Question about Body Fat Percentage

Hello everyone! I have a question about my body fat percentage. I am 5'6'' and weigh 168.8 pounds. My body fat percentage is 28.8. I used the calendar linked below to find out what my weight should be if I wanted my body fat percentage to be 22%.

http://exrx.net/Calculators/WeightBodyComp.html

It told me that I should weigh 154 pounds. According to body weight charts, a more "ideal" weight is around 140-145. Is this telling me that because of my body type, 154 is more "typical" for me than 140? I have 140 as my goal but it would appear that would make my body fat too low?

Body weight charts usually take into account the average body type--specifically, the average amount of muscle a given person has. If you have more muscle than the average person (which your current body fat %/weight would indicate), then a higher weight is going to give you a similar look to a person who has less muscle at a lower weight.

Keep measuring your body fat % as you lose. Generally speaking, if you're a woman you don't want to go lower than 18-20%ish (unless you're a high-functioning athlete), and if you're a man you don't want to go lower than 13%ish (again, unless you have designs to be a bodybuilder or competitive athlete). Anything above those numbers is still fine!

Hello everyone! I have a question about my body fat percentage. I am 5'6'' and weigh 168.8 pounds. My body fat percentage is 28.8. I used the calculator linked below to find out what my weight should be if I wanted my body fat percentage to be 22%.

http://exrx.net/Calculators/WeightBodyComp.html

It told me that I should weigh 154 pounds. According to body weight charts, a more "ideal" weight is around 140-145. Is this telling me that because of my body type, 154 is more "typical" for me than 140? I have 140 as my goal but it would appear that would make my body fat too low?

First off how did you find your body fat percentage. A lot of body fat measuring systems are inaccurate. The tanita (biompemdance), as well as the caliper method are usually the most inaccurate. The best way measure is through hydrostatic, bod pod or dexa scan. If these are the methods you use then go by what the calculator said. But, if you used a the less accurate versions of body fat testing, I would suggest to stick with your goal of 140 lbs for now and see what happens the closer you are to your goal. I'm sure you can tell if your body fat gets too low.

I weigh 160 pounds, according to BMI, I am way into the overweight range (nearly obese!!), but my BF% is 30%, which is between "good" and "average". According to BMI, the highest "healthy" weight for me is 130. My goal, however, is 140 with a BF% of 26. BMI does not take muscle mass into consideration. You can see from my pic that I look pretty lean and healthy and to take another 30lbs off would be scary.

All that to say, I'm not thinking about the scale or BMI, I'm focusing on my BF%. It seems to give a much better indication of health. If I wanted to get to this arbitrary number on the scale, I'd have to give up muscle and I'd rather weigh more and look lean and toned than just hit that number on the scale.

In the past 6 weeks I have only lost 2lbs of weight overall, but 12lbs of body fat. I've lost one size and it looks like I've lost a ton of weight, but that's because the fat is gone and the muscle has moved in. And I like it!

Good luck!

@oohmercyme
How did you loose so much fat in such a short time without loosing muscle. What is your secret?