We are born with miraculously integrated bodies and minds. Our lungs draw in vital oxygen, essential for producing energy. Our hearts ceaselessly pump blood through vast networks of vessels to all of our tissues and organs. Raw materials are transformed into fuel by our digestive systems. Our muscles and bones propel us through the world, allowing us first to stand, then walk, then play and work.

Each day our brains take in a barrage of new information, filtering it, selectively storing it, and adapting their way of working accordingly. At the end of each day, we recharge and reset our systems by sleeping. All of us come equipped with a self-contained set of tools that, properly used, may allow us to live 100 years, or maybe even longer.

Beginning early in our lives, though, our genes, our environment, our culture, and our own free will conspire to test this marvelous organism—sometimes to the breaking point. There are people who maintain their health and live long, fruitful lives, sustaining minimal wear and tear. But others—perhaps most of us—push our bodies to the limit. Instead of eating the way our bodies were designed to eat, we indulge in foods filled with sugars and other refined carbohydrates, trans fats, and unhealthy food additives. Instead of walking to nearby destinations, we drive our cars. We sit most of the day. Some of us smoke. Some of us drink too much. Many of us allow negative feelings and stress to rule our thoughts. Not many of us get adequate sleep. The wrong choices trap us in a lifestyle that actually endangers our lives.

The effects of these poor choices compromise every system that keeps us well, and the damage is not pretty. After years of a diet high in refined carbohydrates, arteries become narrow and clogged with plaque, raising the risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack. We find ourselves on the unhealthy path to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and cancer. Eating too much of the wrong foods and getting too little exercise allows fat to build up around our organs and beneath our skin. Smoking fills our lungs with toxins, damaging our health in myriad ways. Not getting enough sleep worsens our memories and disrupts an important hormone cycle that prevents us from overeating. And too much stress compromises our body's natural immune system, the very tool that would help us combat much of the other damage.

Return to the Path of Good Health

Fortunately, we have the ability to choose.

That’s where our series of HealthJournals on Wellness come in. Our Wellness series will show you how to completely change your lifestyle to a healthy and sustainable one that will restore your vitality and reverse chronic medical conditions. It will provide you with innumerable health benefits. It will lessen dangerous abdominal fat, lower chronic inflammation, and reduce the threat of other chronic diseases. Your risk of getting heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases will be greatly reduced. You will be likely to live longer, too. What’s more, your systems and organs will be provided with all the nutrients they require, so that your hunger will be satisfied, and your body brought into homeostatic balance.

This wellness information is based on real science that refutes current mainstream medical notions of what we should be eating. In this series, we explain the most natural way to eat—so that fat melts away and the body’s hormonal systems rebalance themselves. In doing so, we turn popular notions of a “healthy diet” on their head. Moreover, we give you all the leading science on other aspects of wellness in your life—including how to break your bad habits, the benefits of sleep, how to de-stress, and the real benefits of exercising.

It’s rarely too late to make changes that can reverse damage to your abused organs and tissues. Even people who are sensitive to carbohydrates, and therefore genetically predisposed to putting on weight, can get back on the path to good health. By eating the right foods, exercising, modifying your negative habits, quitting smoking, sleeping well, and celebrating life, you can reverse many chronic conditions—and increase your enjoyment of life immeasurably.

We hope that you will continue to explore the miracle that is your body, knowing that the good choices you are making will enable you to enjoy a life full of activity and fulfillment. You have the power to keep your body and mind healthy, strong, and alive. You can live longer and live better.

To life!

Wellness and Tracking Your Health – Measure and Track Your Personal Biomarkers for Optimal Health

A complete personal health analysis establishes your wellness baseline, or starting point. You can use this baseline to track all aspects of your health as you begin to lose weight, as well as to see how far you’ve come over time. As you’ll see, there are measurements that can be done at home, such as weight and BMI, but if you want to go the distance to obtain a true measure of your health, there are other tests, such as blood tests, that must be done at a doctor’s office. All are important in assessing your starting health and making yourself accountable and motivated to continue.

Before you start on your wellness journey, you need to know the current state of your health.

If you’re like most people, you probably think you have a pretty good idea of where you stand in terms of health right now. But that assessment may not be as accurate as you think it is. By baselining your health, you can uncover hidden conditions, such as high blood pressure and kidney problems, that can spell big trouble later on if you don’t catch them now.

