Healthy Body Fat Percentage

What is a healthy body fat percentage?

The basic answer to this question is almost too obvious. A healthy body fat percentage for you -- or for anyone -- is not affecting your health. It's not too high and it's not too low.

• high blood pressure,
• high cholesterol,
• diabetes,
• breathing trouble
• or cancer

then your body fat apparently isn't unhealthy for you, whatever it is.

Now, there are recommended ranges for body fat percentage. It's different for men and for women. Women naturally carry more body fat than men do. You also have more body fat as you get older.

Here are the "standard" percentages:

To find your percentage

There are a number of ways to figure out your body fat percentage. You can use a caliper, which is a device that pinches your fat and gives you a number. They have sophisticated calipers in health clubs and doctors offices.

But you can get an inexpensive caliper, for example the "Accumeasure," which has been shown to be almost as accurate as the very expensive units.

If you want an easy way to find your body fat at home, you just need a tape measure. Men just measure their height, neck and waist. Women also measure their hips. Then you click the link to the online body fat calculator and enter your numbers. Works like magic.

Making sense of the numbers

Let's take a couple examples from the chart and think about what it really means.

Imagine a 61 year old man that weighs 200 pounds (90 kg.) The chart says he can be up to 25% and still be healthy. Well, maybe. But at 25% body fat, he's carrying 50 pounds (22.5 kg) of fat.

Even if you don't have obvious health problems at that level, it's not ideal. It makes it harder to move. You can have more trouble breathing. More difficult to stay active. As the years go by it's likely to catch up. There are lot's of reasons to stay a little lighter.

Same holds true for women. A healthy 38-year-old woman can be 33% fat. But at 160 pounds (72 kg) for example, she's carrying 53 pounds (23 kg) of fat. Certainly she wouldn't want to go over that.

Even if there are not overt health problems, it's still more of a strain on the heart and the joints. It can become much more of a problem as the years go by.

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