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Understanding Your Body Fat Percentage Understanding Your Body Fat Percentage
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Body fat measurements and the measuring tape are recognized as superior methods for measuring "weight loss". When one declares that they want to "lose weight", what they often mean is that they want to lose fat. So, now that you've had your body fat percentage measured, what does the number really mean?

First, your body fat percentage is simply the percentage of fat your body contains. If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else).

A certain amount of fat is essential to bodily functions. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body's energy storage. The following table describes body fat ranges and their associated categories:

*General Body Fat Percentage Categories

Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 10-12% 2-4%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Acceptable 25-31% 18-25%
Obese 32% plus 25% plus
*American Council on Exercise

Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic. Remember, weight loss doesn't always mean fat loss. For example:

Let's say you're a 130# woman with 23% body fat, and you goal is to "lose 20 pounds":

Initial body fat: 130# x 0.23 fat = 30 # body fat

Lean body mass: 130# total - 30# fat = 100# lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)

Goal: 130# - 20# = 110 pounds

As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy. At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100# of lean body mass (bones, organs, etc.), but would only be carrying 10#, or only 9% body fat. From the chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage.

A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18%. In this case:

130# x 0.18 = 23 # body fat

100# lean body mass + 23 # = 123# goal weight

So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds. Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.

So before you decide that you need to "lose weight", remember to consider that "weight" consists of both lean body mass and body fat. Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.
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Creator: MleighS84
Category: Diet and Nutrition
Posted: 2/19/2008
Source: HealthCheckSystems.com
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Comments: 6
Views: 1004
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Popularity Score: 120.4

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Yavor “ p.s. the girl was really petite, around 155cm, 52kgs (she was not skinny, but strong and athletic, but nevertheless that BF% was too low for her). ”
-  Yavor on 7/23/2008
Yavor “ Great tip! I measured my BF% recently using a 4 site skinfold method. It turned out to be 12.9% lol. Last time I had it measured 2 years ago it was 10.1%. It really got back me on track.

It is good you mentioned essential BF percentages there. One of the girls I was training last year got too intense in eating really clean. She got herself a great body with chiseled shoulders and a sixpack, but at a BF% as low as 13% she had problems with her female hormonal status - her period disappeared. It is a common problem with many female athletes ”
-  Yavor on 7/23/2008
MleighS84 “ Thanks - I try and explain this all the time but most people dont get it - i get hassled all the time at work b/c i try to keep a clean diet and people think I am trying to lose weight (they get on my case b/c i am too skinny already) but in reality i am just trying to get rid of fat/, i am perfectly happy with my weight, i actually dont even weigh myself regularly - i just want a low bf%; my goal is to keep it around 17.5% ”
-  MleighS84 on 4/23/2008 in response to kettlebell27
kettlebell27 “ Nice post here...I had a client once where I was showing her the math on every calcuation with my calculator, showing her that her idea of losing 70 pounds was unrealistic for her to attain on a 180 pound body. She mentioned how she used to weigh 110 in high school, but that was before 'maturity' hit her, and with her BF% measurements, 110 pounds was very unrealistic to hit. ”
-  kettlebell27 on 4/22/2008
Mitch “ I like how you put it all into perspective ”
-  Mitch on 2/21/2008

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