Body Fat

I signed up for a 12 week body fat challenge at my gym on friday and had my initial body fat % calculated (with calipers). I apparently have a body fat % of 32.6. Bit of googling later and it seems 32.6 is 'obese'. Thats not fair....I thought I had got rid of my obese label when I got out of my BMI obese range!

I tend to think measuring body-fat is just one more thing to get stressed about.   As if losing weight wasn't tough enough, eh?  I'm sure, over 12 weeks of exercising, that body fat % will come down.  It's only a number.

I have a friend who is a fairly thin dude and wanted to get on an exercise/diet regimen so he could attempt to get a 6 pack. I gave him a few ideas and alerted him of the body fat level he'd need to have those. He went and had his percentage calculated and found out he was virtually overweight according to his fat levels.

BMI can only show so much. But if I remember correctly girls have a range up to 31 percent. You are pretty darn close. After this challenge you'll be very comfortably in the "Healthy" percentage. Good Luck!

Yeah I have been exercising consistently for a long time and I have lost alot of fat and shaped up.....my gym instructer commented that I have 'totally changed' in the time that I've been training there. I am very pleased with the results so far although I still have a long way to go which feels like a bit of a daunting task sometimes....specially when after all this hard work a set of numbers gives me an 'obese' label. Grrrrr how I hate that word!

On the bright side I only have 1.6% to go to get in the 'Acceptable' range. Yeah I know I'm obsessing over labels again! Sometimes its somehow nice to see that kind of validation though. In reality once I'm happy with what I see in the mirror I probably won't be so fixated but in the meantime I think I tend to use them as little milestones to gauge my progress.

I'm wondering how long it will take to see a change in body fat %.....for example I am 5ft1 and 153lbs and if I am losing roughly 1lb a week would you think I'd expect to see much of a change to my bf% in 12 weeks? Actually it will be more like 10 weeks cos then I'll be off on my hols to Faliraki :)

Where did you find that 32.6% is obese? I think the cutoff (according to, I believe, the WHO) is 35% for women.  Reguardless, about 2/3rds of people who are considered obese based on BF% are not classified as obese by BMI, which kind of makes you wonder how good of a measure BMI is for anyone...

I found a chart on this site....not sure how good it is mind

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet .html

       &nb sp;               &nb sp; Women         &nb sp;       Men
 
Essential fat     10-12%         &nb sp;      2-4%
 
Athletes         &nb sp;  14-20%         &nb sp;      6-13%
 
Fitness         &nb sp;    21-24%         &nb sp;      14-17%
 
Acceptable        25-31%         &nb sp;       18-25%
 
Obese         &nb sp;     32% or more         26% or more

Hmmmmm that worked well....

I don't trust those body fat tests...

about 4 years ago I joined Curves, and when they did my initial BF% test, they had me step on a scale which somehow calculated your body fat

it said I was 116lbs and had a BF% of 27%!!!

I was 5'2(1/2), I do not think it was accurate, especially how it was done, because they used some kinda of electric magnetic scale which travelled through your body and would read various tissues... but I suspect that it was reading more then just body fat.. water/bloat could of been a factor.

I dunno your height and weight, but I would take it with a grain of salt unless you are in the overweight range.

Carmen I was tested with calipers, not on a scale :)

I think you will see a huge difference in your body fat in the next 10-12 weeks if you focus on 1) eating right and maintaining a 500+ calorie deficit per day and 2) continue to exercise (lift heavy weights and do interval-type training if you can instead of long slow cardio work).

If the 10 lbs you lose is all fat over the next 10 weeks, you will be down to less than 28% BF and will be happily ready for your holidays.

Thanks rwnorth.....thats exactly what I am doing

Original Post by linz78:

Carmen I was tested with calipers, not on a scale :)

 those are the least accurate of any body fat measuring device... but the cheapest

if you want a real good body fat analysis you should get an underwater weigh, or a scan

Well, technically, the home scales that shoot a current up one leg and measure how fast it takes to come down the other one are even less accurate.  Mine likes to give me values that differ by more than 10% from day to day - except on days when it just gives me an error message! 

As I understand it, calipers are quite accurate when used by someone properly trained, but are otherwise relatively useless.