Brian (1s):
Hello and welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author,
Brian (8s):
And this podcast is for middle
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Aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
Brian (25s):
All, right Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I hope you had a great weekend and happy Tuesday. If you're listening to us on Tuesday, hopefully had a chance to listen to my interview with functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner Rachel Smith. We discussed how she helps people with autoimmune disease, mold illness, hormonal imbalances, and gut issues. We also discussed her health journey along with overcoming autoimmunity, gut health, the importance of minerals, her elimination diet, and much, much more. So if you haven't already, definitely check out episode of 3 82, my interview with Rachel Smith. Now on today's micro podcast, we are gonna touch on body composition plus health optimization.
Brian (1m 7s):
And the reason I bring this up is I'm actually on my way to a DEXA scan, which I recommend for all my clients and to anyone for that matter, who's looking to sort of get a baseline of where their body composition is at. This is a ratio of fat, bone and muscle in our bodies and there's a lot of ways to measure it. There's a lot of devices out there. I think the DEXA is sort of the gold standard. They're not all perfect, but if as long as you have an idea of where you're at, you could do the simple test of just taking measurements around the waist, arm, hips, and quads. But body composition is obviously a little bit more tougher to differentiate. And, you know, it could depend on a lot of different things.
Brian (1m 47s):
Gender, race, age, hormonal status. I've been using DEXA scans for about two to three years, and I typically do them just once or twice per year. And, you know, one thing to keep in mind if you are gonna do a a, a body fat composition measurement is typically for males, people should aim for typically 10 to 15% body fat. For males and women, typically 18 to 24% is optimal. Now, like I said to you before, everyone's a little bit different. I don't think it's about being perfect. And just also too, you know, the individuals who have less body fat percentage not are, are not always healthy. you know, the people that are on the stage who have, you know, five, six, 7% body fat, they lead a very restrictive lifestyle and typically other things take a toll such as thyroid and other hormonal markers.
Brian (2m 38s):
So it's not always about lower is better. You just wanna sort of be in an optimal range depending on you know, where you're at in your health journey. Also too, one thing to keep in mind is visceral fat versus body fat versus muscle mass. This is a good sort of ratio to understand. Visceral fat is the type of body fat that surrounds our, your organs within the abdominal cavity. A certain level of visceral fat is essential for safeguarding our organs, but too much can increase your risk. For diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other major health issues, body fat lives directly beneath the skin. It acts sort of as that protective layer of padding between your bones and muscles and assists in the function of blood vessels and nerves, controls body temperature and helps attach the skin to muscle and bone like visceral fat.
Brian (3m 30s):
Too much body fat can hinder health optimization. Now axis body fat is less harmful and typically easier to shed than visceral fat. And lastly, muscle mass is super important. This is a metabolically active tissue and muscle mass is simply the percentage of muscle in your body in relation to your overall body composition. So compared to visceral fat and body fat, both are critical. Muscle mass is an essential aspect of anyone's health optimization journey and obviously as we age, we want to avoid sarcopenia and make sure that our muscle mass is, is either maintaining or increasing as we get older. So growing your muscle mass not only helps you become stronger and healthier, it can help you shed excess body fat more efficiently.
Brian (4m 13s):
The important of understanding these ratios regarding body composition and muscle mass and fat mass is important because a lot of times people rely on the scale and the scale can be very deceiving. So body composition is not about weight loss or even physical appearance. Instead, optimal body composition is a signal of health and longevity within this focus, more on gaining muscle mass and shedding excess fat and less about losing overall pounds. And this is sort of what's called a body recomposition, which will still help you achieve the results you want by lowering your wrists of certain health concerns. Achieving a body recomposition, I would say three important things should take place.
Brian (4m 55s):
One is making sure that you're getting adequate protein. Two is adding strength training to your exercise routine. And three, adjusting your diet to prioritize nutrient dense, rich nutrient dense, rich foods over calorie dense, rich foods. And this will go a long way in helping you recomp your body and making sure that you're in the optimal range. Definitely, I recommend looking, if you have a DEXA scan in your area, I'll put a link in the show notes so you can check that out. And you know, it starts, it's important to measure, monitor, and adjust where you're at And, you know, slowly help get you on your way to having a healthy composition of both visceral fat, body fat and muscle mass.
Brian (5m 36s):
So just wanted to bring this up. Hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to email me, Brian at Brian Gryn dot com, and I will talk to you on Friday with another great interview. Thanks
Brian (5m 46s):
For listening to the Get Lean Eat Clean Podcast. I understand there are millions of other
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Podcasts out there
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And you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned In, this episode. Feel free to subscribe
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To the podcast
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And share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
