Body Fat % Confusion!?

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

Are you using the online calculators where you enter your measurements? Those can be very wrong. You might have better results going to a page like this and comparing yourself to pictures:

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/

If you really are close to 15%, you should probably stop losing unless you are trying to become a fitness model, and even then dips below 15% are generally temporary for competitions or photo shots.

Body Fat Percentage Women 15-17%

This is still considered a very low body fat for women, which is similar to the 6-7% body fat for range men. Many bikini and fitness models will reach this body fat level and some may not be able to menstruate. Muscle definition in the abs, legs, arms, and shoulders is apparent, there is some vascularity and some separation between muscles. Hips, buttocks, and thighs generally have a little less shape because of the low body fat.

If you are low body fat and still unhappy with your body the problem might be lack of muscle instead of too much fat. I'd suggest looking into a good lifting program like Strong Lifts 5x5 or Starting Strength and increasing your calories to maintenance for a while. Once you have the good basic lifts down and have the actual number of your maintenance calories figured out, then you can think about eating at a surplus and possibly switching to a hypertrophy program. Protein intake is import. Should be 0.8 to 1 grams per pound of lean body mass, which actually ends up around 100g for most women.

If you are closer to the 24%, I would still do the lifting as above as above but change your settings to a half pound a week (small deficit) in order to continue to lose body fat. Again, make sure you get enough protein.

And yes, there is no reason to limit carbohydrates.

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

At 8 - 15% she'd be closer to dead than healthy.

Anything from 18- 24% is pretty good for a female.

Nice discussion of %BF bounds:

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart

Although expensive, I think that DEXA is the current gold standard for accuracy ... but I'm not sure what the % margin of error is on each of the popular methods.

Interesting comparison of all of the methods, with a nice discussion at the end regarding interpretation and use of the numbers:

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=180

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

At 8 - 15% she'd be closer to dead than healthy.

Anything from 18- 24% is pretty good for a female.

I SAID: 8-15 for athletes. Read what I wrote before you infer a wrong remark. Female athletes get thier BF down that low, Yes.

If you are 5'4 and 112 pounds you probably don't have much fat to lose OR you have a very low lean mass due to low amounts of muscle. 15% bodyfat is very low for a woman, right around where you would start to see your abs. It seems to me that a women generally carry about 8% more bodyfat than a man with an equivalent fitness level. So a woman with 15% bodyfat would be like a man at 7% which is very low. 24% on a woman is well within the healthy range. Either way you aren't really needing to lose fat.

People at equivalent bodyfat percentages can look quite different however based on how much muscle they have. A muscular woman at 18% bodyfat is going to look very lean and fit. A low muscle woman at 18% will look small-ish.

When you get to bodyfat that low as a woman and you don't have the look you want yet, its time to stop dieting and start lifting heavy weight.




Point being that fat stomach, cinched in toned look ultimately comes from muscle not from dropping sufficient weight. You certainly have to drop down to a certain bodyfat percentage to be able to get that look but sounds to me like you are already there or certainly close. Dropping additional weight is how you get to see your ribs not how you get toned.

I want the body of the woman with 18% body fat!

If we are going for aesthetics I like 20% personally but one thing all those women have in common (at least sub 25%) is that they all have a decent amount of muscle. If you don't lift weights, if you don't do some sort of resistance training, and you get down to that level of bodyfat you will not look like that. You will still have the health benefit of low bodyfat, but not the aesthetic look like in these images.

I will take her body, too. As soon as I get to my goal weight which will be soon I am starting lifiting!

Why wait?

Fat loss comes first if you are in an unhealthy range. As soon as you are in a healthy bodyfat range but you don't have the aesthetics you want then comes the weight training. You will still burn fat weight training and eating at maintenance. The fat will come off slower but the aesthetic changes will be faster.

I am close enough to my goal that I want to focus on that and once I get there I will start. I have only been doing cardio for just under month now. I am a routine kind of person and want to accomplish one thing at a time.