Just as importantly, establishing your wellness baseline with biomarkers (short for “biological markers”) allows you to track changes in your health over time. Using biomarkers, you can measure the progress you make on your health journey—and that can be very motivating!

Learn everything you need to know about assessing your current health, and monitoring your health during your weight-loss journey. Included are tests and measurements that can be done at home as well as others that require the help of a professional. You’ll learn why these tests are important and how they relate to your overall health.

What Are Biomarkers?

You can think of biomarkers as telling the story of your personal biological health. Each biomarker is an indication of some aspect of wellness or of the potential for disease, and each can provide a benchmark for personal health goals. It’s not too difficult to identify whether or not someone is overweight, but the full story of how excess weight harms health is spelled out by biomarkers. They provide indications of just how well your body is functioning. Some biomarkers are macroscopic and clearly visible, such as your weight and height. Others involve microscopic measurements, such as your blood test results.

While measurements of some biomarkers, for example weight, can be taken at home, others require lab testing and a professional assessment from your doctor.

You can start building your baseline of health and weight loss information by performing certain key measurements yourself. Your weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, body fat and lean muscle mass percentage, resting heart rate, and respiratory rate are important factors in assessing your current health as well as your progress in improving your health. These initial numbers are crucial both for indicating where you are now and for helping you gauge how much needs to be changed. Once you decide that you want a permanent repair, not just a quick fix, gather your tape measure, scale, and calculator. Be sure to note your findings in a journal so that you can keep track of your progress over time.

Here’s how to perform the measurements that will form the basis of your own personal health record.

Let’s get your at-home-measurements started by stepping on the scale. While your weight, taken on a basic-model scale, can’t tell the full story of your health or fitness level, it’s still an important number and a great place to start. Seeing the number on the scale get smaller as you work to regain your health is exciting and can provide great motivation.

Keep in mind that your goal while losing weight is to build lean muscle and to lose excess fat. When you accomplish that, the weight changes on the scale may not appear so dramatic, as muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue.

You may already own a basic-model scale, but if you’re in the market for a new one, consider investing in a bioimpedance scale. They’re not very expensive and, as we’ll explain later in more detail, bioimpedance scales can reveal what percentage of your weight is unhealthy, excess fat, and what percentage is lean muscle.

How to Measure Your Weight

Weighing yourself is pretty straightforward, but you can track your weight change more accurately by weighing yourself once a week, naked, and at the same time of day each time. First thing in the morning, before you’ve eaten, is usually your lowest weight—timing that some wellness warriors find motivating!

How do you know if you’re considered overweight or obese? Recent guidelines call for classifying obesity by measuring body mass index (BMI). A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is normal; a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 is overweight; a BMI between 30.0 and 39.9 is obese; and a BMI of over 40 is morbidly (severely) obese.

How to Measure Your BMI

Calculating BMI is done using your weight and height. Measure your weight in pounds or kilograms using a basic-model or bioimpedance scale. You’ll need to measure your height in inches or meters using a tape measure or yardstick. Once you have these numbers, use one of the following equations:

IMAGE: BMI formula using pounds (lbs) and inches (in)

IMAGE: BMI formula using kilograms (kg) and meters (m)

If you’re a little rusty with a calculator, you can use the following chart instead. Or, once you have your accurate height and weight, you can use one of the many online BMI calculators to compute your body mass index for you.

Pros of BMI

• BMI is an inexpensive and easy way to calculate body mass
• It has standardized cutoff points for overweight and obesity
• BMI correlates fairly well with body fat percentage as measured by the most accurate methods

Cons of BMI

• BMI does not take into account differing age, gender, or body composition. For example, a bodybuilder with dense bones and a muscular build may be labeled as overweight according to BMI classifications, when he clearly is not. On the other side of the equation, elderly people with low bone density and low muscle mass may weigh less than others of the same height, even if they carry too much body fat. They may therefore have misleadingly low BMIs.

Waist-to-hip ratio is a measurement that compares the size of your hips to the size of your waist. In healthy adults, the waist measurement should be smaller than the hip measurement. Having a larger waist, or belly, may be a sign that you have too much dangerous visceral fat—that’s fat that sits deep inside of your belly and surrounds your organs. It may also indicate that you have too much fat in your liver. Because the presence of excess visceral and liver fat can indicate a higher risk for obesity related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, some researchers feel that waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is a better risk assessment tool than BMI.

