The following Body Fat Chart describes body fat ranges and their associated categories.
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Body Fat Percentage Categories
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Classification
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Women (% fat)
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Men (% fat)
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Essential Fat
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10-12%
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2-4%
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Athletes
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14-20%
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6-13%
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Fitness
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21-24%
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14-17%
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Acceptable
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25-31%
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18-25%
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Obese
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32%+
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25%+
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Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic.
Remember, weight loss doesn't always mean fat loss.
For example, let's say you are a 130 pound woman with 23% body fat, and your goal is to lose 20 pounds.
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Initial
body fat
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130
pounds x 0.23 body fat = 30 pounds body fat
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Lean
body mass
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130
pounds total - 30 pounds fat = 100 pounds lean body mass (bones, organs,
water ...)
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Goal
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130
pounds - 20 pounds = 110 pounds
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A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18% for starters. In this case:As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy. At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100 pounds of lean body mass, but would only be carrying 10 pounds, or only 9% body fat. From the body fat chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage. Also it is not maintainable for a long period.
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130
pounds x 0.18 = 23 pounds body fat
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100
pounds lean body mass + 23 pounds body fat = 123 pounds goal weight.
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So before you decide that you need to "lose weight", remember to consider that "weight" consists of both lean body mass and body fat. Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds. Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.
Although it is a sacrifise you cannot avoid, i.e. you definately will lose some lean body mass with fat, the goal should be to maintain the LBM as much as possible as this regulates your metabolism.
Once you reach the goal body fat %, your goal should turn to keeping it as the same while increasing your lean body mass.
Feel free to ask questions or comment on the article if you find it helpful or for healthy criticism.
