How much body fat is bad??

How much should one's body fat % be so that he could be considered fat??
Im 6'1" 190lbs and 18% body fat, I am working on reducing it, what percentage is considered healthy??

thnx

I'd say anything over 22-25% (for a male) would be fat/obese...18% is not bad, especially if you're trimming down. I'm not sure what the medical docs say about fat % according to height/weight...BMI can be an indicator but it doesn't realize muscle weight so if your LBM is good, your BMI will show as obese when all reality you can be 8%

anything over 18% is considered unhealthy i think.

Hey what’s going on!?

I haven’t come across any readings of mine that state what percentage of body fat is considered obese or fat but I do know a healthy range of body fat for males is 12-18% and females is 18-23% (different textbooks or readings will have different adjustments…I’m a Physical Therapist so this is the range I was taught in my books). It’s more common (and I recommend) to calculate and know your Body Mass Index (or BMI for short) instead because it has become a standard measure in studies evaluating health risk for obesity-related issues (even though it has been shown to not be extremely valid for people with increased (or above average) musculature.

For example, two people of equal height and weight could have identical BMIs but person A can be a couch potato and have a high amount of body fat in comparison to person B who has a good cardio/nutrition regime and lifts often and has a low amount of body fat and high amount of muscle. (feel me?) So in this situation BMI is clinically insignificant but knowing your body fat percentage using a bioelectrical impedance machine (BIA) or using the skin caliper measurement system is better.

So with that being said I feel you should rely more on your BMI calculation and watch closely how much your body fat percentage correlates or changes with a change in BMI over time.

Of course you could google BMI but I’ll give you some much needed information on it here:

By definition the BMI is simply a formula designed to assess the risk potential for obesity-related health issues by calculating an estimated percentage of body fat. This formula divides a person’s body weight (in kg) by height (in meters2) squared. An increase in BMI is associated with an increase in mortality rate secondary to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Limitation of this formula is that it does not measure proportional composition of the body or percentage of fat. (That’s where my example comes in handy in understanding this concept)

Here is the BMI obesity classification: (again you may see different adjustments but this is what I was taught)

BMI classification system:
< 18.5: underweight 20-24.9: desirable weight
25-29.9: over weight 30-34.9: grade 1 obesity
35-39.9: grade 2 obesity >40: grade 3 obesity

If you own your own BIA machine this could be very helpful. It takes less than 10 seconds to plug in your height, weight, and age and it will tell you both your BMI and body fat percentage.

Hope I was helpful!

DKH



[QUOTE=swissknife;1736542]How much should one's body fat % be so that he could be considered fat??
Im 6'1" 190lbs and 18% body fat, I am working on reducing it, what percentage is considered healthy??

thnx[/QUOTE]

I wanted to include (copy and paste) a document I created which I use when I'm measuring my clients periodically:

Name: ________________________________ Date: ____________________

Age: ____
Weight: ____pounds
Height: _____
BMI: ________kg/m2

Body Mass Index (BMI): formula designed to assess the risk potential for obesity-related health issues by calculating an estimated percentage of body fat. This formula divides a person’s body weight (in kg) by height (in meters2) squared. An increase in BMI is associated with an increase in mortality rate secondary to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Limitation of this formula is that it does not measure proportional composition of the body or percentage of fat.

BMI classification system: (circle one)
< 18.5: underweight 20-24.9: desirable weight
25-29.9: over weight 30-34.9: grade 1 obesity
35-39.9: grade 2 obesity >40: grade 3 obesity

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA): Uses small electrical current and measures the resistance or opposition to the current flow to measure body composition. This technique is based on the principle that resistance to electrical current is inversely related to the composition of water within the body.

Healthy range of body fat is 12-18% for males and 18-23% for females.

BIA: ¬_____%

Skinfold measurements: used to calculate the percentage of body fat using particular sites measured in millimeters. The correlation relies on the theory that the amount of subcutaneous fat is proportional to the total fat in the body:

Biceps: ___mm Triceps: ___mm
Abdominal: ___mm Suprailiac (above the hip bone): ___mm
Thigh: ___mm Chest: ___mm

Male skinfold measurements: chest ___mm + abs ___mm + thigh ___mm.
Total: ___mm

Female skinfold measurements: abs ___mm + suprailiac ___mm + thigh ___mm.
Total: ___mm

Body fat: ____%


Basically you can re-paste that onto your microsoft word then print it out and that's a good format to use when keeping track of your stats especially when you want them inputted onto this site. (Just get someone who knows what they're doing and keep using them to measure you so the reliability aspect won't be an issue.

DKH

[QUOTE=swissknife;1736542]How much should one's body fat % be so that he could be considered fat??
Im 6'1" 190lbs and 18% body fat, I am working on reducing it, what percentage is considered healthy??

thnx[/QUOTE]