Body fat percentage?

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Merkavar
Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hey guys

What is considered a good body fat percentage for a guy? I am sure I read that 12-17 is for athletes and 17-23 is average, then obese etc

So bare with me here, I realise that these body fat % tests like calipers and scales are a bit of a rough estimate.

But say I'm 112 kg, and according to scales my both fat is 30% and callipers measure by an employee of my gym says 25%. Already I can see some issues.

So if we use those numbers anyway, I appear to be somewhere around 78-84kg of lean body weight right?

So if I was to get down to 17% body fat which according to what I read is at the high end of athletic or low end of average. That would mean a weight of 91-98kg assuming no lose of lean body mass.

So apart for the inaccuracy of body fat % tests is there anything wrong with my math?

The reason I'm asking is 91-98kg is a fair bit different than 61-82kg which is the healthy weight range I get off the heart foundation website and other places based on a heigh of 182 cm.

So any suggestion on a healthy weight range or body fat percentage for someone around 182cm, Taurus with blue eyes?

Thanks and sorry I wrote this on my phone so there might be some issues

Replies

  • steff274
    steff274 Posts: 227 Member
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    I am actually interested in the same question.. think guys can have a lower body fat percentage than woman.. I did mine on one of those scales at the gym yesterday evening mine is low although my bmi is healthy .. So for woman according to the ticket it gave me should be between 24.5% and 30.8% mine is 19.8% and the body fat mass for woman 11.8kg to 14.8kg mine is 9.5kg .. I think guys the range is from 19%??
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    I'm 182 ish cm so 5'11 or as I prefer 6ft.

    Yeah I figure the body fat % is inaccurate but I can't tell by how much.

    I was just going with the information I had available to me.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Go with the heart foundation range and the jumping up and down naked in front of the mirror test

    Avoid scales and inexperienced people's with calipers

    If you're that interested dexa or body pod

    My scales have me at over 30% BF when visually I'm more likely around 23-24%
  • lydiakitten
    lydiakitten Posts: 132 Member
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    For women it "should be between 24.5 to 30.8"? That's nonsense. Given, these are the average ranges, but a lot of fit women have a body fat percentage much lower than 24.5% and are healthy and lovely and curvy. But yes, women naturally have a higher body fat percentage than men; we have different bodies.

    The following thing is interesting albeit not 100% accurate because even body fat percentagedoes not work the same way for everyone (for example, I don't have a very feminine body, so my percentage will be lower than a woman's who might b as fit as me but with more genetic curves)

    bodyfat.003.jpg

    And also you might take a look at this (which once again is rather exaggerated; a woman at 25% does not usually look that... squishy, many of them are fit enough but curvy; but hey, I suppose they're trying to motivate us...? And a man at 20% is usually not that squishy either; I know many men at 19-20% who are actually quite fit, with visible abs.)

    body-fat-percentage-chart-men-women.jpg

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Also BF is determined by age too

    Ideal-Body-Fat-Percentage-Chart2.jpg


    Ideal-Body-Fat-Percentage-Chart3.jpg
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited April 2015
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    God the available charts are all over the shop, it's like people just make them up :bigsmile:

    Body-Composition.jpg
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    30gd2vbr82qv.png

    here is an image of me. not topless but maybe try to guess at my body fat percentage. i don't post topless images online...not since the incident.
  • mikevandewetering
    mikevandewetering Posts: 155 Member
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    i would gess around 30-35% but ofcourse it is hard to tell. But i agree with what to posters above said.
  • JoKessho
    JoKessho Posts: 108 Member
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    What kind of scale are you using? If it only has electrodes for your feet, then those kinds are (apparently) only able to measure body fat from the bottom half of your body. Electrodes for hands and feet will give a more accurate reading, though it also depends on the make of the scale...
  • fearlessleader104
    fearlessleader104 Posts: 723 Member
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    I got a dexa scan and would suggest staying away from it unless you are looking for disappointment.

    I'm 6' 185lbs (was 235lbs in October) on my tanita home scale (feet only) I measured 23% fat; at the gym fancy scale (feet and hands) I measured 22%; and the dexa scan got me at a nice obese 31.8%.

    Just keep doing what you are doing (lift heavy things and put them down, and eat at a deficit) until you get to the look you want.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    Based on that pic, I'm comfortable saying you're somewhere in the 10-40% range.
  • philiplh88
    philiplh88 Posts: 3 Member
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    The incident...
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    mikevandewetering wrote: »
    i would gess around 30-35% but ofcourse it is hard to tell. But i agree with what to posters above said.

    I would agree 30-35%
  • Robertus
    Robertus Posts: 558 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    God the available charts are all over the shop, it's like people just make them up :bigsmile:
    They do. The 25% figure that is often mentioned as 'obese' (for men) is actually based on a misunderstanding of a report by the World Health Organization, which merely cited a Swedish study in which 25% was the average body fat percentage of healthy men between the ages of 45 and 49 who were participating in the study.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104919/
  • brocej
    brocej Posts: 24 Member
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    This may help a bit. I'm 5'10, a bit of muscle but not loads. Right now I'm 84kg at an estimated 20% bf. At 72kg I am 11% bf (bod pod measure). Based on this I would say you are in the 35-40% range given your weight of 112kg.

    Only time will tell. Keep going and stop when you like what you see in the mirror.
  • erikgoya
    erikgoya Posts: 77 Member
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    Can't really help with the math, but don't rely on the calipers too much. Apparently they work better for people with body fat of 20% and below.

    I have a relatively similar body type as you, but with more muscle mass and about 6 inches shorter.

    I got body fat taken 3 times by 3 different people in the same week. They gave me 23%, 30%, and 40% respectively. Don't worry about your body fat percentage until you lose some more weight. Use the mid to high estimate if you need to for calculating your BMR and TDEE (I use 35%), and keep up the work.

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