Body Fat %

[Brock A]

I know there are some very knowledgeable & educated people here on Rokslide when it comes to nutrition and fitness. Over the last year it has really become an interest for me and I was curious to what others opinions are on body fat % and whats healthy. I currently use this guy to measure. I know its not accurate but I measure the same time each day and it has been pretty consistent. I am more so using it to see what I am losing opposed to what my number actually is, although I have to think its pretty close.


Anyway, I am around 12%. My goal is 9% - 10%. Here is what I think was a good article and chart to go off of. I used the ACE chart. Is my goal reasonable?

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

Lets open it up to discussion as I know there is TONS of stuff to learn here.

 

[HellsCanyon]

Why the 9-10% goal Brock? I would think at your weight having a little extra BF would maybe help you out on hunts as you're not getting enough calories to support your activities. Pretty sure we're of similar build and I ALWAYS end up super lean and nearly malnourished at the end of a season if I'm not cramming food down my throat as often as possible.

Mike

 

[TEmbry]

Those things aren't very accurate... As for your goal, that's realistically achievable but I tend to agree that a higher number may serve you better on hunts (basically on all departments outside of looks lol).

 

[Brock A]

Why the 9-10% goal Brock? I would think at your weight having a little extra BF would maybe help you out on hunts as you're not getting enough calories to support your activities. Pretty sure we're of similar build and I ALWAYS end up super lean and nearly malnourished at the end of a season if I'm not cramming food down my throat as often as possible.

Mike

Great question. The 9 to 10% is because while I think I am in good shape, I can feel myself getting better as I eat healthier and exercise harder. After doing TTH in AZ I have a new mindset on my fitness goals. I hate 2nd place ;-). I have a feeling my BF % is going to drop regardless. Although if it hold at my current number I will be happy with that as long as my strength and stamina increase.

Adding calories to my food sacks for hunting season is something I realize I am going to have to deal with, but I am ok with that, maybe Ill just steal from Justin and Trevor's when they aren't looking! Haha!

 

[jm1607]

You may want to get one of those plastic caliper things. They aren't super accurate but probably more accurate than that machine. They only cost about $5.

Truthfully, how I guess at BF is just looking in the mirror front and side. You can start to tell when you're losing fat and how much you've lost

 

[Jason Snyder]

It really ends up being a personal choice on cost/benefit here. I am 42 and fluctuate between 15.5 to 13%, being higher in winter and dropping to 13 by the end of the summer early fall. I certainly could drop it lower, but it would take a lot more dietary discipline than I really care to implement. Also, I question whether the performance gain would be worth it for MY personal fitness goals.

I am recreational in my racing. If I was more serious about it, then the benefit to loosing some body fat would be there.

 

[2x4x16]

Brock A
I totally get your desire and goals. I have now hit my 9-10% bf goal. I lost 30 lbs thru diet and lots of cardio style work outs. And now I am gaining weight back as lean muscle as I do my resistance training with free weights. What I am finding is that I still am very slowly cutting body fat as I use free weights. To bust the long time myth that cardio is required to cut body fat. Resistance training is a huge benefit to gain pure lean muscle which helps burn calories in a rested state. I'm 43 now and am in the best shape of my life in strength, endurance and cardio. For every 1 lb of pure muscle gain your body will burn 35 cal per day more. For me 8lbs of muscle gain = 280 cal deficit in just a rested state. For me this is how I cut my body fat down

 

[fillthefreezer]

great topic brock. following along for info from those more knowledgeable than i.
im also hoping to get down to the 9-10% range this year.

 

[JustOneMoreShot]

Here was mine before I started lifting. 10.7% I was pretty thin. I have since added both body fat and a good amount of muscle after about a two year span of 4x/week average (some weeks 5x and some weeks only 3x) free weights at the gym. I typically lift Chest/Triceps, Back/Biceps, skip a day, Shoulders/Traps, Legs/Core, skip a day... Repeat.

 

[afteamroper]

I want to get down into the 10% BF range as well, the only thing I am concerned about is when it comes to bow season am I going to have enough "reserves" at that BF%? I don't want have to worry about not having enough body fat to get through the season. Maybe I am over thinking it. Thoughts?

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Hey Brock, here's a nutritional tip since you're close to your goal already:

Start eating three times the green leafy veggies you normally eat as the bulk of your volume at meal times (lunch and dinner). Fill up on greens first, then eat your proteins next.