Exactly, otherwise I get overwhelmed.

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

1. It's hard to estimate BF% using scales and calipers. It's further inaccurate to make an estimate off of someone's height and weight without pictures.

2. 8-15% is a huge danger zone for women. 15% is athlete levels. Below 10-20% is beyond all essential fat and quite dangerous. Healthy range for women is ~15-30%.

3. Carbs have nothing to do with BF% unless there's a health issue (like insulin resistance).

To lose BF%, lift weights and eat at a small calorie deficit. Simple.

1. Calipers: I doubt she has a BMI of 35 or more.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/how-to-measure-body-fatness/

2. Fat and Calipers: 8-15% for athletes, as I said is the norm. Like it or not. And Calipers are accurate.

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/underbodycomp.html

3. Lose a small percentage of BF:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0904c.shtml

I've been doing this for 30 years. You? I maintain between 10 and 12% BF. During a cutting cycle, for 4- 6 weeks, lower carbs, increase fats and increase protein. Obviously, you're clueless. Pro bodybuilders, men and women, cut their carb intake down to 10% of their caloric intake in order to show more muscle definition, i.e., lose body fat. Do you think the pros continue to eat huge amounts of food and lift weights to knock off fat? Nope. They also have a high carb day once a week to keep leptin levels optimal.

info on cutting carbs (no study):

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/metabolism-massacre-7-ways-to-avoid-undermining-fat-loss.html

For someone who is 5'4" and 112lbs, she is far from obese. No, there is not photo, but one is not needed. 3-4 weeks of a low carb intake will ensure no longer term health effects and will be just so to lose a few BF percentage points.

Anything else?

You maintain at 10-12% body fat. You are also a man. For a woman to do that would be very unhealthy. Even according to your OWN sources, optimal healthy body fat levels for a woman are between 18% and 30%. Furthermore, your sources also say that skinfold thickness (aka calipers) are not very accurate and often give hard to replicate results.

From http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/underbodycomp.html:

Normal body functions may be disrupted if body fat falls below the minimum level recommended for men (5%) and women (15%).

You are promoting goals for women that are not only unrealistic, but are actively dangerous. Please stop.

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

1. It's hard to estimate BF% using scales and calipers. It's further inaccurate to make an estimate off of someone's height and weight without pictures.

2. 8-15% is a huge danger zone for women. 15% is athlete levels. Below 10-20% is beyond all essential fat and quite dangerous. Healthy range for women is ~15-30%.

3. Carbs have nothing to do with BF% unless there's a health issue (like insulin resistance).

To lose BF%, lift weights and eat at a small calorie deficit. Simple.

1. Calipers: I doubt she has a BMI of 35 or more.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/how-to-measure-body-fatness/

2. Fat and Calipers: 8-15% for athletes, as I said is the norm. Like it or not. And Calipers are accurate.

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/underbodycomp.html

3. Lose a small percentage of BF:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0904c.shtml

I've been doing this for 30 years. You? I maintain between 10 and 12% BF. During a cutting cycle, for 4- 6 weeks, lower carbs, increase fats and increase protein. Obviously, you're clueless. Pro bodybuilders, men and women, cut their carb intake down to 10% of their caloric intake in order to show more muscle definition, i.e., lose body fat. Do you think the pros continue to eat huge amounts of food and lift weights to knock off fat? Nope. They also have a high carb day once a week to keep leptin levels optimal.

info on cutting carbs (no study):

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/metabolism-massacre-7-ways-to-avoid-undermining-fat-loss.html

For someone who is 5'4" and 112lbs, she is far from obese. No, there is not photo, but one is not needed. 3-4 weeks of a low carb intake will ensure no longer term health effects and will be just so to lose a few BF percentage points.

Anything else?

You maintain at 10-12% body fat. You are also a man. For a woman to do that would be very unhealthy. Even according to your OWN sources, optimal healthy body fat levels for a woman are between 18% and 30%. Furthermore, your sources also say that skinfold thickness (aka calipers) are not very accurate and often give hard to replicate results.

