Body fat percentage? What's yours?

mfpcopine

I'm not trying to dismiss your ED, but your weight and body fat percentage are within the healthy range, especially if you don't have an enormous frame. I'm only an inch shorter -- 5'2" -- and weighed a lot less than 97 pounds at one point in my life. I don't know what my body fat percentage was because I didn't have a scale that measured it.

Work on developing healthy eating and fitness habits.

An ED is more mental than physical. 97 lbs is my latest weight in recovery right now. But I would get weak just by climbing a few steps, run out of breath doing simple tasks and faint sometimes. I was almost always dizzy and developed anemia. Also, I had severe vitamin D deficiency and other deficiencies in calcium and other vitamins.

So yeah, purging kind of came with the territory too. I really am trying to become better though, so I understand why it would be difficult to believe my ED with my current weight.

I wasn't doubting that you have an ED if you say you have. I was only pointing out the objective fact that your weight and body fat percentage are not "horribly unhealthy," although they are lower than average.

nomena

According to our scale, mine is around 22% and I'm 5'6' . No idea how accurate that scale is though!

According to wikipedia, this is in the "fitness" range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

ouandi

I am at 30% doing the pinch test at two different gyms. My body fat scale says 36% for some reason but it's incorrect. My goal is to lose 6% body fat or 10lbs of pure fat.

mfpcopine

5' 2" : In recent months, 18 to 23. 22 today. The numbers are from my scale, which I believe tends to under report a bit.

Serah87

Good Luck to you on your road to recovery. Take it a day at a time.

^ ^ ^ This.

giggitygoo

I'm 5'1", and my BF is around 19%.



Good luck on your recovery. Remember that it's a journey, not a destination. It'll be hard work, but worth it.

CrazyGraciegirl

28.5% I'm "acceptable." :frown: I will work at it. I hope you do well recovering! It is tough.

nightsrainfall

Mine is 30% fat. Women with high fitness levels (runners, lifters, rock climbers, very active / strong) are 21-24% fat, and then average is 24-31%, and over 31% is unhealthy, as is under 21% unless you are an althete (but many althete's have people watching their bodies for them very closely). Women tend to need/have a higher body fat percent than men, mostly due to hormones and ability to have children.

I wouldn't worry about decreasing your percent fat but in gaining muscle and just eating healthy to support that muscle. This, in turn will cause you to gain weight.I am trying to lose weight, but for me I tend to gain muscle first when doing a new routine. For example the scale will go up, but my inches will go down and my ability (weight, speed, etc) will increase.

One of my close college friends had an eating disorder back in high school and she was still struggling with it when I met her in college (4 years ago), however now she's not only fit, but very healthy. So I wish you the best.

DMarkSwan

You need to add body fat. Eat good nutritious food, but run a bit of a calorie surplus to add some body fat slowly. If you lose fat or gain muscle alone, your body fat % will slide back down when it needs to come up about another percentage point. Good luck and make sure you only listen to people with your best interest at heart, not people who earn their living convincing you that you're not good enough. They lie. I was with a female friend when a gym trainer measured her at 18% body fat and told her she should trim that down a bit. No matter what I said, she let this jerk convince her she was overweight!

Not comparable because I'm male, but mine is 17.6% based on a skin fold test in 3 places, but my scale says 27%.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

According to this body fat percentage calculator, my BF% is 15.9%.
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Body Mass Index: 17.2 kg/m2
Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.37
Percent Body Fat: 15.9%
Lean Body Mass: 81.6 lb

I'm 97 pounds, 5'3", anorexic trying to recover.
This is horribly unhealthy.
I'm wondering what's a healthy BF% and weight for someone my height?

I'm not trying to dismiss your ED, but your weight and body fat percentage are within the healthy range, especially if you don't have an enormous frame. I'm only an inch shorter -- 5'2" -- and weighed a lot less than 97 pounds at one point in my life. I don't know what my body fat percentage was because I didn't have a scale that measured it.

Work on developing healthy eating and fitness habits.

no it isn't a healthy weight for someone her height. just because you were also underweight doesn't excuse it. sorry. OP. you need to gain and please do not let this comment dissuade you. I know it can be difficult to come to terms with gaining and regaining your health/life. please continue along the path to weight gain!

psuLemon

I am 200 lbs and 12% body fat. Good luck in your recovery. If you want to gain muscle, estimate your TDEE and add 20% and that is what you should aim for along with heavy weight lifting and that should help you gain muscle without too much added fat.

