Body Components

The human body, with all its component parts of blood, bone, muscle, and fat, is made up largely of water. Fat-free mass is 70% to 75% water, and body fat is 10% to 40% water. The more fat a body carries, the lower the water content of the fat. For the average adult woman, 50% of her body weight is water; for the average adult man, 59% of his body weight is water. Women have less body water than men because they are less muscular, so they have a smaller fat-free mass. Regardless of gender, however, water is part of every single cell in the human body. Let’s take a brief look at why the body sheds water in the early days of weight loss. Glycogen is a type of carbohydrate that the body stores in the liver and muscle. It is like a sponge, holding on to three or four times its weight in water. During the early days of weight loss, the body releases and burns its glycogen for extra energy since food calories have been reduced. As the glycogen is burned, it lets go of its water. The result is that the body loses a total of 4 or 5 grams of weight for every gram of glycogen that is burned.