What’s a healthy body fat %age

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just_a_few_lbs
just_a_few_lbs Posts: 20 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Would love to know. I did have a couple of days at 29% a while ago. More concerned about amount of fat around organs.

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  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
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    What is your ultimate health goal, OP? You may currently be in the upper range of "acceptable" and may want to get to the lower part of the same range?

    Working with your healthcare team, you'll be able to establish helpful goals (which may go beyond body fat percentage metrics).

    Furthermore, unless one is a cadaver, most ways of measuring body fat are going to be inaccurate. You can take several tests using different approaches all in one day yet get different numbers.

    It'll be a range, but still different numbers. 🤷🏿‍♀️

    For my peace of mind, OP, I chose one method (also my scale even though I take body measurements twice a month) and then track the trend. Is it going downwards while lean muscle mass metrics improve?👌🏿

    When my part of the world fully reopens, I may get another Dexa scan from the same provider in order to compare my 2019 body but the scale will do for now: every morning while fasted and in my birthday suit.

    Hope you find a way that gets you to your health goals @just_a_few_lbs
  • just_a_few_lbs
    just_a_few_lbs Posts: 20 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    How are you coming to this BF percentage? If you're using one of those at-home scales, they are notoriously inaccurate.

    How Much Fat is OK?

    Women
    Essential fat 10-12%
    Athletes 14-20%
    Fitness 21-24%
    Acceptable 25-31%

    Men
    Essential fat 2-4%
    Athletes 6-13%
    Fitness 14-17%
    Acceptable 18-25%



    Thank you, you are spot on. I have a Qardio ‘at home’ 😊

    My goals are to fit comfortably in the clothes I have and to be healthy. I am small, and at the other side of the menopause. More concerning is I can pinch a roll of fat at my waist and stomach. So it makes me wonder how much fat is around my organs.

    Stay safe ☺️
  • CurvyEmmy
    CurvyEmmy Posts: 225 Member
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    just_a_few_lbs wrote: »
    My goals are to fit comfortably in the clothes I have and to be healthy. I am small, and at the other side of the menopause. More concerning is I can pinch a roll of fat at my waist and stomach. So it makes me wonder how much fat is around my organs.

    I wouldn’t worry. Women naturally have more fat than men, and around 30% body fat is totally normal for a woman. It’s also normal for women to carry a pouch of belly fat and being able to pinch it is totally normal. A better measure is waist circumference. If it’s over 40 inches that is a health concern.
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
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    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75667-5

    Interesting article on the parameters by which one might get an idea of how much visceral fat one is carrying.

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,463 Member
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    CurvyEmmy wrote: »
    just_a_few_lbs wrote: »
    My goals are to fit comfortably in the clothes I have and to be healthy. I am small, and at the other side of the menopause. More concerning is I can pinch a roll of fat at my waist and stomach. So it makes me wonder how much fat is around my organs.

    I wouldn’t worry. Women naturally have more fat than men, and around 30% body fat is totally normal for a woman. It’s also normal for women to carry a pouch of belly fat and being able to pinch it is totally normal. A better measure is waist circumference. If it’s over 40 inches that is a health concern.

    Just to clarify, it's 35 inches for a female, 40 for a male:

    https://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/calculating-your-waist-circumference#:~:text=For your best health, your,other part of your body.

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