What is a healthy body fat %?
At 46 (6’ 4 1/4" at 220 Lbs) I am trying to gain size but staying away from a 40+ inch waist.
I use an Omron model HBF-306BL hand held body fat analyzer. There are two modes athletic and normal I am at 18.5% and 22.3% respectively.
I weighed myself using a bathroom scale at the 220 lb value. I went to the gym and weighted 212 lbs on their scale. Both values are probably not correct but are in within +/- 10 lbs of the correct value. Using the 212 lb value in the Omron body fat analyser gives values of 16.6% and 20.0% respectively.
For somebody our age, your BF% is about average. But you can still be healthy at 5% BF. I’m currently at about 12% BF and trying to get down to 9. It’s damn hard to put on muscle without some fat. Equally hard to lose fat without losing some muscle.
Good luck.
From a “heart-healthy” standpoint, I believe there is a 'healthy" hip to waist ratio set by the AMA. The basic upshot is that if your waste is bigger then your ass, you’re a prime candidate for a dirt nap.
Of course, if you’re spherical then ratios are irrelevant.
Otherwise, I think it’s more about looking good naked. For me, that’s about 12% or less…
Hey tall tom, I want to warn you about the Omron body fat analyzer. They are quite biased against anyone over the age of 30.
Program in your actual age, get a reading. Then immediately program in the age of 30 and you will drop about 3% in body fat automatically. 30 seems to be the cut off.
so thats the thing. im 45 and weigh 230, i have a 34" waist and look pretty good.
i have a taylor hand held fat analyser (sp) and the dam thing says im 33% bf? thats hard to believe, i really (honestly) dont think i look fat. the female freinds that i have say i look very good for whats thats worth.
i checked the program on the analyser and the info is right.
a lot of you state that you are 10-12% bf. if i got down to that-which isnt a bad goal, well i couldnt imagine how id look.
is this taylor thing a piece of junk or what?
[quote]zedhed wrote:
so thats the thing. im 45 and weigh 230, i have a 34" waist and look pretty good.
i have a taylor hand held fat analyser (sp) and the dam thing says im 33% bf? thats hard to believe, i really (honestly) dont think i look fat. the female freinds that i have say i look very good for whats thats worth.
i checked the program on the analyser and the info is right.
a lot of you state that you are 10-12% bf. if i got down to that-which isnt a bad goal, well i couldnt imagine how id look.
is this taylor thing a piece of junk or what?[/quote]
I have a Tanita scale. The damn fat % changes if I take a piss.
Testy,
isn’t that because your weight changes?
Dax
[quote]Old Dax wrote:
Testy,
isn’t that because your weight changes?
Dax[/quote]
Not enough for the scale to pickup. I think it may have more to do with bodily fluid content.
They also don’t recommend these scales for athletes due to muscular density. I include myself in this catagory with trepidation, but I do work out regularly.
I have found the Omron to be significantly more consistent than the Tanita scales. One day I did an experiment and took my reading at several times throughout the day. It only varied by 0.2%. The Tanita can easily vary by 2% from morning to evening.
But as Zeb said, the absolute number probably won’t be right for a bodybuilder. If you know approximately what is the correct value, maybe from a credible caliper reading, you can adjust the number by programming in a lower age than your true age. I am 39 and currently have mine set at age of 35. The readings at 30 seemed a bit too low to me (although I do have my Tanita scale set at 30, but it’s still less consistent).
If you’re trying to lose fat, it really doesn’t matter what type or brand of scale and/or body fat scale you use. As long as you take your readings at the same time every week (or day), what you are looking for is a trend. It doesn’t matter if you are 15% or 12% BF at the beginning. In two months, if you are 11% or 8% BF, then the trend is you lost some fat.