Did the Bodpod method of determining body fat today. Actually I wanted to check the accuracy of those scales they market at the IM expos. Turns out the scale was pretty close, the scale’s numbers were weight: 134 and body fat 15.8%. BodPod testing results: weight 135 and body fat 14.6%. ( I’m a 5’7 1/2" tall female.) One question answered, the scales are more accurate than I would have thought. However, now I’m wondering if 14.6% body fat is healthy. The tester was a grad student, he says it’s at the very low end. I see that pro women triathletes are in the 10 - 12% range. Opinons? Healthy?
Did the Bodpod method of determining body fat today. Actually I wanted to check the accuracy of those scales they market at the IM expos. Turns out the scale was pretty close, the scale’s numbers were weight: 134 and body fat 15.8%. BodPod testing results: weight 135 and body fat 14.6%. ( I’m a 5’7 1/2" tall female.) One question answered, the scales are more accurate than I would have thought. However, now I’m wondering if 14.6% body fat is healthy. The tester was a grad student, he says it’s at the very low end. I see that pro women triathletes are in the 10 - 12% range. Opinons? Healthy?
From sportsmedicine
What should your body fat percent be?
Your ideal weight and fat-lean ratio varies considerably for men and women and by age, but the minimum percent bodyfat considered safe for good health is 5% for males and 12% for females. The average adult body fat is closer to 15%-18% for men and 22%-25% for women.
Athletes tend to be at low end of this scale due to the increased lean weight (muscle mass) of top athletes. While low levels of bodyfat seem to be related to improved performance, body composition alone is not a great predictor of sports success. A linebacker needs to have enough body mass (lean and fat weight) to generate high forces and avoid injury. Bodyfat amoung elite athletes vary largely by sport. There is little evidence benefit when men drop under 8% and women drop under 14% bodyfat.
How Low Is Too Low?
While the average body fat percent in the United States and Europe is increasing, low body fat percent is also a health problem. The female athlete triad highlights the probelm. Women athletes who lose too much fat risk injury, decreased performance and health issues.
I know how to use google! I was looking for a fresh perspective…
I know how to use google! I was looking for a fresh perspective…
Sorry- I just figured that something scientific was a better answer than an uniformed opinion, and you would be amazed at how often people asked questions on forums who are simply too lazy too hunt through all the thousands of entries you get when you google something. Having recently looked up this very question to determine my goal weight I thought I would throw it out there. Nevermind.
In response to your question, you might get someone answering that for them 7% has been ok. Or, someone else might say under 16% has been a problem. Neither would be wrong necessarily, but that’s why scientific studies have been done.
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Generally, athletic performance is increased with lower bodyfat. Thus you would expect within limits, you would want to be as lean as possible.
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The limits for men and women appear to be quite different. While world class men athlete are 6-8%, super lean women don’t do as well. Generally, women under 10% don’t do well at all, and there are numerous national and world class women in the range of 14%.
The problem with lower fat ranges on women are really 3 fold:
- Catabolism of muscle mass. Your body eats muscle mass, and not fat mass as it get to leaner levels. Performance suffers.
- Amenorrhea (your period stops) at lower body fat levels, leading to…
- Bone loss. You may experience problems long term (breakage and thinning) and stress fractures.
In a very few instances, you will find some elite women that will diet, get thin, and run fantastic races. This, in my experience, is not the norm for elite athletes. The opposite I have seen happen many times, elite women hurting their performance by dieting too low.
My advice is 14-15% is superb, unless you are really into pushing the limits of your own performance and you are looking for the final 3%. In this case, I would carefully monitor bodyfat with a set of inexpensive skin calipers, and be careful about pushing down too hard. A simplistic model is that by losing 4% body fat, your VO2max will go up a max of 4%. This is not a lot, and you run a lot of risk by doing this.
Again, if you push lower, don’t use a scale, use skin calipers.
Theo
Though I can’t find a link to it now, I’ve seen recent studies and reports that say amenorrhea is from not taking in enough calories. People used to think it was from low body fat, but then studies showed that women with high body fat percentages who were dieting suffered from it. I think the thought is that the body recognizes you aren’t taking in enough calories to support a fetus so it won’t let you get pregnant.
I roll right now at 6.7% (male 32). I got a bit of a shock from that result as I thought I was more like 10%. I still have a BMI of 22 though. The issues you can face are the lack of ‘essential fat’ in cells and the like. This is when you will hurt yourself.
Though I can’t find a link to it now, I’ve seen recent studies and reports that say amenorrhea is from not taking in enough calories. People used to think it was from low body fat, but then studies showed that women with high body fat percentages who were dieting suffered from it. I think the thought is that the body recognizes you aren’t taking in enough calories to support a fetus so it won’t let you get pregnant.
sort of… it’s caused by a lot of factors and they’re all related. The Female Athletes Survival Guide is an excellent and very reader-friendly book covering the female athlete triad. Amenorrhea happens when your body isn’t making enough estrogen. What causes your body to stop making estrogen may be too low body fat (which might be the result of undernourishment), undernourishment, etc… it’s not just one or the other. GhiaGirl is right that if the body recognizes it’s not getting enough calories, a whole bunch of “unnecessary” functions get shut down… like having your period. Other women who are undernourished also notice dull hair, dry/flaky skin, abnormal hair growth on skin (I can never remember the name for this. I think it’s called languno), brittle nails.
