ideal bf?

HOLY HECK....I thought this was Ideal Boyfriend and I have a list....

I am 44 years old...5"7", 142 pounds and my BF percentage it 27% and I am perfectly happy with that.....but looking for a Boyfriend

HOLY HECK....I thought this was Ideal Boyfriend and I have a list....

I am 44 years old...5"7", 142 pounds and my BF percentage it 27% and I am perfectly happy with that.....but looking for a Boyfriend

LOL. That's why I clicked on it too. What do people think this place is... a fitness site?! :laugh:

I am currently at 33 % as of mid december....my goal is 20% but, the trainer i use at times told me exactly what your chart shows. She was not trying to get me to be anything but healthy and i myself chose the 20% to push myself harder and be as fit as i can. I do believe the bf% is more important than the scale however, in how you want your body to look. Just be at whatever feels best for you and that you can maintain.

Just thought I'd throw this in here- it's by NO means perfect, and women can look very different at the same BF% depending on muscle mass and how you carry your fat, but it's kind of nice to have some visual representation of what the numbers mean. PS- there's OFTEN threads that pop up asking people which BF% they prefer the most, and 25% (according to this visual) is VERY popular in those threads.

How were you tested, bioimpedance, calipers or another method? I prefer the American College of Sports Medicine chart because there are age group splits but, even so, you are in the healthy range for a woman in her twenties. Having said that generally adult bodyfat calculations and charts are not used for teens, BMI and waist to hip ratio may be. Did the trainer use an adolescent specific chart or is he just being hugely irresponsible?
http://tpm.scgov.net/ssDocuments/1140/Wellness program/H & F Screening/All screening results.pdf

I wonder, OP, if your trainer thought you were a man. Below is the BF% chart touted as being from NIH and WHO (though I can't find it on their sites). My scales follow these and tell me off if I get below 21%! As you can see, 25% is too high for a young male.

Female
Age. Underweight Healthy Overweight Obese
20-40 yrs Under 21% 21-33% 33-39% Over 39%
41-60 yrs Under 23% 23-35% 35-40% Over 40%
61-79 yrs Under 24% 24-36% 36-42% Over 42%
Male
Age Underweight Healthy Overweight Obese
20-40 yrs Under 8% 8-19% 19-25% Over 25%
41-60 yrs Under 11% 11-22% 22-27% Over 27%
61-79 yrs Under 13% 13-25% 25-30% Over 30%
* Source - World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health

To the one who likes the 11-15% bodies. Note that they are all onstage or in photoshoots? That's generally not a sustainable body. People with those bodies generally stay at least a few percentages higher for most of their life, and then cut hard immediately before a competition or shoot so as to get down to the minimal bodyfat for a short term. Generally the bodies in those photos are also stripped of all water and everything as well.
Even the people who look like that don't walk around the street looking like that.

Bodyfat will definitely distribute differently on different people, which affects how you will look. Assuming the numbers are correct, there's a huge difference between the two 25% bodies shown. in the 6-photo spread, the 25% has one hell of a belly, as well as not much of a waist, and is probably at risk for the things that people with midsection fat are at risk for. The 30% same but worse. Those two people could definitely stand to lose that extraneous fat and could only look better for it.
In the 9-photo spread, the 25% looks much better proportioned, with a small waist and relatively flat stomach, even if she's not very hourglass-y. She does not appear to have unhealthy extra fat. Even the 30% there seems to be a very dramatically curved girl. She could certainly lose some fat, without negative health effects, but doesn't appear to have much problem where she is. She too has a favourable waist to hip ratio

So assuming the numbers are correct, how do you carry your weight? Science suggests that extra belly fat (no matter your ultimate weight or bf%) is unhealthy, and it would be healthier to lose it. Thigh fat, on the other hand, is actually suggested to be maybe even beneficial to women. As long as the rest of you is at a reasonably healthy level, more fat on the thighs doesn't hurt at all. It can possibly even act as a sink to contain assorted bad things that might otherwise move around the body.
So what does your 25% fat body look like?

the 20% in the 6-photo spread looks potentially photoshopped. It's too tiny to tell, but it's a very perfect curve, and a photoshoot-type photo that makes me suspicious as to whether it's accurate and untouched. Completely irrelevant to how the bodyfat looks. It's just a suspiciousish photo.