Very active people - what is your BF%?

I'll tell you but first I want to know why you're asking...

You will find that everyone is different.  I am 10 days out from a bodybuilding competition doing bikini level, so as of last week, I'm 8.39%.  BUT....that is extremely low and I will NOT maintain it as it's too hard on my body.  You will find many, many ranges of athletes...

my electronic scale says anywhere between 10-12% most days and im a male triathlete doing between 10-15hrs of exercise a week.  that said, i dont think its healthy to obsess about the numbers so much, there was an article in bicycle magazine this month about endurance athletes and their obsession with weight and BF% and its estimated nearly 20% of the Tour riders have some kind of eating disorder.  i dont know if its that prevalent for amateurs, but i would assume its a pretty big problem. 

ive also heard that the electronic scales can be off by a quite a bit so it could be helpful to note the trend rather than the actual numbers.

15.2

When training....  12.8

Original Post by sugarshocked:

I'll tell you but first I want to know why you're asking...

I'm just curious because it seems like the BF% charts aren't meant for extremely fit people. I've heard different things - that women shouldn't strive for a BF% lower than 18% - but that doesn't make any sense to me. I'm currently at 18% but would like to be lower - 15-16% would be great. But when I say that, people jump me and tell me I'll lose my period and whatnot. I am a triathlete and training for my first marathon and it seems that marathon runners have lower body fat %. I just think I can get better results with a lower body fat percentage. Anyway, that's why I asked the question. I wanted to know if my goals of a lower BF% are unreasonable or not, keeping in mind the amount of exercise I do.

Fitnessgirl,

That is awesome!! I am impressed. There a lot of guys that can't get down to 12%. You continue to impress me. :) Just out of curiousity, which method do you use when getting it tested?

My history :

Three months ago I was only eating 2000 calories a day. I was doing 5-6 hours of cardio a week easy, and weight lifting 4-5 times per week. I was busting my ass in the gym. However, my strength wasn't really increasing. Just for the hell of it, I got my bodyfat tested at the gym with the callipers and my bodyfat was @ 19%. When I saw that I was dissapointed to say the least. I went to my doctor and she told me that I wasn't eating enough. So I completely re-worked my nutrition and started eating 3000-3200 calories per day of the right types of foods. I hit the weights with intensity three times per week and cut my cardio way back to three HIIT sessions per week.

Three months later according to this computer test : http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home -body-fat-test-2774-143.html?ic=4004 ; (which is supposed to be very accurate) I have 7.8% bodyfat. I want to believe that this could be true considering the fact that three months ago my bodyfat % was @ 19%.

However, I know for a fact that it isn't that low. I mean, it couldn't be. I have a lot more definition than I used to, and I can finally see my abs. However, I don't have the amount of definition one would have with bodyfat @ 8% or under. I am most likely in the 10-12% range. My goal has always been to get down to 6%. If anything though, my success proves that sometimes you have to eat more and do less cardio the right way to get results.

where can you go to get it tested? I know there are different methods involving things like X-Rays and infrared beams and such, but I have no idea how expensive they are or where you find them.

They say the most accurate method is through DEXA (Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry) testing : http://www.bodycomposition.com.au/index.php?p ageid=2

However, I wouldn't want to subject myself to being under an X-Ray for that long and paying that much money.

A lot of trainers would be willing to do the calliper method at your local gym for free. The calliper method isn't quite as accurate as the DEXA test, but it is pretty damn close.

My nutitionist measured it today 18.4% want to get it around 17.5%

Im an amateur boxer, my current bf% is 18% at 266lbs.  I guess it could be lower if I ate a cleaner diet.

Original Post by jcl76:

Original Post by sugarshocked:

I'll tell you but first I want to know why you're asking...

I'm just curious because it seems like the BF% charts aren't meant for extremely fit people. I've heard different things - that women shouldn't strive for a BF% lower than 18% - but that doesn't make any sense to me. I'm currently at 18% but would like to be lower - 15-16% would be great. But when I say that, people jump me and tell me I'll lose my period and whatnot. I am a triathlete and training for my first marathon and it seems that marathon runners have lower body fat %. I just think I can get better results with a lower body fat percentage. Anyway, that's why I asked the question. I wanted to know if my goals of a lower BF% are unreasonable or not, keeping in mind the amount of exercise I do.

When I was running marathons my body fat was measured as low as 8%, but I'm not sure if that was accurate because I'd probably be dead.  It was probably more like 11%, but still way too low.  I would lose my period once my body fat dropped below about 15-16%,  and after training and running races for so many years it has caused me all sorts of problems.  I don't think there is a magic number but you need to listen to your own body.  Striving for a certain body fat % isn't really healthy.  The amount of body fat you have will not impact your ability to run marathons unless you're obese or it gets too low like mine did.  If body fat gets to low mucles will start to deteriorate and you running (and health) will suffer.  You shouldn't even focus on weight when training for marathons - you need to focus on nutrition.

