One of the many benefits of my endurance training has been the loss of excess body fat. I’ve been holding at a pretty low level for 5 or 6 years now (I’m male, 46 yrs old) and never gave it much thought. On the weekend, my nephew asked me what my BF% was. I told him and he asked me “Is that healthy?”. Immediately, I responded “Why of course it is… Umm… I’m pretty sure… Actually, yeah, it is… I think…”. So, I’d like to put the question to some of the doctors or long time skinny folk on this site: Does maintaining a lower than normal (Male 12-20%) lead to any sort of health risks for males?
And yeah, I understand more BF would lead to more risks, blah, blah. Also, I haven’t posted my BF because I don’t want this to turn into the typical ST low BF% contest.
Yes, very low BF% can lead to illness, as well as hormonal issues (both male and female). If you’re in the 8-10% neighborhood, you should be okay. Below that and you’re getting into the potentially unhealthy range.
At a site a year back I found a chart that had the health range for men and women on it. I can’t remember where it was or where it gleaned its info.
in any case, I don’t think a guy has to worry at all about compromising health down to 10%, maybe even 8%. Lower it becomes a touch dicier, but truly I think a guy is only going to look at some issues down to 6-7 or below, and many people will feel better at those numbers than 10-12 anyway. My rambling conclusion is, if you have 4% you probably need to be carefu. If it’s 10-12, you’re great, not at all in the range of causing issues.
Careful of what though? Obviously getting a cold or infection through a compromised immune response, but that can happen through overtraining anyway. Is there any long-terms effect of a healthy person having a long-term low body fat? Athletes must do so for years on end, through strenuous training programs. Personally, I doubt I have ever been in (or even near tbh) double figures since I was a toddler!! Just the way I’m built (which is not very!).
Careful of what though? Obviously getting a cold or infection through a compromised immune response, but that can happen through overtraining anyway. Is there any long-terms effect of a healthy person having a long-term low body fat? Athletes must do so for years on end, through strenuous training programs. Personally, I doubt I have ever been in (or even near tbh) double figures since I was a toddler!! Just the way I’m built (which is not very!).
Well that’s the question that’s hard to answer–care of “what”. Supposedly the immune system is depressed with low bodyfats and recovery won’t be as good. I have heard anecdotally of people more disposed to joint pains and the like when at low bodyfat, but I think we’re talking really low fat. 10% is not low for an endurance athlete (even though it would be nice to be at right now…ugh!).
I dont agree with that. I have very low bf%(lower than your neighborhood range) and i cant remember the last time i got sick, its been years. I do keep a very high amount of fruit and vegetables in my diet and im sure that helps dramatically. I am younger though(22) so my age could be pretty significant as well. I think as long as you avoid the extremes(super high or super low bf), get your rest and eat right you should be fine.
I had a trainer tell me once that the major problem with low bodyfat is the loss of what your body uses as a natural padding, and that it can increase the risk of direct harm to internal organs significantly. He was kind of an ass though, so I dunno.
The two biggest problems with very low BF I have read about:
Getting really sick. If you get really sick with anything (flu or cancer, whatever) you want to be able to have 10-20 pounds to lose or else the body starts to digest muscle and organs just to stay alive. Maybe this is a myth but I have read an article with some doctors sources which reiterated this.
Cold, obviously. Now I am down to 10-12 % BF I am much more prone to becoming chilled compared to when I was 15-18 % BF. Not helpful for swimming, biking on cold days, etc. But I have found being more skinny makes my life easier in the heat. So its a trade off.
Seems like more BF helps swimmers but hurts runners.
There are plenty of people who have results that reflect mine. I think its bs, a lot of people seem to find ways to justify not having low b/f so they can feel better about not putting down the ben and jerry’s. Low b/f, just like everything in life not taken to an extreme, is not unhealthy.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone had issues with losig weight but not lowering your body fat? Does this mean I am losing pure muscle? I realize probably have a little extra upper body muscle to give, but I would prefer to lose the fat first.
Unless you’ve lost a limb…the weight loss has to come from some where.
For instance I’ve dropped nearly 60 pounds in the last 3 years. I’m actually stronger in the gym at 150 than I was at 207. However, I used to be like 30% fat and now I’m in the 9-11% range. So obviously, some muscle has been lost.
Likewise, there are plenty of people who don’t. Just because YOU (and the people you choose to include in your “set”) don’t have issues with it doesn’t make the statistics wrong.
That’s a low bf% for women, not men.
I’m low… usually 5-6%.
When i’m peaking for short course racing I’m probably below 5%… although I haven’t been tested in years.
I can only hold that for a month or two… then I start to feel cold all the time… so I start drinking lots of beer to get my fat back up…