I finally used a body fat calculator to figure out my body fat. Then I put my goal weight and what I thought were reasonable goal measurements for my waist and hips into the calculator to figure out my goal body fat, and it came out to 18%. This seems really low to me. Is 18% a realistic body fat percentage?? I thought that professional athletes had like 15% body fat.

I know that the goal would differ from person to person, but what would be a reasonable body fat % for a reasonably fit, 40+ year old woman? Anyone?

Thanks,
Jeannie

For women 22-27% is healthy. With regular exercise you can go down to 20%, maybe even 18%, but that would require weights or running to push it down.

Some on here are shooting for 0-15% and that is definetly not reasonable, or to healthy. 15% maybe, but definetly not 0

17%-18% is definitely athelete range of body fat. From all the reading I have done-women should be between 22-25 or 26%. The ranges also change as we age. I found this, for example:

Age Women Men

18-39 years 21-32 percent 8-19 percent
40-59 years 23-33 percent 11-21 percent
60-79 years 24-35 percent 13-24 percent

Here's the ideal ranges for Men and Women: http://www.healthchecksystems.com/bodyfat.htm

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of your responses. I think that my goal (22%) is quite reasonable, based on all of the information I have seen. 18% just seemed WAY too low.

Jeannie

Here is the chart from the BFL post so you don't have to go 'looking' for it:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/attachme...ttachmentid=756

Nat-that chart has 7.9% BF listed as Superior. Or am I missing something?

I see a 7.3 but not a 7.9 - under 30-39 year olds. This would be in terms of elite athletes, body builders, etc. It's 'superior' in that it's all relative to what 'average' is - frankly, I don't think it's all that superior. You'll also notice that about 1% of the population achieve this number.

-Nat

OK-7.9 is what I was referring to. I didn't even think that was possible for women. I also don't think I would use the term superior. I know that if you get under 17% you start to not have a menstual cycle.

Thanks!

At or around 17%, every woman is different. It took 14% for me the last time, but at 17% its definitely a possibility. That chart is useful in that it shows how BF% changes as you get older - as you age you tend to lose lean mass and you tend to become less 'dense' - LBM afterall, is everything that isn't fat, and as we get older our bones do become more brittle.

Also, just speaking from my own experience, once you start getting under 22%, you may not be all that happy with the results. I'm at about 19.5% right now, and my body is a strange mixture of bony and fat -- visible pelvic girdle and lower ribcage, and you could cut glass on my collarbones, but my thighs and upper arms are still on the jiggly side. I feel unbalanced, if that makes sense -- you know, like being stuck in between sizes, where you either need to lose five more pounds or put it back on, just so everything fits right. I think in some ways I was happier with my appearance at 22%, with 5 more pounds of fat, but I can't quite bring myself to put fat back on (and am having a hard enough time maintaining)! On the other hand, I'm also not very keen on dropping four or five more pounds to get down to 17-18%, but my current BF% seems to have me stuck with the worst parts of "curvy" and "model-thin" body types. I think if I had it to do over again, I would have switched to maintenance eating earlier and stopped at the higher BF%.

Last month I had my BF measured (3-point caliper) at the gym. It was 33.9%; I thought it would have been lower than that. My weight was at the time around 134 lbs. I'm 5'4" and about in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height. I'm also fairly muscular since I get plenty of exercise.

According to the charts posted on this thread I'm in the "obese" range or in the "fair-poor" range for my age (50). What gives? The trainer was careful with the calipers and I made sure I did what he said to do as far as the way I held out my arm, etc. Could hydration or workout make a difference? He took the measurements before my workout, and I had only had about 1 liter of fluids so far that day (it was around 10 AM).

I thought that the calipers method was pretty accurate if done right. The trainer is also the owner of the gym and has been for at least the last 8 years. So he should know what he is doing.

Any answers are appreciated!

Thanks

Joan