I'm a competitive swimmer and soccer player (and I run and do weight train, etc).  My body fat is usually 12-15%

Good question. I can only guess what my BF% is.

Original Post by vyperman7:

Fitnessgirl,

That is awesome!! I am impressed. There a lot of guys that can't get down to 12%. You continue to impress me. :) Just out of curiousity, which method do you use when getting it tested?

My history :

Three months ago I was only eating 2000 calories a day. I was doing 5-6 hours of cardio a week easy, and weight lifting 4-5 times per week. I was busting my ass in the gym. However, my strength wasn't really increasing. Just for the hell of it, I got my bodyfat tested at the gym with the callipers and my bodyfat was @ 19%. When I saw that I was dissapointed to say the least. I went to my doctor and she told me that I wasn't eating enough. So I completely re-worked my nutrition and started eating 3000-3200 calories per day of the right types of foods. I hit the weights with intensity three times per week and cut my cardio way back to three HIIT sessions per week.

Three months later according to this computer test : http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home -body-fat-test-2774-143.html?ic=4004 ; (which is supposed to be very accurate) I have 7.8% bodyfat. I want to believe that this could be true considering the fact that three months ago my bodyfat % was @ 19%.

However, I know for a fact that it isn't that low. I mean, it couldn't be. I have a lot more definition than I used to, and I can finally see my abs. However, I don't have the amount of definition one would have with bodyfat @ 8% or under. I am most likely in the 10-12% range. My goal has always been to get down to 6%. If anything though, my success proves that sometimes you have to eat more and do less cardio the right way to get results.

I dont want to dissapoint you but if you gained weight you no matter how clean was your diet then you gained also fat, It could be you gained less fat and more muscle mass and it could be that having the amount of fat you had before plus the new muscle gained you lowered your fat % but I am affraind it is imposible to lose 10% of fat and gaining weight at the same time, besides those online calculators arent accurate, they mark me with 13% of fat and with caliper I mark 17 to 21% so they must me mistaken

Original Post by vyperman7:

 

Three months later according to this computer test : http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home -body-fat-test-2774-143.html?ic=4004 ; (which is supposed to be very accurate) I have 7.8% bodyfat. I want to believe that this could be true considering the fact that three months ago my bodyfat % was @ 19%.

However, I know for a fact that it isn't that low. I mean, it couldn't be. I have a lot more definition than I used to, and I can finally see my abs. However, I don't have the amount of definition one would have with bodyfat @ 8% or under. I am most likely in the 10-12% range. My goal has always been to get down to 6%. If anything though, my success proves that sometimes you have to eat more and do less cardio the right way to get results.

 I have never found one online calculator to actually be close to accurate. so ur right, for a fact it isnt true and i think they should take the damn things off online lol. ive have mine done every 3 months and online varies around 10% from what my read outs are.

You might already be aware of this chart, but here it is for anyone who is wondering:

 American  Council on  Exercise 

Classification | Females | Males 

Essential fat | 10-12%  | 2-4%

Athletic ....... | 14-20%  | 6-13%

Fit .............. | 21-24%  | 14-17%

Acceptable   | 25-31%  | 18-25%

Obese ........ | 32% +    | 25% +

Original Post by danalmighty:

I dont want to dissapoint you but if you gained weight you no matter how clean was your diet then you gained also fat, It could be you gained less fat and more muscle mass and it could be that having the amount of fat you had before plus the new muscle gained you lowered your fat % but I am affraind it is imposible to lose 10% of fat and gaining weight at the same time, besides those online calculators arent accurate, they mark me with 13% of fat and with caliper I mark 17 to 21% so they must me mistaken

 I don't know if you missed it in my post, but I said that I didn't think the test was accurate. I know for a fact there is no way that I have 7.8% bodyfat. I will say this though. I lift extremely hard and I do 3 HIIT sessions per week while keeping an extremely clean diet. Even on my "relax" day, I only have ONE moderately sized cheat meal, and two small scoops of ice cream. So I do a lot to go after my bodyfat. So while I don't think it is @ 7.8%, I do think that I am in the 10-12% range because of how much extra tone I have and how much I do overall.

I guess that the only way to know for sure however, is to go get it read..LOL

ok, thats great, HIIT it such a fat blaster, but still eating more cals than what you need to build muscle will make you gain fat no matter how clean your diet is, I told you because I know many body builders and as a rule they know there is no way to gain 100% clean muscle, even if you were eating barely 10% of your cals from fat cuz your body will become fat anything, even prots! I guess you should grow up an they vanish your fat, I have seen that's the way how body builders does it