Ep 28: Body Composition for Health and Performance (From Overweight or Skinny Fat to Lean)

Whether you’re trying to lose weight, get healthier, increase strength or performance, or just look and feel better in your body, improving your body composition is the path to overall health.

Body composition refers to the percentage of muscle versus fat in your body, which determines how “lean” you are. The lower your body fat percentage (or higher your muscle percentage) relative to your weight, the leaner you are.

Someone who weighs 180 pounds at 40% body fat is not as lean as someone who weighs 180 pounds at 25% body fat. This is more about composition than scale weight.

But why is “leanness” important?

Yes, being leaner affects how you look and feel. Even better, improving your body composition goes way beyond aesthetics and has numerous benefits for health, performance, and longevity.

Everyone can benefit from improving their body composition, and today we’re diving into the topic, including its benefits and the most important priorities for achieving a leaner, healthier physique.

Then I go over three scenarios—skinny fat, somewhat overweight, and very overweight—and discuss strategies for improving body composition with each.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What exactly is body composition?
• How body composition gets worse over time (unless you do something about it)
• The concept of "body fat overshooting" from repeated dieting
• Benefits of improving composition
• How to improve body composition
• Applying these strategies if you're skinny fat, somewhat overweight, or very overweight

RELATED LINKS

• Join our Facebook community if you'd rather watch the video and to access the nutrition blueprint PDF for this episode
• MacroFactor food logging app (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - A 6-month coaching program for lifters over 40 who are done collecting information and ready to have real human coaches watch their data and know what to focus on each week.

📱 Get Fitness Lab (exclusive 20% off) - The #1 adaptive fitness and nutrition app. Daily coaching, workouts, and biofeedback-based guidance to help you build muscle and lose fat over 40.

👥 Join our Facebook community -  For adults over 40 who want to build muscle, lose fat, and stop following bad advice. Weekly Q&A threads, coaching insights, and real chat with other lifters.

👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram