What's a good body fat ?

Debx12345

hi, I've always been focused on what the scales say, but they aren't moving so decided to have a look at body fat. I know long time ago it was about 40, but have lost weight since. I am 5' 2" , 130 lbs, 43 years old (girlie), and reset my scales today and the body fat said 30.4. So is this good or bad! If it needs to go lower any tips for getting it moving ? Thanks x

LuckyLeprechaun

boys can get down to single digits, girls can go down to 15~ish percent.

I've already lost 50 lbs and I'm still at 31%.

Use the numbers for motivation and not to feel bad....:flowerforyou:

Tamishumate

A "healthy" body fat % for ladies is 15-25% . it is best to get tested at a gym, pinch test is the best unless your ready to shell out some bucks for the dunk tank .

MsLisaB

I found this on the web some time ago:

Description.....Women........Men
Essential fat...10-13% .......5-8%
Athletes...........14–20% ......6-13%
Fitness............21–24% ......14–17%
Average...........25–31% ......18–24%
Obese..............32%+...........25%+

Lyadeia

For women, 15-18% body fat is considered athletic, 19-24% is considered healthy, 25-30% is average to slightly overweight, and over 30% is overweight to obese depending on where the number lies.

I find that when calculating body fat, sometimes the scale can be very deceiving because of the density and weight of muscle. Foe example, when I started losing weight this time around, I was 143 pounds and 24% body fat...yet when I was much "pudgier" shall we say, a few years ago, I weighed around 145 pounds I had closer to 30% body fat hanging on me. Even with just a couple of pounds weight difference, back in 2007 I was wearing size 18 and this year it was size 10 to start out with.

The best way to reduce your body fat is a balanced diet along with doing both cardio and weight training exercises. The cardio will burn the fat from your body, and the weight training will give you more lean mass which burns more fat while you are doing that cardio. Eating the healthy balanced diet gives your body the energy it needs to do both.

Building muscle is important because of what I said above in the second paragraph. In 2007, I had very little lean muscle mass but this year I have much more. That's why I was 2 completely different sizes around the same weight. It's another reason why I believe firmly that even though "weight" is important to measure, we should definitely have other measures to let us see our success.

Debx12345

thanks for that.

I found as well that a few years ago i was the same weight, but losing measurements and body fat, thats why ive decided to sort of ditch the scales and concentrate on body fat, not sure whether to measure, as i am crap at measuring, some times i can measure about three times and get different measurements each time. How does everyone else measure, do they hold tape tight or lose, I just feel that again measuring is not exact for me. thanks again good tips.

Julezebub

There's a formula to calculate your body percentage using measurments from your neck, hips and waist as well as your height and sex. Luckily loads of people have developed online calculators to calculate this formula so you dlon't have to!

Try this one:
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

hermosafit

A good goal I would suggest considering is to get your bod to break into the "fitness" range. A challenge but attainable! Then see how that feels.

The best way to lose fat is extended aerobic exercise with a heart rate below your lactic acid producing threshold. This is the "fat burning zone", I have seen it called a lot of other things. It is 60% to 70% of max heart rate (max = appx 220-age). If your heart rate goes above that, you will burn cals and get fitter, but it will not be as efficient at burning fat. And you will not be able to go as long.

Also, people typically have about a 25-30 minute supply of glycogen in their bod, to really target bodyfat workouts need to go at least 45 to 60 minutes. The longer the workout, the greater % of bodyfat used to produce the cals.

Weight lifting routine (or something similar) should be continued while dropping the fat, it fools the bod into thinking the muscle is more important than fat. Prevents muscle loss.

Plenty of info on the above on the internet if you are interested in learning more.