Explain the Difference Between Essential Body Fat and Storage Body Fat

To understand body composition, you often hear about “essential body fat” and “storage body fat.” What do these terms really mean? Having different functions, these two kinds of fat are necessary to know for taking care of your body, fitness and weight. Some fat is important for the body, but too much of other types can harm your health.

In fact, essential body fat is necessary for your body to work properly. It assists with hormone levels, brain health and protection for vital organs. From another viewpoint, storage body fat means the fat that your body saves to give you fuel when you need it. Having some fat is natural, but an overabundance might result in obesity, diabetes and heart trouble.

A common misconception is that all body fat must be gotten rid of, even though this isn’t actually the case. That isn’t the case. Actually, reducing your body’s essential fat too much can be unsafe. You will learn all you need to know about these two kinds of fat and how they affect your health in this blog post.

Three main takeaways from this chapter are:

Your body needs fat to work properly.
The job of storage fat is to keep extra energy on hand.
Excess storage fat can be bad for your health.

What Is Essential Body Fat And What Is It Used For?

Essential fat is the amount your body needs to carry out important life and reproductive functions. Unlike the fat that appears on your belly or thighs, essential fat is found deep within your body’s systems. Fatty tissue protects our internal organs, aids hormone balance and is responsible for absorbing A, D, E and K vitamins.

Essential fat is usually higher in women than in men. It is mainly because of things like pregnancy and breastfeeding. The required percentage of essential fat is 2–5% for men and 10–13% for women, on average.

Treat essential fat like the crew that maintains all your body parts. It keeps your body warm or cool, pads your joints and helps your cell structures work properly. If not for this, our bodies wouldn’t be able to survive.

For argument’s sake, consider an athlete. Even if an athlete doesn’t look very bulky, they need a certain amount of body fat to stay healthy. When their vitamin D levels fall below this amount, they might experience hormone imbalance, have a poor immune system or experience organ failure.

Note: Reducing your essential fat to below the recommended amount could create serious health complications.

How Does Body Fat Get Stored And What Is Storage Body Fat?

Adipose tissue which holds fat beneath the skin (subcutaneous) and sometimes around organs (visceral), is where storage body fat accumulates. Fats mainly exist to save energy for when you need it. Your body saves those excess calories you take in as extra fat.

Think of your body as a place where you save up your nutrients. If you eat too many calories, your body saves them as storage fat. It works well during periods when there’s not enough food or lots of physical work, but these conditions are rare today, so it may cause trouble instead.

There are two types of storage fat in the body:

Subcutaneous fat: Subcutaneous fat is fat that lies just under the skin and can usually be seen.
Visceral fat: Visceral fat sits around organs and carries the greatest risk because it is involved in heart disease and diabetes.

The reason this kind of fat gets stored is usually a poor diet, too little physical activity, hormone problems and stress. Chronic excess storage of fat may increase your cholesterol, put stress on the heart with high blood pressure and make you unable to use insulin properly.

Reminder: Though a small amount of storage fat is normal, you should stay healthy to ensure it does not build up too much.

How are Essential Fat and Storage Fat Not the Same?

Let’s take a closer look at what both of these fat types are like by comparing them in detail.

Comparison of Essential and Storage Body Fat:

Feature	Essential Body Fat	Storage Body Fat
Purpose	Supports basic bodily functions	Acts as energy reserve
Location	Organs, bone marrow, nervous system, muscles	Under skin (subcutaneous), around organs (visceral)
Required Amount	2–5% (men), 10–13% (women)	Varies, no fixed requirement
Can It Be Dangerous?	Too little is harmful	Too much is harmful
Role in Survival	Critical	Non-essential but useful in moderation

Just as insurance protects you, essential fat looks after your body all the time. On the contrary, storage fat works like a pantry in the body. If you have too many calories, your body puts them away just in case. But as with a pantry, things become a challenge when there are too many files.

Even if a bodybuilder has 6% body fat, that person still possesses important fat. If the amount of storage fat is inadequate, they might lose energy and feel low or tired.

Why Should We Keep Our Mind and Body Healthy at All Times?

The right amount of both essential and storage fat is key to your overall health. Having either less or more essential fat can hurt your health in different ways.

If you have the right body fat, your organs will be healthy, your metabolism will not slow down and you won’t feel tired. Many athletes and fitness experts strive to get rid of extra fat without losing necessary essential fat.

Here’s another explanation to show this:

Table: Problems Related to Fat Imbalance

Fat Type	Too Low Risks	Too High Risks
Essential Fat	Hormonal issues, weak immunity	Rare, usually not excessive
Storage Fat	Lack of energy, poor insulation	Obesity, heart disease, diabetes

A good example is someone who is devoted solely to an intense diet. Removing both types of fat very fast can bring about “survival mode” in the body, slow down metabolism and lead to a tired mind or muscle loss. At the same time, those with extra storage fat are more likely to develop stroke and hypertension.

So, aim to get rid of storage fat but leave the important fat that your health needs. Stability between eating and activity maintains your physical as well as emotional and mental health.

Can You Separate How Much Body Fat Is Essential From How Much Is Just Stored?

Yes, nevertheless, things are not always clear. When you measure body fat, most tests give one total value for both kinds of fat without discerning between them. Yet, specific advanced tools make it possible to obtain more precise evaluations.

A variety of ways are used, including:

This test places a small electric current through a person’s body.
DEXA measures very accurately and can distinguish between different kinds of fat.
Skinfold Calipers are used to find the amount of subcutaneous fat.
It uses water displacement to measure your body’s density.

Every type of training has benefits and drawbacks. In particular, skinfold calipers are available at a reasonable price but they measure less accurately. You can get a clear image from a DEXA scan which is more expensive.

Knowing your body fat composition is important in coming up with good fitness targets. So, if you know most of your fat is stored for later use, you may concentrate on developing your endurance and controlling the types of food you eat. When you’re deficient in essential fats, you might have to reduce your workouts.

Although you might not notice essential fat on a scale, it’s always present and as essential to your health as storage fat.

Conclusion

It is more than a passing fitness fact—recognizing essential from storage body fat matters for your health. Our body needs essential body fat to work properly, whereas excess storage fat can cause problems. If you can learn to manage and balance your diet, you’re more likely to feel good and have energy all day.

Make sure you know that not all fat is unhealthy for you. Notice how the fat your body relies on is important, but keep in mind that too much storage fat could have harmful effects as time goes on. Making healthy decisions, exercising and noticing your body’s signs can help you stay well over time.