Your protein sources should be carefully chosen. Salmon is a better source than beef, chicken is better than red meats, and wild game is best, but red meats only 3 times a week salmon twice a week. Your other 4 days a week your proteins should come from protein rich plants and whole grains like quinoa.

no starches except sweet potatoes. A 12-oz serving of red wine aids in digestion and helps your body stabalize its food sources.

Drink a gallon of water each day or more if you can stand it. At least 2 qts with meals. make your protein portions less than 6 oz servings (that's smaller than you think) and load up on greens and whole grains before eating your meats.

The water helps digestion and absorption of nutrient rich calories, and that also helps you sustain eating less heavy proteins.

Do this for 3 months and re evaluate your results. I bet you'll be surprised at how quickly it starts to drop after 6 weeks on this modified diet.

Of course keep up the cardio and strength training to keep the cals burned off the right way. It works man, and before you know it you'll eat less animal proteins and crave more plant and grain proteins and veggy matter.

Keep up the great work, man.

props...larry, out

 

[justinspicher]

We have a wellness center here at work that does body measurements and they have an "egg" you sit in with only spandex on to measure BF. I was am 5' 10" at 185lbs. I was a whopping 28% on the BF and at the lower end of obese according to their charts. I guess I have a long way to go to be fit, and there is no real way I am going to ever see 10% BF.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Justin, i'd pay good money to see you in spandex sitting in a freakin egg, holding a Big Mac...LOL Priceless, brother.

lb

 

[justinspicher]

That's not the first time I was told that either.....

 

[Warren1726]

I think 9-10% is only realistically sustainable if you have the body type and metabolism for it. Unless you are a professional athlete of fitness model single digit bodyfat% is vanity. You won't see performance gains 9% vs say, 12-14% and, in fact, in the dieting that is required may be detrimental.

 

[PA 5-0]

I think 9-10% is only realistically sustainable if you have the body type and metabolism for it. Unless you are a professional athlete of fitness model single digit bodyfat% is vanity. You won't see performance gains 9% vs say, 12-14% and, in fact, in the dieting that is required may be detrimental.

Solid info here Warren. Single digit body fat % can be very dangerous and for most people, cannot be sustained for long periods. Females can be especially problematic. One of my ex's was a national champion track star. She was absolutely shredded for 10 months of the year. Her periods were nonexistent and she developed all kinds of reproductive organ issues. After losing an ovary, she ended up walking away form the Olympic team as the doctors told her to have kids now or never. BF% in the mid to low teens is a more healthy, sustainable approach. In that range, you are right on the doorstep of trimming down for a hunting trip or a beach photo shoot for SI. For the record, I'm in the upper teens til bike season gets ripping. Good luck.

 

[Warren1726]

Yep, lack of monthly period due to low bf% is called Amenorrhea. It's common in female athletes. I don't think Brock has to worry about that but it does speak to the detrimental affect of low bf%.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

yeah, but a 9-10% body fat composition and being fit is much better than being strong and having a low teens % and feeling sluggish from the extra weight.

 

[AndyJ]

7-11% is considered a well trained athlete by most nutritionists and exercise physiologists. If you have even 7% body fat, you have enough reserves to go literally hundreds of miles using only your body fat as fuel. You would never want to do this, it is really just hypothetical.

There are a lot of pictures of the hand held BFA machines. Just so you know those things, even when well calibrated are usually not even close to reality.

 

[Ironman8]

There is SO much that goes into performance at a given body composition that it would be near impossible to tell you what is best for YOU. A few examples that come to mind are what is your "natural body type", how have you been exercising prior to your game day (hunting season in our case), how have you been feeding your body, do you have experience performing at restricted calories or at this particular body composition, do you know how to maintain it, your age, metabolism, ect. ect. And aside from all that, what may be best for one person may be terrible for another. Realistically, the only way to know what is optimal for you is to literally experiment with your body and see how it responds. It may take a few years to really dial it in, but you'll gain so much more knowledge along the way than someone telling you what they think is optimal for you.

My recommendation to you is to be performance driven vs outcome driven. Meaning, focusing on a bodyfat % (outcome) is less important than focusing on strength/conditioning goals (performance). In fact, focusing on the outcome is backwards from how we should be training ourselves. If you train your body to achieve a certain performance standard, the outcome (ie. body composition) will fall into place by default.