What is your body fat percentage?

[MasterAkumaMatata]

At my company's health fair today, I had my body fat percentage measured for the first time. My body fat percentage is 12.9%.

Originally posted by http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20020327.html@Wed, Mar 27, 2002

Dear Yahoo!:

What is a healthy percentage of body fat?

Cathy

Dear Cathy:

We searched on "body fat percentage" and browsed through Yahoo!'s Health category to turn up many different estimations of healthy body fat.

Most sources agree that the human body requires a certain amount of fat for good health. Fat helps regulate body temperature, store energy, and cushion and insulate organs. The percentage of body weight that makes up this "essential fat" is around 4% of body weight for men and 10% for women. Beyond that, there's a somewhat wide range of what is considered a healthy percentage of body fat.

According to an article from Medscape.com, the American Dietetic Association recommends that men have 15-18% body fat and women have 20-25% body fat. Healthy male athletes might be as low as 5-12% body fat, and healthy female athletes could be as low as 10-20%.

Dr. C. Everett Koop's site, ShapeUp.com, breaks down healthy body fat ranges by both gender and age. Men under 39 years of age should have 8-19% body fat, and women under 39 years of age should have 21-32%. Older men may range from 11% to 24%, and older women may range from 23% to 35%.

www.healthchecksystems.com/bodyfat.htm]Health Check Systems[/url] quotes the American Council on Exercise and says men's body fat should be 6-25%, and women's should be 14-31%.

Doctors increasingly use the Body Mass Index (BMI), not body fat measurements, to determine whether or not a person is overweight. BMI is based on a mathematical formula using height and weight that estimates overall body composition. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers a handy BMI calculator and tables so you can see where you stand.

 

[Cloud121]

I'm in the 21 - 25 Percent range.

 

[Zziggy00]

21-25 for me as well

 

[Alexvrb]

Darn, there's no "> 40%" option. Or a "Hell if I know" option.

 

[lordofduct]

that bmi calculator thing says i have a 17.4 bmi.. underweight! I think its broken though, thats too HIGH!

 

[Dud]

I'm 20.3 BMI, how do you get the % from that?

 

[Cloud121]

The BMI is a unit of measurement. It is not a percentage. The BMI is used only "to determine whether or not a person is overweight." Your body fat percentage is not derived from your BMI.

Eh?

Since someone editted my post just now and corrected what I said to above, I'm gonna check mine out in more detail, to find my percentage.

How do you get the percentage from that?

 

[it290]

I have no idea, but I used to be a freakin' stick. Now I'd say I'm closer to average.

 

[yasminkov]

mines 15.9% not bad considering im only 15 must be the martial arts keeping it down and the weight lifting at school.

 

[Alexvrb]

Originally posted by it290@Thu, 2004-10-28 @ 09:39 AM

I have no idea, but I used to be a freakin' stick. Now I'd say I'm closer to average.

[post=121916]Quoted post[/post]​

You tell em, Stick Boy! Actually I think one of my friends had you beat even at your best. He's got the metabolism of a hummingbird on crack. A Hummingcokebird, if you will.

Hurray for new options!

 

[it290]

Well, I'm about 6' tall. I used to weigh 130... now I'm at about 155. Definitely a bit more comfortable.

 

[Alexvrb]

That's some good pizza in action, I can tell.