24
Jan, 2010
How Un-Fat Should You Be? A Close Look At Body Fat Percentage
An Advanced Fat Loss Post About Body Fat Percentage…by Brad Campbell
We’ve been talking a lot about tracking and monitoring your body transformation process lately. A few posts back, I discussed the importance of using body composition analysis to gain a clearer understanding of how much fat and muscle tissue you’re gaining or losing as the weeks go by (as opposed to using just body weight to gauge your progress).
To calculate these body composition numbers, you first need to determine your overall body fat percentage. I talked about the different ways to figure out your body fat percentage and gave pros, cons and recommendations in this post: How to Calculate Body Fat Percentage.
This brings us to the following question: What is an ideal body fat percentage to shoot for?
But before I can answer this question, I need to give you a quick background about the ugly, unflattering enemy that we’re all trying so hard to get rid of. Your body fat percentage (which is just your weight of fat mass divided by your total body weight) is composed of two types of fat – essential fat and storage fat.
—> Essential fat is required by your body to keep you alive and to allow reproductive functions. Guys need to have 3-5% essential fat, while girls need 8-12% (the female body requires more due to different hormone functions and of course, childbearing).
—> Storage fat is fat contained within adipose tissue of the skin and serves as an energy store, thermal insulation and even protects internal organs. On average, males have 12% storage fat and females have around 15%.
Okay, now that we know what our body fat percentage actually consists of, how much fat is required just to live, what the average levels are for guys and girls and why girls require higher levels of body fat…we can take a closer look at body fat percentages and determine where you should be aiming for.
Different sources will give slightly different categories, but I like to use the following table from The American Council On Exercise:
| Classification | Women (% fat) | Men (% fat) |
|---|---|---|
| Essential Fat | 10-12% | 2-4% |
| Athletes | 14-20% | 6-13% |
| Fitness | 21-24% | 14-17% |
| Acceptable | 25-31% | 18-26% |
| Overweight | 32-41% | 27-37% |
| Obese | 42% plus | 38% plus |
As you can see from the table, it’s pretty tough for guys to go much under 5% body fat, although I’ve seen stats of bodybuilders and fitness competitors in the low 3% range. For girls, it’s going to be extremely difficult to break into the single digits of body fat percentage.
As far as selecting an “ideal” body fat percentage to shoot for…this depends on your goals. Research has shown various levels to be ideal for specific sports, but for most of us who are just trying to look HOT, it really depends on what your vision of ideal is. I’d recommend everyone be no higher than the “fitness” category in the table above.
For guys, anything around 10% or under is going to look great and if you really want the Brad Pitt body (Fight Club) or the ripped Cam Gigandet body (Never Back Down), you’ll need to hit that elite 4-5% body fat level. For the ladies, I think anything around 20% body fat is perfect, but if you really like the toned and sculpted look you’ll want to achieve roughly 13% body fat.
Yep, I’m holding the guys to a higher standard…I think being extremely lean and ripped is the only way to go, but remember, you still have to have a decent amount of muscle so you don’t end up looking like a skinny wimp who never eats.
I’ve always been more attracted to girls who are both toned and curvy, like Shakira’s body or Fergie’s body. For both sexes, it’s a balancing act and symmetry and proportions are key in making or breaking the overall look, regardless of what your individual preferences are.
Speaking of individual preferences…
—> What do YOU feel is an ideal body fat percentage?
—> What is the exact body fat percentage you’d like to achieve?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Your Coach,
Brad Campbell
Posted in Extreme Fat Loss by |
Congrats on the progress, not much farther to go…keep me updated on your progress. Thanks for reading…
