Calories are units of energy that the body uses as fuel. Food and beverages (apart from water, black coffee and tea, and diet drinks) contain calories. The human body burns a certain amount of calories through physical activity and also simply by being alive – the beating of the heart, activity of the brain and nervous system, and general body processes all require energy.

When we take in more calories than we burn, our body stores the excess calories in fat cells. Essentially, body fat is stored energy. But how exactly do body fat and energy levels relate to one another? Does having more body fat mean more energy? Read on to learn more about how body fat percentage can influence energy levels.

What Is Body Fat Percentage?

Body fat percentage is the percentage of a person’s body mass that is composed of fat. There are six types of body fat:

1. Essential fat is, as the name suggests, essential for life. It plays a crucial role in regulating body temperature, hormone levels, vitamin absorption, and cell structure.
2. White fat cells are the main type of fat cell in the body. White fat is the body’s largest energy reserve. People who are overweight have an overabundance of white fat.
3. Brown fat cells are packed with mitochondria, which burn fatty acids to generate heat and keep the body warm.
4. Beige fat cells function somewhere between white and brown fat cells.
5. Subcutaneous fat is the layer of fat located underneath our skin. It’s made up of white, brown, and beige fat cells.
6. Visceral fat is white fat that is stored around our internal organs.

What Is A Healthy Body Fat Percentage?

A healthy body fat percentage for females younger than 50 is between 14% and 20%. For females over aged 50, a healthy body fat percentage is between 8% and 27%.

A healthy body fat percentage for males younger than 50 is between 8% and 18%. For males aged over 50, a healthy body fat percentage is between 8% and 22%.

Why Is It Important To Have A Healthy Body Fat Percentage?

Having a healthy body fat percentage means you have a better chance of being in good physical and psychological health.

If your body fat percentage is too high, you will have an increased risk of:

• Clinical obesity
• Autoimmune diseases
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

If your body fat percentage is too low, you will have an increased risk of:

• Dangerously low heart rate
• Decreased thyroid hormone production
• Loss of reproductive function
• Hormone imbalances
• Dehydration
• Loss of muscle tissue
• Fragile bones

What Factors Affect Energy Levels?

There are myriad different factors that affect energy levels. Some of the main ones include:

• Body fat percentage
• Your level of aerobic fitness
• The amount of muscle mass on your body
• Whether you have gotten enough good-quality sleep
• How hydrated you are
• Time of day (some people are more energetic in the morning; others are more energetic later in the day)
• Whether you are in a fasted or fed state
• The quality of your diet
• Hormone levels
• Whether your body has all of the vitamins and nutrients it requires

How Body Fat Percentage Can Influence Energy Levels

Research suggests that energy expenditure is higher in people with a higher body fat percentage. This is because individuals with a high body fat percentage tend to spend more energy performing activities as a consequence of higher weight burden. Further research suggests that people with a high body fat percentage “experience fatigue and decreased physical endurance that indicates diminished energy supply in the body”.

This shows that people with a higher body fat percentage require more energy to power their bodies, while at the same time also having a diminished energy supply. In turn, this indicates that people with a higher body fat percentage may feel less energetic than people with a lower body fat percentage.

Why Does Body Fat Percentage Influence Energy Levels?

Research suggests that people can have a high body fat percentage for various reasons, including metabolic events that disturb energy metabolism. These metabolic events cause diminished energy supply and result in people having lower energy levels as the body attempts to save energy to sustain metabolic functioning.

How Does Body Weight Affect Energy Requirements?

A person with a higher body weight will have higher energy requirements because more energy is required to perform activities as a consequence of the higher weight burden.

Does More Body Fat Mean More Energy?

More body fat means that a person is literally carrying around a source of energy in the form of body fat. However, carrying this extra weight will tend to make a person tired because they must expend more energy to move their body, and because their excess body fat is caused, in part, by metabolic events that cause the body to overeat and to have a diminished energy supply.

Does Low Body Fat Affect Energy?

Having an unhealthily low amount of body fat can adversely affect energy levels. Research on bodybuilders who were in contest preparation and whose body fat percentage had dipped below 5% showed that they experienced a decrease in strength and decreased testosterone levels while at these low body fat percentages. Both decreased strength and decreased testosterone levels can have a negative effect on energy levels.