From http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/underbodycomp.html:

Normal body functions may be disrupted if body fat falls below the minimum level recommended for men (5%) and women (15%).

You are promoting goals for women that are not only unrealistic, but are actively dangerous. Please stop.

Another person with reading comprehension issues. Where did I suggest that a woman should have the same BF as I do? Where? I didn't. Seems you missed that. The OP mentioned in her original statement, that she found her BF at 15 and 24. The information I provided is accurate and is only information on WHO among women have certain amount of BF at her present "assumed" two states (15 and 24). She also asked what is considered healthy / good. If you what what the hell I wrote it states (once again) 15-22. I promoted nothing.

So by mentioning 15-22 is healthy, you find that dangerous? If so, then you're an idiot.

Also, re-read the article on calipers. Especially the second one. Scroll down to Skinfold Method. Now, I understand you have the skills to read... comprehension though...? Calipers are accurate if one knows what they are doing. It is inexpensive and quick. There are much, much more accurate methods, but they cost huge sums of money.

Enough.

Stuck, how exactly? At 5'4" and 112 pounds, your BF is more towards 15 then 24%. The best methods for BF determining are calipers or a physician. Actually the water method tends to be the most accurate, but can be costly depending on by whom it is performed. Scales that give BF readings are notorious for being inaccurate. I have a 15 years-old Tanita scale. It just gives me an idea, but is not close to what my physician determines each year.

What is a healthy BF percentage? Rather subjective question. If you are an athletic woman, then 8-14 would be work. Good or healthy is from 15 - 22. Not perfect numbers, though. There are mounds of info on this in the Internet. Best to read some and determine for yourself.

If you still want to lower your BF, lower your carbohydrate intake. Simple.

1. It's hard to estimate BF% using scales and calipers. It's further inaccurate to make an estimate off of someone's height and weight without pictures.

2. 8-15% is a huge danger zone for women. 15% is athlete levels. Below 10-20% is beyond all essential fat and quite dangerous. Healthy range for women is ~15-30%.

3. Carbs have nothing to do with BF% unless there's a health issue (like insulin resistance).

To lose BF%, lift weights and eat at a small calorie deficit. Simple.

1. Calipers: I doubt she has a BMI of 35 or more.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/how-to-measure-body-fatness/

2. Fat and Calipers: 8-15% for athletes, as I said is the norm. Like it or not. And Calipers are accurate.

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/underbodycomp.html

3. Lose a small percentage of BF:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0904c.shtml

I've been doing this for 30 years. You? I maintain between 10 and 12% BF. During a cutting cycle, for 4- 6 weeks, lower carbs, increase fats and increase protein. Obviously, you're clueless. Pro bodybuilders, men and women, cut their carb intake down to 10% of their caloric intake in order to show more muscle definition, i.e., lose body fat. Do you think the pros continue to eat huge amounts of food and lift weights to knock off fat? Nope. They also have a high carb day once a week to keep leptin levels optimal.

info on cutting carbs (no study):

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/metabolism-massacre-7-ways-to-avoid-undermining-fat-loss.html

For someone who is 5'4" and 112lbs, she is far from obese. No, there is not photo, but one is not needed. 3-4 weeks of a low carb intake will ensure no longer term health effects and will be just so to lose a few BF percentage points.

Anything else?

Ah, because you are older, you must know more than me! I'll just sit back and wait until age allows me the knowledge to cite boybuilding.com as a scientific source! Nice ad hominem though!

Your dogged insistence that 8% is even an athletic bf% for women is... well... something.

Good luck, OP. Don't listen to this guy's well-meaning (?) advice. You are at a low weight; if you're still concerned with BF%, lifting weights and eating at a small (or even no) deficit is good for body recomp, which I assume you'll be shooting for.

To keep dropping body fat lower calories or burn more calories off . I'd say you look 15% roughly