Ideal Body Fat Percentage - What Level Is Right for You?
October 26, 2008 by admin
Many people want to know what their ideal body fat percentage is. The problem with trying to answer this question is that that there is no straight answer that applies to every individual person. The ideal body fat percentage can vary quite a bit in between various individuals depending on body type, heredity, age, eating habits, gender, and normal activity levels. All of these can effect what a healthy body fat percentage, as 6% might be healthy for one individual, but 15% is healthy for someone else. However as a general rule of thumb, once you get up to 25%, that’s unhealthy for anybody.
The ideal body fat percentage also varies greatly depending on gender. For example, most males who have 5% body fat are considered in excellent health because that’s the safe lower limit for most men. Women, on the other hand, have a minimum of 12% to be at safe levels. A woman aiming for 5% body fat is not only being unrealistic, but is probably aiming for a goal that would actually make her unhealthy.
Active people tend to have lower body fat, while individuals with a more sedentary life style are obviously more likely to have a high level of body fat. In addition to this, age has a lot to do it. For example, males who are 20 are often considered to have too little body fat if they are below 8% (obviously there are exceptions, like hard core athletes). But at 70, you would have to be below 13% to have too little body fat. The healthy range for a 30 year old male is 8-19%, while for an 80 year old it is 13-25%.
Figuring out your ideal body fat percentage and working to keep it in that range is a very important part of staying healthy and is a better indication of overall health than the body mass index (BMI). Going to a doctor for a test can be a good idea, and there are body fat monitors that help you to monitor your progress as you diet and exercise your way to an ideal body fat percentage.
This is one of the most important things you can do to in order to stay in good health. Your ideal body fat percentage should be one of your main goals in working out and becoming healthy. Taking another measurement every three weeks to steadily keep track of your progress towards your ideal body fat percentage can help you to stay motivated and stay with a workout and diet program.
There are actually a wide array of body fat monitors available, giving consumers multiple choices. Aiming for the body fat reduction can be encouraging, as sometimes you may be staying at the same weight but gaining muscle while losing fat, or you might be losing weight but your body takes longer to show it. By keeping track of your progress, you will get healthier and may find it easier to reach your ideal body fat percentage.
Shh! Discover The 8 Most Effective Stars Diet Secrets!
Why a person dies. If retaining right body weight and fat is so good, why the average life span of an athlete is no better then an average person
“However as a general rule of thumb, once you get up to 25%, that’s unhealthy for anybody.”
Actually that is not an unhealthy number for a female, but it is obese for a male.
Obese:
Female: 33%
Male 25%
As for the other end of the scale, 5% is not an ‘excellent’ level of fat for men because it’s borderline underfat and a woman could never achieve 5% body fat, she would be long dead.
Great article allot of good information to use.
Dee….it seems there are lots of different ideas of what fat % is considered obese, I had just read on another site that obesity starts at 42% for women and 38% for men with an acceptable range of 25-31% for women and 18-26% for men then the overweight catagory between them…..this was published by the American Council on Exercise.
Some other sites considered F=39%, M=25% are obese and F=33%, M=20%, so really it is very much down to opinion. (the last two were for age range 18-39 where as the A.C.E publication did not state difference in any age group which in itself is wrong)
The author is correct, 25% IS unhealthy. She didn’t say OBESE, she said unhealthy. You can be overweight, fat and unhealthy before you’re obese. Obese means EXTREMELY overweight. I’m a 36 year old male approaching 8% bodyfat…. and that’s NOT too low or unhealthy. You’re wrong on that one. I could get down to 5% and still be very healthy.
i like all the comments. you can always learn something new, im a 36 year old male and my body fat is like between 8% and 12% but in my twenties i was naturaly 5 percent all the time but the older i get each year i have to be moore active to keep my body fat the same. i eat like a garbage disposal, lik a fat pork, but i play soccer three times a week nd go 2 the gym, good luck to all on their journey to having a slimmer more healthy body