Body fat percentage? What's yours?

Your body fat percent is actually not unhealthy, you just need more lean mass so that percent is a healthier body weight. A perfect candidate for strength training and eating as much as you can make yourself. I've heard that most female body builders are former anorexics who trade the compulsion to not eat for gaining as much muscle as possible, so I guess the best thing is to seek help for the issues underlying the compulsion

15% body fat is low for a female, if you were fit you'd be characterized as an athlete. But since you are recovering from an eating disorder, I'm guessing that your low body fat percent is just due to being under weight, not fitness. I definitely congratulate you on trying to become more healthy, are you working with a counselor or anything?

15% is low for a sexually mature female. We need at least 18-19% to have proper reproductive health and make sure everything is working in that area. I am currently about 23-24% depending on the calculator I use. I am upping my exercise and am hoping to get down to 21% and lower my hip measurement by 2 inches.

According to this body fat percentage calculator, my BF% is 15.9%.
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Body Mass Index: 17.2 kg/m2
Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.37
Percent Body Fat: 15.9%
Lean Body Mass: 81.6 lb

I'm 97 pounds, 5'3", anorexic trying to recover.
This is horribly unhealthy.
I'm wondering what's a healthy BF% and weight for someone my height?

I'm not trying to dismiss your ED, but your weight and body fat percentage are within the healthy range, especially if you don't have an enormous frame. I'm only an inch shorter -- 5'2" -- and weighed a lot less than 97 pounds at one point in my life. I don't know what my body fat percentage was because I didn't have a scale that measured it.

Work on developing healthy eating and fitness habits.

Good luck my dear

Do you need a specific goal number to work towards? When you talk about working out for at least 30 minutes, I assume that's cardio? Can you swap some of that for strength training?

Getting strong enough and giving yourself enough cals so you aren't getting weak/faint so quickly should be your first goal. After that it's probably going to come down to finding a balance between being happy with your body/self image and being healthy. I can't really put a number on that (body fat or weight or whatever other measurable you want to talk about), but it sounds like you are making progress... keep at it.

If you need numbers to work towards (I'm a numbers guy, so I totally get it if you do), I'd look at something around 110-115lbs and a body fat % in the high teens. Then you can re-evaluate once you get there. Obviously I don't know you or your goals or your struggles, and I'm not an expert on any of this, so take it for what it's worth.

Good luck!


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Thank you so much for the helpful replies. I can't spend a day without exercising for at least 30 minutes now, so I'd say I'm pretty active most of the week. I think it would be better to raise the % of muscle and decrease the fat, correct?

you probably don't need to decrease your fat at all, it's already very little. I'd work on just gaining muscle and upping your weight a little!