One of the dangers of amenhorrea is bone loss. Estrogen is necessary for bone turnover (ie, osteoblast and osteoclast action - these are the cells that build and destroy bone). If you don’t have that estrogen, your bones can become very, very weak. And then you’re at a high risk for fractures. That bone loss is often irreversible.
To the OP - no one can really say what’s “a healthy level of body fat” because every person’s body is different. In general, I’ve read that under 12% is too low for females. However, if you’re not having your period at whatever level of body fat you’re at now… then that’s not healthy. It’s something that really needs to be discussed with a doctor.
Essesntial body fat is about 3-4% for men. It’s higher for women but I’m not sure of the exact percentage. Elite endurance athletes (Pro cyclists, triathletes and marathoners) are pushing at the limits of body fat percentage to squeeze out a little extra performance but the chance of injury and illness goes up when you get near the razors edge. Above 5% (males) this isn’t an issue.
As far as overall health, numerous controlled animal studies have shown that very lean animals held on a calorie restricted diet live significantly longer than controls on a normal diet. Up to 30% longer in some studies! That’s a lot. So all indications are that being very low body fat will help you live longer, you will just be hungry all the time which isn’t a lot of fun.
I use the Tanita scale which gives me bodyfat and hydration percentages. You will find that the electronic scales inversly register your hydration % to bodyfat %. The better hydrated you are, the lower the bodyfat % readings will be. With that said, what I have found useful is by logging these readings, you can find your optimal numbers for performance whether the devices are precise or not. I find that if my hydration reading is around 61% and my bodyfat reading is 5.5% to 5.9%(women’s should be much higher), I am very strong, lean, and recover well However, if I am in the 61% range and my bodyfat is in the 5.0% to 5.4% range, I am lean but I am not as strong and do not recover as well. Anything above 6%, I see a drop off in speed. You should take the recordings first thing when you get up in the morning after a restroom break and have not eaten or drank anything yet.
It really doesn’t matter what the your numbers say relative to what others will say is optimal and if the electronic machines are not precise. By finding the ideal % on your machine will help get you to where you want to be to be at your best. Your best may be at a much higher percent than the conventional wisdom. My training buddy is a clydesdale and is in the 12-15% range, but the guy can go sub 2:20 in an Olympic distance race. When the guy leans out, he goes slower…go figure.
You’re making assumptions that aren’t necessarily true.
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Scales accuracy. I don’t know how good Bodpod is (or even what it is) but comparing 1 point in time with 2 tests is not that useful.
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I’m not a fan of measuring or knowing body fat %. I think its relatively useless for 99%+ of us. Plus everyone is way off what they think their body fat is vs. what it really is.
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5’7 135 seems pretty good height/weight. How is your health? Sick easily? Injured easily? Moods? Training well? Regular periods?..thats whats important - not a number.
My 2 cents. I think 14.6% for a woman is fine to actually answer your question assuming all the above is o.k.
The elite runners I see are way low % or at least look it. They look quite cachectic in person - almost movie star like - yet they sure run a lot faster than I…
Dave
The amenorrhea thing is tricky because I turned 50 in September. I don’t have periods anymore, haven’t for about a year, but of course most docs would contribute that to menopause not amenorrhea and probably it is. My weight hasn’t fluctuated much in the past 5 years or so. However, my training has increased substantially and my daughter (great runner, excellent cyclist, not so great swimmer, and 30% body fat), says I am way too thin. My husband doesn’t say that although he does roll his eyes if I ask “does my butt look fat in these…jeans, bathing suit, etc”.
I wonder about the number. My race times are so disparate between the bike and the run. I’m an average swimmer. I can be first in my age group on the bike and dead last on the run. I have always thought, always! that if I just lost 5 lbs I would be faster. Looks like this test throws that theory right out the window.
Strength training maybe?
I am in good health, no dry hair or brittle fingernails.
I really think it’s something you need to discuss with your doctor (as to being too thin, whether your body fat is healthy, etc).
If you want to be faster… train more. I think that if you train and take care of your body then you’ll settle out to the weight/body fat level you’re supposed to be at and it’s not something you worry about, it just happens. That’s hard advice to follow because it’s hard NOT to stress about what you weigh or what your body fat % is… I have some of the same issues you do (would I be faster if I lost some of the swimmer puppy fat? maybe a faster runner but it might hurt my swim times?) and I envy my brother (a swimmer) and a couple lightning-fast running friends, all of whom just train and eat and don’t stress about it. Lucky ducks.
Actually, this very well could be incorrect. This is is popularly call CRON (Calorie RestrictionOptimum Nutrition if I remember right).
- Reduced weight does lower Metabolic syndrome.
- CRON goes much lower than commonly accepted “good practice.”
- The bulk of the CR animal studies may be tied to keeping the animal from maturing and getting to the age where you can have offspring.
To be clear, there is absolutely no hard HUMAN evidence that CRON can replicate in man what it does in animals.
Remember, we are a long living species. While CR may take a rats life and move it from 3 to 4 years, it is very different to move a life span to 120 years as the most famous of the CRON people, Roy Walford, suggested in his writings.
Finally, CRON and athletes are general thought to be counter productive. CRON people want to stay healthy, but working out raises oxidative stress, the bane of CRON.
i’m like 3.5%…15 years old, 5’3" ish and like 96 lbs.