Healthy Body Fat Percentage = Optimal Energy Levels

As we’ve seen, people with an unhealthily high or an unhealthily low level of body fat are likely to experience reduced levels of energy. We can conclude that to give yourself the best chance of having high energy levels, you should strive to maintain a healthy body fat percentage.

How To Optimize Body Fat Percentage

You can optimize body fat percentage through the following methods:

• Caloric restriction
• Intermittent fasting
• Eating a healthy, balanced diet
• Exercise
• Weight training
• Getting enough good-quality sleep

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A well-functioning immune system is essential for your overall health and wellbeing. An optimally operational immune system will defend the body against foreign pathogens and disease. It will also not attack the body or cause unnecessary and harmful chronic inflammation (the way it does in the case of autoimmune disease).

Many factors affect how well your immune system operates, and it’s important to make lifestyle choices that are likely to lead to your immune system working well. Let’s talk about how body fat percentage can influence immune function.

What Is Body Fat Percentage?

A person’s body fat percentage is their total mass of fat divided by their total body mass and multiplied by 100. It is the percentage of their entire body that is made of fat. Body fat percentage is seen as a good indicator of a person’s overall health and fitness status. Studies suggest that body fat percentage can have an effect on immune function.

How Is Body Fat Percentage Measured?

The main methods of measuring body fat percentage are:

• Skinfold measurements
• Body fat scales
• Circumference measurements
• Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan
• Air displacement plethysmography
• 3D body scanner
• Hydrodensitometry (underwater weighing)

The Different Types Of Body Fat

Body fat comes in six types. These are:

• Essential fat: Essential fat helps to regulate body temperature, vitamin absorption, cell structure, and hormones, and is essential for optimal health.
• White fat: White fat cells store fat in the form of triglycerides and are the main form of fat cell in the body. White fat is the body’s largest energy reserve, and it provides cushioning for the organs and external body structure. When people are overweight, the majority of their excess weight will be in the form of white fat.
• Brown fat: Brown fat cells burn energy. Brown fat is packed with mitochondria, which burn fatty acids to generate heat and keep the body warm. Brown fat is especially prevalent in babies.
• Beige fat: Beige fat cells function somewhere between white and brown fat cells. They help burn fat rather than store it.
• Subcutaneous fat: Subcutaneous fat is the layer of fat directly underneath our skin. Subcutaneous fat is made up of a combination of white, brown, and beige fat, and makes up about 90% of fat in our body.
• Visceral fat: Visceral fat is white fat that is stored within the abdominal cavity around organs such as the heart, liver, and pancreas.

What Does Body Fat Percentage Indicate?

Body fat percentage can indicate whether you are a healthy weight, overweight, or underweight. However, body fat percentage is not a foolproof indicator of general health or of a healthy lifestyle.

Body fat percentage depends on multiple genetic factors that vary between individuals, such as metabolism, activity levels, and musculature. Also, where body fat is stored has a large impact on health outcomes. For example, if you have a healthy body fat percentage but an unhealthy amount of your fat is visceral fat around your waist, you may be at increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

What Is A Healthy Body Fat Percentage?

A healthy body fat percentage for males is generally between 8% and 18%. When men get to age 50 and over, a body fat percentage of between 8% and 22% is considered healthy.

A healthy body fat percentage for females is generally between 14% and 20%. From age 50 and over, a body fat percentage of between 8% and 27% is considered healthy.

Risks Of An Unhealthy Body Fat Percentage

If you have an unhealthy body fat percentage, you increase the risk of various negative health outcomes. These include:

• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Fatigue
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• Autoimmune diseases

If your body fat percentage is too low, you risk:

• Hormone imbalances
• Loss of reproductive function
• Dehydration
• Loss of muscle tissue
• Dry, fragile bones

What Is The Immune System And What Does It Do?

The immune system is the network of organs, tissues, and cells that prevents invaders such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites from taking hold in the body and causing disease. When germs get into the body, the immune system triggers the release of special cells that attack them. So how does body fat affect the immune system?

How Body Fat Percentage Can Influence Immune Function

Studies suggest that excess visceral fat, particularly around the stomach, can trigger the immune system to release proinflammatory immune cells. By circulating in the blood and causing inflammation, these cells can damage the body rather than protect it.

Can Excessive Body Fat Lead To Immune Disorders?

