fat levels are healthy. You will get much more context about what your body fat percentage means if you look at it alongside things like Skeletal Muscle Mass. These are the muscles in your body that you can grow and develop through exercise.

Without assessing your amount of Skeletal Muscle Mass, your body composition assessments are going to be incomplete.  You won’t be able to fully understand the changes in your body fat percentage, and you may also be misled by what your body fat percentage means.  Here are a few examples:

1. You’re working out, but body fat percentage doesn’t change (or increases)

This situation can occur when you are working out to gain muscle in order to improve your physique, but you aren’t seeing the changes in the mirror that you hoped to see as quickly as you’d like. When you check your body fat percentage, you don’t see any change despite a month of hard workouts. What’s going on?

The first thing to check is to see if your weight has changed. It probably has. If your weight has increased but your body fat percentage remains unchanged, this likely means that your SMM is increasing at the same time as your Fat Mass. As you increase musculature, fat gain can occur due to the caloric surpluses required to increase SMM. This is a well-recognized phenomenon and is commonly referred to in gym-speak as “bulking.”

 

Additionally, situations can occur in which after initial drops in body fat percentage, the percentage rises right back where it used to be after a couple months.  Why?

This is because your body has entered what is referred to as an anabolic state – the condition in which your body increases muscle production.  Your body will require more calories than what you’re used to in order to build more muscle than it had before.

Not all of these calories, however, are going toward muscle development.  Being in a calorie surplus can lead to fat gain as well, which can cause an increase in body fat percentage.

2. You’re Losing Weight, But Your Body Fat % Doesn’t Change (or increases)

Similar to #1, this situation also involves little or no change in body fat percentage but instead of occurring due to anabolism, this time, catabolism is the driving force behind the change.

In catabolism, the body is focused on reducing tissue, not building it.  In order to lose weight, especially fat, the body should be in a catabolic state; in order to be in a catabolic state, the body needs to be in a caloric deficit (taking in fewer calories than needed).  In gym speak, this is referred to as “cutting.”

If you observe that you’re losing weight, but you don’t see the results in the mirror that you’d like to see and notice that your body fat percentage is unchanged, this is because your SMM and Fat Mass are actually decreasing together.

 

Why would Skeletal Muscle Mass decrease when you’re trying to target body fat only?  Although there isn’t a singular cause, the majority of the time this is caused by improper training and diet.

Most weight loss is a combination of body fat and skeletal muscle.  That much is unavoidable. For this reason, preserving or even increasing muscle becomes a priority when encouraging the body to enter a catabolic state.  This means ensuring your nutrient intake is balanced while engaging in some kind of resistance or weight training.

Many people neglect these important precautions and cause their body to metabolize muscle as well as fat.  Depending on how much muscle is lost, body fat percentages can drop extremely slowly, stay the same, or in extreme circumstances, increase.

3. Your Body Fat Percentage is Acceptable, But You’re Underweight

At first, this doesn’t seem like it makes sense – how can you be at a healthy body fat percentage, but not be healthy overall?  Simple: you’re underweight.

Underweight individuals may have enviable body fat percentages which can lead some people into believing that they are healthier than they actually are. However, if you are underweight, this means that you don’t have enough muscle mass.  Being underweight doesn’t get as much popular attention as being overweight does, but over time, being underweight can lead to the development of osteoporosis, which is diagnosed when a person has low bone density.

Not having enough muscle mass will also become problematic if you get sick.  When you become sick, the body’s need for amino acids to power its immune and recovery processes increases, and it will look to your muscle mass for those amino acids.  Essentially, your body will start to break down muscle in order to fight and recover from disease, and if you’re underweight with a healthy body fat percentage, you won’t have enough muscle to easily fight off illness.

4. Your Body Fat Percentage is Acceptable, But You Have Muscle Imbalances

Even if you are at a healthy weight and have an acceptable body fat percentage, only having Fat and Fat-Free Mass as results can hide potential issues. Because Fat-Free Mass is a catchall term for everything in your body that isn’t attributed to fat, an absolute value for Fat-Free Mass can’t describe how well developed this mass is in terms of your overall body composition.  In order to see that, you would need to take a closer look at how this mass is distributed segmentally.

Specifically, people can have well developed Lean Body Mass areas in some parts of their bodies but not in others.  Some people prefer developing upper body muscle while neglecting lower body muscle development. Others may have what’s referred to as a bilateral imbalance, which occurs when one side of the body is stronger than the other.  Here’s what that looks like from a body composition analysis viewpoint:

In this example, this person has almost one pound of muscle difference between their right and left arm.  Although this might seem more of an aesthetic problem, significant muscle imbalances such as the one shown above can also contribute towards injury.  Shoulder muscle imbalances in volleyball players, for example, have been shown to increase the onset of shoulder pain and injury.

It’s Just One Number

Although your body fat percentage is a very significant and useful number, relying on any one number, even an important number like body fat percentage, will never provide you with a complete picture about your overall health.  While body fat percentage is a very good way to assess your weight, it only takes Body Fat (and by extension Fat-Free) Mass and Weight into account.

In order to maintain your weight and understand the changes that your body experiences over time, including your change in body fat percentage, you will need more specific values than just Fat and Fat-Free Mass.  If you don’t compare your body fat percentage to Skeletal Muscle Mass, you won’t be able to:

  • Understand increases and decreases in body fat percentage
  • Maintain a healthy body fat percentage in respect to a healthy weight and muscle mass level
  • Determine if your muscles are balanced

Your body is a very complex system of many components all working together. That is why it is very important to get as much information as possible in order to understand your weight and your health properly. Calipers are a good a start, but in order to assess whether you have a healthy body composition try devices like a DSM-BIA device, that will go beyond body fat percentage and give you your muscle mass and body water results.