Sarauk2sf

According to this body fat percentage calculator, my BF% is 15.9%.
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Body Mass Index: 17.2 kg/m2
Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.37
Percent Body Fat: 15.9%
Lean Body Mass: 81.6 lb

I'm 97 pounds, 5'3", anorexic trying to recover.
This is horribly unhealthy.
I'm wondering what's a healthy BF% and weight for someone my height?

I'm not trying to dismiss your ED, but your weight and body fat percentage are within the healthy range, especially if you don't have an enormous frame. I'm only an inch shorter -- 5'2" -- and weighed a lot less than 97 pounds at one point in my life. I don't know what my body fat percentage was because I didn't have a scale that measured it.

Work on developing healthy eating and fitness habits.

You may say that you are not trying to dismiss her ED - but you are ignoring it which is the same thing as dismissing it.

She realizes that this is too low a weight and is trying to ask advice to improve it -not say 'I was OK so you must be'.

OP: as you have already been recommended, and as you already know, you should be increaseing your weight. Your body fat is too low so you should not be looking to decrease it. Remember, women need a higher BF% than guys. As others have commented, a BF% in the high 'teens' is really the lowest you should be looking at. I would suggest that you talk to someone better at dealing with the physical aspects of recovering from an ED, but in my opinion, you should be working on eating a lot more, so you can increase your BF% but also look to build some muscle (but check with a doctor first).

Good luck and huge kudos to you for taking your health in your hands and working to improve it.

fasttrack27

I'm a guy (41 yrs) so my numbers probably dont really matter much, but I recently had 2 different tests done and they came back very close: 16.1% and 16.3%. I'm 5'10" and 165lbs and have a pretty slim build. Like others have said, ladies should have a higher % than guys. Best wishes on your journey to recovery!

3laine75

you really don't want to decrease your BF% anymore. if it makes you feel better concentate on adding healthy fats from nuts, avacadoes, eggs etc to your diet.

moe5474

As someone who struggled with anorexia and then with bingeing as I recovered, I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to hear that you are seeking help and are working towards bettering your health. It is such a dark, lonely place and you're right, it's not necessarily the weight or your physical condition that's as bad as where you are mentally and emotionally.

You'll get there. It takes time. It took me 3 years total to overcome everything and I just recently came to a happy place with my eating issues. I'm on here to try to tone up, but I do have to be careful with how stringent I am with counting calories or I could see myself slipping back into a bad place.

Slowly increase your food intake and begin with enjoyable exercise like walking. Do whatever you *enjoy* so that it doesn't feel like exercise and therefore you aren't thinking about your calories being burned the whole time.

Then as you feel comfortable add weight training which is good for building muscle.

One day at a time....you'll get there Just hang in there and don't lose sight of recovering even if you slip or falter. You can do it!!

mfpcopine

I'm a guy (41 yrs) so my numbers probably dont really matter much, but I recently had 2 different tests done and they came back very close: 16.1% and 16.3%. I'm 5'10" and 165lbs and have a pretty slim build. Like others have said, ladies should have a higher % than guys. Best wishes on your journey to recovery!

15% is fine. I'm not saying she should go lower. Someone posted a link with photos showing what people, men, and women, look like at various body fat %s.

Sarauk2sf

I'm a guy (41 yrs) so my numbers probably dont really matter much, but I recently had 2 different tests done and they came back very close: 16.1% and 16.3%. I'm 5'10" and 165lbs and have a pretty slim build. Like others have said, ladies should have a higher % than guys. Best wishes on your journey to recovery!

15% is fine. I'm not saying she should go lower. Someone posted a link with photos showing what people, men, and women, look like at various body fat %s.

IT IS NOT FINE for her.

mfpcopine

You may say that you are not trying to dismiss her ED - but you are ignoring it which is the same thing as dismissing it.

She realizes that this is too low a weight and is trying to ask advice to improve it -not say 'I was OK so you must be'.

I didn't ignore or dismiss it. I responded to her overstatement that 15% bf and 97 pounds at her height was "horribly unhealthy." I suggested she work on eating and fitness. Her ED is something for her to work on with an expert. That's so obvious I didn't feel I had to mention it.

Distorting the facts doesn't help. I'm tired of everyone with an ED agenda looking for a reason to be offended. Not everyone on this board has an ED. Treating everyone as if they are a patient instead of responding as if they're people who have to deal with challenges in the real world is the better approach in my opinion.

pullipgirl

I'm 5'6.5 and at 20-21%

laceylou0702

I started at 42.8 on 3/5/12 today I"m down to 38.5% & I am so proud of that!