I'm told my body fat percentage is 25%. What exactly does this mean, and why is it so important to track during weight loss?
Body fat percentage represents the proportion of fat relative to your total body weight. Rather than focusing on a simple number on the scale, it is crucial to understand your body composition—specifically, what your weight consists of. When muscle mass decreases, your basal metabolic rate drops, creating a vicious cycle where energy consumption decreases and fat accumulates more rapidly. Excessive fasting often leads to muscle loss first, triggering a 'survival mode' where the body conserves energy, making you more prone to weight gain even with minimal caloric intake.
Many people initially attempt extreme calorie restriction, only to find that while the scale drops, their physical appearance remains unchanged. Medically, a high body fat percentage indicates that your 'energy-burning factories' (muscles) are insufficient while your 'storage units' (fat) are oversized. While Western medicine views this as a metabolic efficiency issue, Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) examines it through the lens of 'waste accumulation' and 'transport capacity.'
Specifically, when Qi is stagnant, it can lead to the formation of Phlegm-Fluid (Dam-eum, 痰飮) or Blood Stasis (Eo-hyeol, 瘀血), both of which significantly slow down lipid metabolism. Furthermore, if you suffer from Spleen Deficiency (Bi-heo, 脾虛), your body may struggle to process nutrients efficiently, causing them to be stored as fat instead of being utilized for energy. Therefore, managing your body fat percentage is not merely about shedding fat, but about restarting your body's metabolic switches. It is essential to identify the root cause of why your body is retaining fat. I encourage you to visit the clinic for a professional diagnosis to address these underlying imbalances.
Clinician review