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In terms of your health, your body fat percentage should fall within a certain range. For men, that means a body fat percentage of less than 21 percent, and for women it's less than 31 percent.
Both are important measures of health, but body fat — and whether you store it around your middle — may be more helpful in determining whether you have a healthy weight or a higher risk for ...
One easy way to gauge if you have a healthy amount of belly fat is by measuring waist circumference, which is generally considered 35 inches or less for most women and 40 inches or less for most men.
The typically female (or gynecoid) pattern of body fat distribution around the hips, thighs, and buttocks is subcutaneous fat, and therefore poses less of a health risk compared to visceral fat. [37] [38] Like all other fat organs, subcutaneous fat is an active part of the endocrine system, secreting the hormones leptin and resistin. [35]
Essential body fat is necessary to maintain life and reproductive functions. The percentage of essential body fat for women is greater than that for men, due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions. Storage body fat consists of fat accumulation in adipose tissue, part of which protects internal organs in the
Some nutrients can be stored – the fat-soluble vitamins – while others are required more or less continuously. Poor health can be caused by a lack of required nutrients, or for some vitamins and minerals, too much of a required nutrient. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized by the body, and must be obtained from food.
Starvation ensues when the fat reserves are completely exhausted and protein is the only fuel source available to the body. Thus, after periods of starvation, the loss of body protein affects the function of important organs, and death results, even if there are still fat reserves left unused.
Lipid metabolism is often considered the digestion and absorption process of dietary fat; however, there are two sources of fats that organisms can use to obtain energy: from consumed dietary fats and from stored fat. [5] Vertebrates (including humans) use both sources of fat to produce energy for organs such as the heart to function. [6]