Use the assigned readings, including pages 424-426, to concisely but thoroughly
ID: 98946 • Letter: U
Question
Use the assigned readings, including pages 424-426, to concisely but thoroughly answer the following questions. Add your answers below each question as listed. A. How might a low body fat level help training and performance? Provide an example of a specific sport, position, and situation that illustrates your answer. B. How might striving-for the lowest body fat possible hinder an individual's health, training, and performance? And, provide an example of a specific sport, position, and situation that illustrates your answer.Explanation / Answer
In an effort to be as fast as possible on race day, many athletes try to reach an ideal weight or a race day weight by the time they pin that number on. Typically, athletes want to be as light as possible on race morning. On the surface, this seems to make a lot of sense, especially when we talk about power-to-weight ratio.How much we weigh is not the key; rather, what we are made up of is the key. Therefore, the number we want to focus on is our body fat percentage (BF%). BF% will tell the story in terms of one’s overall health and fitness level. An individual can actually be “skinny and light”, but he/she can very easily have a very high and unhealthy amount of body fat. When it comes to an athlete wanting to achieve optimal performance, recovery and attain the physique they desire, focusing on BF% is THE number to pay attention to.
All too often, body weight loss will result in a loss of muscle and water. From an athlete’s perspective, this will significantly hamper performance and recovery. Also, when an individual’s weight loss is strictly water, this individual will also experience a very fast increase in body weight. Weight loss that is not body fat loss is very temporary, and this leads to that individual losing and gaining the same 10, 15, 20 pounds.
B.A body fat percentage below 5 percent is regarded as a warning sign of poor health, even in elite athletes,”Having an extremely low body-fat percentage can affect the cardiovascular system’s ability to function normally,
When you are fat-depleted, you have no reserve energy stores and your body cannot perform at optimal levels due to the fact that it is starving of energy.
Even if you’re able to get in a good workout with your ultra-lean figure, you’ll probably have difficulty getting much out of them. That’s because when your body-fat percentage is too low, so are your levels of glycogen, or stored carbohydrates in your muscles and liver. Dieting down to low body-fat levels decreases circulating levels of leptin, a hormone produced by body fat cells. Leptin receptors in the hypothalamus sense this drop and increase appetite so that you are hungry all of the time.
Extremely low body fat and energy intake is associated with higher cortisol levels, which hamper the immune system, increasing your rick of bacterial infection or contracting a cold or flu virus.
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