Aug 05 2021
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How to Maintain Muscle Mass While Losing Fat During Lockdown? With General Manager of Peak Fitness Gurney Plaza – Mr. Leonardo Azevedo

By Blog, Fitness, Health, Muscle, Nutrition

You may not be able to crush your body composition’s goals during a public health crisis especially months of gym closure lately in Malaysia, but you can definitely keep from losing your hard gained muscle mass. We are so glad to have Mr. Leonardo Azevedo, General Manager of Peak Fitness Gurney Plaza who has over 22 years of experience in the Sports & Fitness industry, share us about his top 3 tips that can ensure you still maintain muscle mass while aiming for the body fat to fall off (even though your gym is still closed).

“Most of the time when people want to cut away their body fat and cut down to a healthier and more aesthetic physique, they often think the only way is with hours and hours of tireless exercise at the gym. But, if you can’t exercise at the gym due to our current Government restrictions, then all isn’t lost.” – says Mr. Leonardo.

A balanced food & calories intake, proper muscle stimulus and quality sleep can definitely change the way you look despite the challenges we face by being forced to workout at home. Sounds like a perfect recipe for losing your gains, doesn’t it?

Here’s why you shouldn’t worry about losing your gains during the lockdown with these 3 rules to help you out.

#1: Balanced Food and Calories Intake

You don’t need to find a bunch of weird or novel exercises in order to maintain some semblance of fitness. In fact, by controlling your calories intake and balancing the amount of nutrients such as Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats in your daily diet routine, you can definitely maintain your mass while still achieving fat loss. Based on Scientific research, it’s also recommended an average daily intake of 30 (female)/35 (male) calories per Kilogram of Body Weight to maintain the weight in individuals from 20 to 30 years old who exercise moderately (home workout) 3 to 5 times per week.

In order to maintain your Muscle Mass, the most used way to divide this total amount of calories by the nutrients you should intake daily macronutrient of  40:40:20 (Protein:Carbs:Fat). As per science we know that, a gram of carbohydrate and protein contains 4 calories each, and a gram of fat, though, contains 9 calories. Therefore, Mr. Leonardo also give an example of a calculation on daily macronutrients intake with the sample reference as follow :

Female who has total Body Weight 60KG (aged between 20 to 30 years old)

* Calories per day = 60KG x 30 calories = 1800 calories day

* Daily Protein Intake (40%) = 1800 x 0.40 = 720 calories / 4 calories (1 gram of protein) = 180grams of proteins per day.

* Daily Carbohydrate Intake (40%) = 1800 x 0.40 = 720 calories / 4 calories (1 gram of carb) = 180grams of carbohydrates per day.

* Daily Fat Intake (20%) = 1800 x 0.20 = 360 calories / 9 calories (1 gram of fat) = 40 grams of fats per day.

You can figure out the proper food based on its nutrients, speak to your certified personal trainer or look for a professional nutritionist to help you on a more personalized nutrition advice.

#2: Proper Muscle Stimulus 

When it comes to Muscle Mass maintenance, engaging the proper exercise intensity is very important to achieve optimum results. Functional training is, in most cases, the way to exercise from home. I also would recommend the usage of some household items to replace gym equipment. Suspension training, and small equipment such as dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells are very good and easy to handle at home. Besides that, it can produce a very efficient load as muscle stimulus. Always search for assistance from Fitness Professionals in order to create the best and most efficient way to get the best results working out from home. In order to ensure that you can be consistent in your workouts, there are some Professional Online Home Trainings that you can join as well.

#3: Improve Sleep Quality

You might think this counter productive to losing weight, as sleep doesn’t burn many calories. But as you sleep you recover and two important hormones come into play: Leptin and Ghrelin. These two hormones tell your body when it feels satiety and hunger. If you sleep badly, the levels of these hormones will be unbalanced and science has found that you’re more likely to be over eating and getting overweight.  Besides, poor sleep quality and short sleep duration are associated with an increased risk for muscle mass reduction. Thus, according to research, sleeping for 7-9 hours per night is crucial, especially if you are looking to change body composition, increase muscle mass and/or if you want to improve quality of life. Sleep enhances muscle recovery through protein synthesis and human growth hormone release as well. Like Mr. Leonardo said, he recommends at least 8 hours of good sleep every night.

 

Conclusion

Keep life and the gym workout in perspective. Your habitual mindset should keep up a healthy lifestyle, which it shouldn’t be affected by any of these challenges. When this is over—and it will be over at some point— we don’t want you to end up feeling worse, deconditioned, and incredibly detrained. One thing we should be grateful is: Staying fit is one way we may have to protect ourselves against getting sick over the years. A healthy body usually has a healthy immune system. Although it doesn’t give you any guarantees, well it’s certainly a better option than doing nothing. So do your best to be well.

**

Leonardo Azevedo

Mr. Leonardo Azevedo from Brazil with over 22 years of experience in the Sports & Fitness industry. Holding Bachelor’s Degree in Sports & Science, FIFA Certified Conditioning Coach, Specialized in Physiology of Exercise, Certification in Biomechanics of Exercise and Sports Nutrition, Extensive Experience in Fitness Business Management.Currently working as General Manager at Peak Fitness Gurney Plaza, Brazilian Eagles Football Academy Head Coach & Owner, Mitts Boxing Fitness MD, SEA Sales Representative at Rezzil Sports.

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