Body fat measurements give you a better understanding of the health of your body compared to the scale. Instead of only knowing your gross weight -- which includes bones, fluid, organs and connective tissue -- your body composition measurement tells you how much of that weight is made up of fat.

If you're concerned about your body fat levels, you have a few options that could help you figure out where on the scale from "healthy" to "obese" you are. Body mass index, or BMI, gives you a very rough estimate of whether you're at a healthy weight or not.

Losing weight is about shedding fat, not muscle. To maximize fat burning, you'll want to strategically combine diet and exercise. You need to reduce calorie intake enough, but not too much, and do two kinds of workouts -- high-intensity interval training and strength training.

Body composition is the makeup of fat and fat-free mass in the body. Fat-free mass is anything that is not fat and can include water, bone, muscle, and skin. Fat mass is solely fat, found on the body and throughout the organs.

If you're working out to build muscle, don't be upset if you don't like the number you see on the scale. While it may tell you how much you weigh, it doesn't tell you how much of that weight is muscle vs. fat. When it comes to health, body composition counts.

Just as your car burns gasoline to move forward, your body requires energy to keep your metabolism humming. That energy comes primarily from glucose, which is stored in the body as glycogen, or from fat.

The size and proportion of your hips is largely a matter of genetics and something that you can't change. However, weight gain can also affect hip size, and some people are more likely to gain fat around their hips, while others gain it in their midsection.

There are two ways to measure your health and fitness: body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage. Though many people talk about them interchangeably, BMI and body fat percentage should be used for different stages in your fitness journey.

While you can change your body composition through diet and exercise, it's not possible to manipulate the places to which your body tends to store excess fat. For many people, the derriere is the destination of unwanted fat.

Exercise and diet can help you lose weight by creating a calorie deficit. Your body will begin to break down stored fat through a series of complicated metabolic pathways.

If you are an elite athlete or just want to achieve a very low percentage of body fat, there are no magic foods, but there are ways of eating that can help you reach your goals. However, 7 percent body fat is a very low amount and may not be healthy for everyone.

The blood pH is a measure of the acidity of the blood. It stands for "power of hydrogen" and represents the concentration of hydrogen ions, which make the blood acidic. Acidic or alkaline blood can interfere with processes in the body and be both a result of disease and a cause of further problems.