Studies suggest that excessive body fat can lead to immune disorders that cause inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer.

Can Low Body Fat Affect The Immune System?

Studies suggest that lowering body fat can change immune system activity quickly and positively and reverse some of the adverse inflammatory changes seen in obese people with diabetes.

Lowered body fat percentage causes the immune system to reduce the amount of proinflammatory cells circulating in the blood. This reduces chronic inflammation throughout the body and can improve prediabetes and type-2 diabetes.

How To Reduce Body Fat Percentage

You can reduce body fat percentage through:

• Reducing alcohol intake
• Eating a healthy diet
• Getting more sleep
• Aerobic exercise
• Weight training

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The liver is a vital organ. As well as being the largest solid organ found within the body, it performs a lot of crucial tasks. It removes any toxins that happen to get into the blood, helps to regulate and maintain proper sugar levels, and ensures that the blood clots as it should. While these are among the most important functions of the liver, it also plays a role in hundreds of other functions that the body needs to perform to stay alive, such as producing bile.

When the liver isn’t working as it should, every other system can be compromised. Toxins can build up, causing illness; inadequate bile production can lead to digestive issues; and a lack of sugar regulation can cause lowered energy levels. To say the liver is important would be a vast understatement!

There are several things that can compromise liver health. One example is a high body fat percentage. But what does body fat percentage mean, and how does fat affect the liver? Read on to learn all you need to know about how body fat percentage can influence liver function.

What is body fat percentage?

Every person has to have some level of body fat to survive. Typically, men need less than women, but both require it because fat on the body is used for a variety of functions.

Body fat percentage is essentially the way levels of fat on the body are measured against everything else such as lean tissue, muscle mass, organs, and body water. Many people use body fat percentage as a way to gauge their overall health, and the measurement is often used to determine a person’s fitness level.

Body fat percentage is also more important than total weight. For example, if a person is overweight according to the Body Mass Index (BMI) but has a healthy body fat percentage, their overall level of health is better than someone who falls into the category of healthy on the BMI scale but has a significant amount of body fat.

As a general rule, calculating body fat percentage is a better indicator of overall health because it shows a better picture of fatty tissue. People with higher levels of fatty tissue are often at risk of having obesity-related disease, so even if a person fits into the normal weight category, they could be in trouble if they have a lot of body fat and little lean muscle mass.

How does fat affect liver function?

The liver is supposed to have a small amount of fat in it. However, when those levels increase because a person eats more sugar or fat than their body can process, it can lead to a buildup of fat within the organ. In turn, this can lead to various health issues – most notably, fatty liver.

Fatty liver is a broad term used to describe too much fat in the liver. There are various types of the condition, all of which can lead to the organ becoming damaged or scarred. Scarring, in more severe cases, can lead to liver failure, which is when the liver cannot perform its functions.

There are two types of common fatty liver disease: non-alcoholic and alcoholic fatty liver disease. The former is caused when fat builds up within the liver without the presence of excess alcohol use, while the latter is closely associated with excessive consumption of alcohol. The cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease isn’t as clear as its alcoholic counterpart; however, some factors that can play a role in its development can include other health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome.

Body fat and liver function

There is a clear connection between body fat percentage and liver function because of how fat can affect the way the liver works. However, it’s worth mentioning here that not all types of body fat are the same.

The human body can hold two types of fat. The first is subcutaneous fat, which is stored in the layer located right beneath the skin. Typically, people hold most of their fat in that layer, and roughly 90% of body fat is thought to be subcutaneous. While subcutaneous fat is associated with a higher degree of fat in the liver and has been shown to contribute to fatty liver disease, it’s actually the second type of fat that people need to pay more attention to when thinking about liver health.

Visceral fat is often referred to as “hidden fat” because of the way it sits on, or in, the body. Unlike subcutaneous fat that sits on the outside of the body, visceral fat is stored inside the belly and ends up wrapping itself around vital organs, including the liver. Research shows that visceral fat is strongly associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and that those who have more visceral fat on their bodies are at a higher risk of experiencing liver dysfunction.

The association between fat and liver health is strong, and it’s thought that body fat percentage can be a good measurement to use when determining a person’s overall risk of developing fatty liver disease. Basically, the more fat a person has on their body, the more likely they are to have a buildup of fatty tissue within the liver, and to suffer the subsequent health problems.

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