Are you considered healthy if...

ClassicPearl
ClassicPearl Posts: 141 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Your body fat percentage is under 24%, but you weigh more than you should when it comes to pounds (the height and weight ratio)?

Replies

  • DrDrea411
    DrDrea411 Posts: 10
    Typically doctors look at BMI (height to weight ratio), but muscle weighs more than fat and it also fills out the body more than fat. Have you ever heard of skinny fat? Those are the people that appear thin and are actually thin, but they have fat filling their body instead of lean muscle. So to answer your question, I think it depends on a lot of factors, not just BMI or body fat percentage (however 24% is considered a fitness level for a woman and 25% - 31% is acceptable for woman). So you are ahead of the curve! If you really want to know if you would be considered healthy ask your doctor for a biometric screening. That would give you your BMI, waist circumference, height, weight, cholesterol levels, triglycerides etc. That would then help you see the bigger picture on what healthy is since you can't just rely on appearance and the scale. :) Hope that helps!
  • ClassicPearl
    ClassicPearl Posts: 141 Member
    Oh okay. I guess I was wondering if your body fat percentage is 24% (healthy range), but you weigh 170-ish pounds, if you are considered healthy? I mean technically, you should weight lower than that.

    I guess I'm wondering: is body fat percentage more important that how many pounds you weigh? I guess it is, but I'm wondering who made up the height to weight graph thing. It seems like it has some importance.

    Sorry for the ramble lol...
  • n0ob
    n0ob Posts: 2,390 Member
    I'm 5'10" 215 and have a good blood pressure, great resting glucose, cholesterol of 109 and all my other blook work is normal.

    so yeah, you can be overweight (in my case "obese") and healthy.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Body fat is way more important than weight. If you have no health problems, have good functionality and like the way you look, who cares what you weigh??
  • shelbiejo
    shelbiejo Posts: 283 Member
    Personally I think body fat % is more important, but you could be figuring out your body fat % the wrong way.... I use the Bod Pod which is the most accurate test.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    If you have low body fat and higher weight, it means you are awesome! It also means you have more muscle than the average person your height and you will end up burning more calories than the average person. I am considered overweight according to BMI and weight and I weight 194lb at <12% body fat. Needless to say, I don't care.
  • RobynLB
    RobynLB Posts: 617 Member
    If your body fat is on the high end of healthy and you are overweight, you are not that rare exception to the BMI system (the trained athlete who is overweight despite low body fat), and you would be healthier with both of them lower.
  • cpettigrew
    cpettigrew Posts: 168 Member
    www.fat2fitradio.com
    Covert-Bailey calculator.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    If your body fat is on the high end of healthy and you are overweight, you are not that rare exception to the BMI system (the trained athlete who is overweight despite low body fat), and you would be healthier with both of them lower.

    Her body fat is on the low end but her weight is on the higher end... This means she has a lot of lean body mass. So at 170 lbs @ 24% body fat ,she would have 136 lbs of lean body mass. This means, if her goal body fat is 18%, then her goal weight would be 158 lbs. Depending on her height, that could be considered over weight or normal. And there are a ton of benefits of lean body mass. More in this case is better.
  • RobynLB
    RobynLB Posts: 617 Member
    I was thinking over 24% bodyfat is kinda average / high so it's what the BMI / health weight calculations are based on and it shouldn't be skewing them.

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