What is an appropriate body fat percentage for a female

Here is a chart for you http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/ You fall in the average range now. 29% would just put you in the ideal range. It all depends on what you're comfortable with. Eat that protein and lift them weights!

How do you know what your body fat is? The scales are really inaccurate.

Tell me about it. I just had my body fat done by ultrasound, I almost had a heart attack on the spot. It said 30% and my scale reads 28% I don't match the 30% pictures myself. Oh well, have to get it down

This was a helpful sight. I'm in the high average for my age according to the chart. However, I also looked a the pictures and descriptions, and I look more like the 30% photo, not the 35%. He talks about 35% having hips over 40" and waist of around 32.5". I'm not anywhere near that. Typically, I take a size 28 or 29 jean, which is for a 28-29 waist and maybe a 37-38" hip. I wonder how accurate the device is that the trainers used for me. I do have triceps like a polish wrestler, though. There are muscles under there, but still a layer of fat hiding the definition.

I frankly think those hip and waist measurements he gives are crazy. I'd like to know what he based them on. A hip measurement over 40 inches is really not all that big, and a high number could be due as much to a muscular booty as to a fat booty.

I go by the pictures he provides (although his picture for 25% seems wrong) and one of the online calculators (maybe the navy one?-- sorry I'm not sure which one off-hand). Also I've had my fat measured by calipers and in a box pod. All of these give approximately the same number for me.

The "skinny" picture is frankly mislabeled. Once a woman loses the normal fat pads at the back of the hips--which should ALWAYS be present, even in slender women--she is then severely underweight. This woman looks somewhat anorexic.

I think the point is that these days the word "skinny" has a negative connotation, similar to what you call "somewhat anorexic." But you have to remember that he said it was copied straight from a female magazine...so I guess that's just what those particular readers are used to saying.

I'm curious to see what numbers 3 and 4 look like since they were cut off, as I am somewhere in between 2 and 5 and might get a giggle out of whatever label they use for my body type.

Back to the OP: as far as "appropriate" it really depends on your goals. What is appropriate for a fitness competitor is different than what is appropriate for a softball player, and both of those might be different than what you personally want to achieve anyway.

I used to go by BF%, but I have learned that since most ways are horribly inaccurate (or too expensive albeit accurate) that it really only matters to me how I look and feel. When I look the way I have pictured in my head is appropriate for me according to my goals, I will probably pay for a DEXA scan or Bodpod and see what BF% I am at and call that my "goal" for what to maintain. Just my .02 cents.

Edited to add: I just looked again at the picture...I don't understand why we need to see the top of the butt crack in the morbidly obese labeled picture. There are really cute bathing suits made for people that size that don't show crack...and I really don't want to see anyone's butt crack no matter what size they are. :laugh:

The "skinny" picture is frankly mislabeled. Once a woman loses the normal fat pads at the back of the hips--which should ALWAYS be present, even in slender women--she is then severely underweight. This woman looks somewhat anorexic.

I agree, plus the picture labeled normal to me doesn't seem right to me. She looks slightly underweight, or on the low end of normal. A better label would be slender or thin. I wish I could see numbers 3 and 4. I'll bet those are the more normal/average weight and body fat women.

I also take issue with the woman labeled fat. Really? I think she looks pretty good, maybe 20 pounds overweight. So I'd call her just overweight, not fat. The funny thing is the pictures jump from someone who is just a little overweight to very obese and then 400+. What do the final obese pictures look like?