How to Measure Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio

A tape measure is the best tool for an at-home measurement of your waist-to-hip ratio. You’ll need a cloth or flexible plastic measuring tape, not a metal one, as you’ll need to wrap the tape around your body. For both the waist and hip measurements, you should stand with your feet close together and your weight evenly distributed. Wear little or no clothing and make sure that the tape is parallel to the floor for both measurements.

Technically, your waist should be measured at the midpoint between the lower edge of your last rib and the top of your hip bone. However, this spot can be difficult to find, so a more practical idea is simply to measure around the smallest part of your waist or about 1 inch above your bellybutton (it helps to look in a mirror). Be sure to measure your waist after you've exhaled, and don't suck in your belly!

Next, measure the circumference of your hips. Your hip measurement should be taken around the widest part of your buttocks or hips. You can refer to the following diagram when taking your measurements.

Once you have the two measurements, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement:

Males with a ratio below 0.95 and females with a ratio below 0.8 are at low risk of complications from carrying excess visceral fat. Males with a ratio above 1.0 and females with a ratio above 0.85 are at high risk. Men and women with ratios falling in-between are at moderate risk.

Pros of WHR Measurement

• Good correlation with body fat percentage as measured by the most accurate methods
• Inexpensive
• Studies show waist-to-hip ratio predicts development of disease and death in adults

Cons of WHR Measurement

• More prone to measurement error because two measurements are required
• May be difficult to accurately measure the hips
• Potentially complex to interpret, since increased waist-to-hip ratio can be caused by increased abdominal fat or by decreased lean muscle mass around the hips
• Can be difficult to accurately measure individuals with a BMI of 35 or higher

Generally speaking, a low heart rate when you are at rest indicates that your heart is working efficiently. As you exercise and become more fit, your heart will beat fewer times per minute. The heart is a muscle, after all, and like other muscles it gains strength with regular exercise. This makes its pumping action more efficient. A stronger heart muscle can move more oxygen-rich blood through the blood vessels with each beat, so it does not need to pump as rapidly. It can also rest more between beats.

How to Measure Your Resting Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate is best measured when you first wake up in the morning, even before you get out of bed. To measure your heart rate, place two fingers (your index and middle finger) between the bone and the tendon on the inside of your wrist, below the thumb. You can also feel your pulse just underneath the curve of your jaw bone on your neck. Count the number of times your heart beats in 15 seconds. Multiply this number by 4 for your total beats per minute.

If you have trouble finding your pulse, you can always buy a heart rate monitor, or download one of the many mobile apps that allow you to use your phone as a heart rate monitor.

A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. A well-trained athlete, however, might have a normal resting heart rate closer to 40 beats per minute. Talk to your doctor if your resting heart rate is consistently above 100 beats per minute or below 60 beats per minute.

Your respiration rate is the number of times you breathe in and out in one minute. When you exert yourself—for instance, when you're exercising—your respiration rate temporarily increases. As you recover, you return to your resting respiration rate.

Your cardiovascular system (your heart and blood vessels) grows more efficient as your physical fitness improves, and one result is that your respiration rate lowers. You’ll also find that your respiration rate recovers to its resting rate more quickly after exercising or exerting yourself.

How to Measure Your Respiration Rate

You can measure your respiration rate by counting the number of breaths you take in 15 seconds and then multiplying that number by four. Your results may be more accurate if you count your breaths, in and out, over a full minute. The normal respiration rate for an adult ranges from 15 to 20 breaths per minute, at rest.

Your body fat percentage is the portion of your body weight that comes from fat. Once you take up positive habits—regular exercise and a diet based on nutrient-rich whole foods—you should see your body fat percentage decrease. Healthy weight loss comes from losing body fat, not lean body mass.

How to Measure Your Body Fat Percentage

The bioimpedance scale mentioned earlier can measure both your weight and body fat percentage. Because electricity flows at a different pace through fat and lean body mass (the rest of your body that is not fat), a bioimpedance scale can send an electrical current through your body and measure the proportion of fat tissue present. (Don’t worry, you won’t feel anything!) These scales are not perfectly accurate, but the readings will give you an indication of whether your body fat is decreasing over time. Be aware that these scales must be properly calibrated to give a meaningful result.

