For example, if you weigh 100 pounds, and you have 20 pounds of fat, you are at 20% body fat. The remainder is called lean body weight and is composed of muscle and bone. Body composition tests are simple, quick and painless. Most health clubs or physicians can test your body composition. The most accurate and expensive method uses a pool to determine water displacement. From this displacement, body composition can be measured. The most common and least expensive method uses calipers. This is a tweezer-like device that measures the amount of fat present in a given area of your body. From this information, body composition can be calculated.

A normal measure for women is a body fat composition of 20-22%. An exceptionally good measure for women is around 16-18%. For men, normal body fat composition is lower than in women. A body fat composition of 12-15% is normal, with an exceptional measure being between 8-10%. Before you begin any change in lifestyle, get a body composition measurement. That way you can measure your progress as you begin to change your lifestyle. Many diets prescribed today have a detrimental effect on the body composition.

For the sake of losing total weight, many people lose both body fat and lean body weight. The goal of your healthy lifestyle should be to lose body fat while increasing lean body weight or muscle since lean body weight helps you burn more calories.

Quick Tip #9: Measure body composition: the ratio of body fat to total weight. Get a measurement before you change your lifestyle so you can track your progress.

You Are What You Eat

Now that you know what you need to shoot for, how do you achieve your goal of a healthier lifestyle? The phrase "you are what you eat" is a good place to start and is the single most important step to living a healthier lifestyle. If you eat fat, you become fat. If you eat junk food, you become junk food. The focus of this section is to help you make the right choices before you start eating. You should know and understand what you're eating, even if it's bad for you. There are no planned diets or recipes in this book -- only the building blocks to help you make the right choices to eat consistently healthy.