Body fat % very high but BMI not obese/overweight
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what is the point of getting a fancy dexa scan to determine some random number anyway? seems like a good way to shame someone, but not much else. you can look in the mirror or take pictures to determine if you need to lose weight, lose fat, or build muscle. no dexa scan necessary.
I get a DEXA because of my bone density, for medical reasons. Not to check body fat. The body fat result is a bonus for me.
yeah, that sounds like a good reason.
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I would suggest starting by reading this post stickied at the top of the General Diet and Weight Loss Help forum. I am currently 5'7 and 134 lbs and consider myself skinny fat. I just started eating at maintenance and lifting weights, as I don't really want to drop my weight below 129, but I do want to lose some of the fat still around my middle!0
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Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.0 -
i'm pretty sure that 24% body fat for a woman is considered healthy.
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Don't put too much stock into what a BMI chart tells you. It only takes two things into consideration, your height and weight. No body structure, muscle mass, BF, etc. This is what I look like and a BMI chart says I'm "obese"...
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FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
So is the bod pod and less expensive than underwater weighing.
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i'm pretty sure that 24% body fat for a woman is considered healthy.
Yes but I'm still kind of sure that there's no way at 5'5" and 114 pounds to have 24% body fat, but she's not saying how she got that number, so... I mean it doesn't matter if you have an 'awful lot of fat' around your stomach, if the rest of your limbs don't have much fat on them (and assuming your picture is recent, it seems to be the case), your total body fat % will still be lower.0 -
FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
DEXA has significant error and repeatability issues, because it, too, is essentially a calculator.
EDIT: Ditto for Bod Pod, which also suffers from large error bars.1 -
FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
DEXA has significant error and repeatability issues, because it, too, is essentially a calculator.
EDIT: Ditto for Bod Pod, which also suffers from large error bars.
Is there any accurate way to measure then? Just curious. I've never had it done because I haven't found a method I really trusted.0 -
FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
DEXA has significant error and repeatability issues, because it, too, is essentially a calculator.
EDIT: Ditto for Bod Pod, which also suffers from large error bars.
Is there any accurate way to measure then? Just curious. I've never had it done because I haven't found a method I really trusted.
Yes when you die you can. Other then that nope all just guesstimates.2 -
i'm pretty sure that 24% body fat for a woman is considered healthy.
Yes but I'm still kind of sure that there's no way at 5'5" and 114 pounds to have 24% body fat, but she's not saying how she got that number, so... I mean it doesn't matter if you have an 'awful lot of fat' around your stomach, if the rest of your limbs don't have much fat on them (and assuming your picture is recent, it seems to be the case), your total body fat % will still be lower.
yeah, maybe not. this body fat number just sounds impossible to actually get an accurate number for, so I would just forget it entirely. It also doesn't really sound as though it's all that useful.0 -
yopeeps025 wrote: »FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
DEXA has significant error and repeatability issues, because it, too, is essentially a calculator.
EDIT: Ditto for Bod Pod, which also suffers from large error bars.
Is there any accurate way to measure then? Just curious. I've never had it done because I haven't found a method I really trusted.
Yes when you die you can. Other then that nope all just guesstimates.
Well, then I guess it's not all that important now, is it? Hahaha. Thanks!0 -
yopeeps025 wrote: »FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Body fat calculators are utter rubbish, Im 5ft8 and weigh 123lbs. Some body fat calculators said my body fat was 14.5%, another said 19% and one said 31%! Better to go with how you feel personally.
Only online body fat calculators are utter rubbish.
DEXA and hydrostatic are very reliable tests.
DEXA has significant error and repeatability issues, because it, too, is essentially a calculator.
EDIT: Ditto for Bod Pod, which also suffers from large error bars.
Is there any accurate way to measure then? Just curious. I've never had it done because I haven't found a method I really trusted.
Yes when you die you can. Other then that nope all just guesstimates.
Well, then I guess it's not all that important now, is it? Hahaha. Thanks!
Am I still going to use the bod pod? Yup
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i just went to boots and got myself weighed there am 19 5.1 ft and I weigh 8 stone 1
My body fat says 35.5% which is very high, any on know how i could get that down?0 -
At 5'4 and at 147 lbs my bodyfat was 26.9 % last december. When i made my lifestyle change in 2014 weighing 188 lbs i made an effort to keep my muscle mass by focusing on strength training. I got down to 128 lbs with 24% bodyfat. Since my fat loss ive continued to focus on getting stronger and gaining muscle. So while the scale went up 20 lbs my bodyfat went up less then 3 %. If your still struggling with this problem i suggest you learn about reverse dieting and start to strength train focusing on progressive overload. Putting muscle on and then loosing fat will benifit you at this point.0
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I recently had a DEXA scan and it showed my body fat percentage as 39%. I am 67 years old, am 5'3" tall, and I weigh 107 pounds at most. Most people say I look skinny. A body fat percentage of 39% is very high and indicates I should be obese, but I'm not!!! My normal weight is 107, and my BMI is 19.2
How is this explained????0 -
Healthstriver2 wrote: »I recently had a DEXA scan and it showed my body fat percentage as 39%. I am 67 years old, am 5'3" tall, and I weigh 107 pounds at most. Most people say I look skinny. A body fat percentage of 39% is very high and indicates I should be obese, but I'm not!!! My normal weight is 107, and my BMI is 19.2
How is this explained????
On this thread from someone who also had a perplexing DEXA result several people suggested she review the results with the facility:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10843781/dexa-scans-i-did-two-who-else-has-experience#latest2 -
None of those body fat measurements are accurate IMO. Many drastically overestimate body fat %.0
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Women naturally need more body fat to survive than men. Body fat and BMI are not interchangeable. If you find you have too much body fat, but your weight is where you want, look into recomping. With recomping, you could lose 5 pounds of fat but gain 5 pounds of muscle; your weight stays the same but your composition changes.1
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You can easily be fairly slim/light as a woman and have 24% body fat! That is a healthy amount for a woman. Particularly if you don't have much muscle.2
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BMI is a very dated and doesn't really apply to a lot of sports and physicality and ability2
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About the bodpod- it has up to 3% error. That's not nothing, but it isn't bad. What I would do if I were OP (and did myself when I was concentrating on muscle building and fat loss a while ago), is to get a bodpod measurement now to see what it says. It will probably, based on what you've said, say that you're in the "excess fat" area. Don't freak out, just take that as a data point. Then, periodically check it to see what and how it changes. The change itself is probably more important for you to know versus the absolute % there as you can then compare it with other metrics, like your measurements or how your clothes fit or photos.
An example - I was already what I thought was in great shape. I took a bodpod measurement and it said I either was in the excess fat or moderately lean category. I was shocked! I decided to concentrate on increasing my muscle mass for about 6 months. I took another bodpod measurement and I was solidly in the moderately lean to lean category, even though my weight was the same or even a little higher.0
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