Ideal body fat percentages for men over 40?

Y2J30

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there are ideal body fat percentages for men over 40? I see athletes are 6-15% but would 25% be realistic and healthy for busy working middle aged men?

Thanks.

AnnPT77

From: https://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

sgt1372

IMO, the greater BF allowance in charts for older men (& women) is BS.

Shouldn't matter what age you are. The generally recommended BF% for men is 15% and that's what you should shoot for regardless of your age.

sgt1372

BTW, I'm 69 and my BF is and has been at 15% or less (as measured by hydro and DEXA) for many yrs now and there's nothing special about how so did it: logged all my cals daily, weighed myself daily and stuck to my cal limits.

The BF allowance which increases in the charts by age is based IMO on a false premise that the older you get, the more sedentary you will be and so it should beasdumed that you will get fatter as you age and shouldn't be held to a higher standard that is still scuevsble and better for your health and fitness.

Disagreecif you like but if you accept this premise, it's a deafeatist point of view.

Any man at any age can achieve 15% BF if they do what's necessary to do do.

Azdak

Depends on how you define “ideal”. The upper limit of body fat that corresponds to a lower health risk is higher that what would be considered “ideal” in terms of appearance or physical performance.
For whatever reason, I cannot find a copy of the national norms. When someone wants to know a general “ideal” BF %, I usually use the following criteria:
Will you have the general appearance you would like?
Will you be able to perform the recreational and workout activities the way you want?
Lastly: is it sustainable without heroic efforts?

By that criteria, I would say 18%-20% is a reasonable target.

Theoldguy1

Azdak wrote: »

Depends on how you define “ideal”. The upper limit of body fat that corresponds to a lower health risk is higher that what would be considered “ideal” in terms of appearance or physical performance.
For whatever reason, I cannot find a copy of the national norms. When someone wants to know a general “ideal” BF %, I usually use the following criteria:
Will you have the general appearance you would like?
Will you be able to perform the recreational and workout activities the way you want?
Lastly: is it sustainable without heroic efforts?

By that criteria, I would say 18%-20% is a reasonable target.

I would agree. I'm 63 and based on several different measurements my BF is right around 18%. It probably got down to about 15% a couple years ago when i was laid off and out of work for 6 months and working out more. I'm working on dropping a couple %.

Theoldguy1

sgt1372 wrote: »

BTW, I'm 69 and my BF is and has been at 15% or less (as measured by hydro and DEXA) for many yrs now and there's nothing special about how so did it: logged all my cals daily, weighed myself daily and stuck to my cal limits.

The BF allowance which increases in the charts by age is based IMO on a false premise that the older you get, the more sedentary you will be and so it should beasdumed that you will get fatter as you age and shouldn't be held to a higher standard that is still scuevsble and better for your health and fitness.

Disagreecif you like but if you accept this premise, it's a deafeatist point of view.

Any man at any age can achieve 15% BF if they do what's necessary to do do.

100% agreed. I'm not looking for a base on balls due to the number of candles on the birthday cake.