There are different types of bioimpedance scales. The most common type is very similar to a basic-model scale that you step onto. There are also handheld bioimpedance scales, as well as scales that combine the features of both types. Step-on bioimpedance scales send the electrical current through the lower half of your body, and the handheld version sends it through the upper half. We all carry fat in different areas of our bodies, so there can be a benefit to having a bioimpedance scale that has both the step-on and handheld options.

You should measure your body fat percentage at the same time you measure your weight (once a week, preferably in the morning and before you eat a meal). Also note that your level of hydration can affect your body fat percentage reading, so try to keep your hydration level consistent each time you measure.

A healthy body fat range for men is 10–25%. Men should maintain a fat percentage of at least 5%. Those with body fat over 26% are categorized as obese. A healthy body fat range for women is 18–31%. Women should maintain at least 13% fat. Women with a body fat percentage of over 32% are considered obese.

If you’re not sure you want to buy a bioimpedance scale, continue reading to learn about the other ways of measuring your body fat. Most of these alternatives involve seeing a professional.

Skin Fold Caliper

A skin fold caliper is a device that measures the thickness of a fold of your skin together with its underlying layer of fat. By performing this measurement at key locations on your body, you can obtain a fairly accurate estimate of your body fat percentage. When you purchase a skin fold caliper, it should come with instructions on how to accurately take a measurement as well as guidelines as to where on the body measurements should be made.

Once you have performed all of your measurements, you can use a chart (either online or provided with the calipers) to determine your body fat percentage.

Pros of the Skin Fold Method

• Accurate when done correctly
• Repeatable
• Inexpensive

Cons of the Skin Fold Method

• Measurements may vary if exactly the same site on the body isn’t used each time
• Multiple-site testing is generally much more accurate if it is done by a skilled professional. Some people may find it difficult to use the skin fold calipers properly.
• If the individual is more than 35 pounds (16 kilograms) overweight, the skin folds may not fit within the caliper

DEXA Scan

Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, known as DEXA, is fast becoming the gold standard of body fat measurement. DEXA can measure your total body composition, including your fat content, lean body mass, and bone mineral density.

DEXA also allows for body fat distribution analysis, so you can determine precisely where fat is distributed in different parts of your body. In the past, DEXA was only used to measure bone mineral density for the detection of osteopenia (low bone mineral density, or weak bones) and osteoporosis (porous bone disease) in older individuals. The procedure uses a body scanner with low-dose X-rays, so it’s relatively safe in terms of radiation exposure. It takes about 10-20 minutes.

Pros of DEXA Scan

• Very accurate

Cons of DEXA Scan

• Expensive

Hydrostatic Weighing

This method has long been considered the best method of body fat measurement. Hydrostatic weighing requires submersion in a specialized water tank. Because bone and muscle are denser than water, a person with a larger percentage of bone and muscle will weigh more in the water. Conversely, a larger percentage of body fat will make the body lighter in the water.

The test takes about 20-30 minutes, costs around $100–$150, and is available at many research labs, universities, and hospitals.

Pros of Hydrostatic Weighing

• Very accurate

Cons of Hydrostatic Weighing

• Expensive
• Procedure is cumbersome

Near Infrared Interactance

Near infrared interactance measures your body fat percentage by passing a harmless near-infrared beam of light through your bicep (a muscle in your upper arm). Fat absorbs the light waves and lean tissue reflects them. The device records these absorptions and then plugs them into an equation along with your frame size, height, weight, and activity level to estimate your fat percentage.

Pros of Near Infrared Interactance

• Takes approximately 5 minutes
• Little training required, easy to use, little human error
• Noninvasive
• Fairly inexpensive
• Lightweight and portable

Cons of Near Infrared Interactance

• Errors may be caused by subject’s hydration level, skin color, and other factors
• Single-site measurement at the biceps may affect the precision of a total-body percentage reading
• Studies have produced mixed results on accuracy

Your lean body mass is the rest of your body that is not fat. Most people who want to improve their diet, fitness, and general health benefit from increasing their lean body mass.

How to Measure Your Lean Body Mass

Some bioimpedance scales measure both your body fat percentage and your lean body mass. If yours doesn’t, or if you’ve used an alternate method to calculate your body fat percentage, you can find your lean body mass by doing the following calculation:

Alternately, if you just want to know what percent of your body is not fat, you can use this equation:

Females should generally have a lean body mass of 79–86% of their total body mass. Males should generally have a lean body mass of 85-91% of their total body mass.