body fat

NZdubstar

I have NO IDEA what my bodyfat is, recently I did one of those machine things where you stand and it gives weight/height/bodyfat BMI etc. It told me I was overweight with a bmi of 27 or something and 26% bodyfat? I don't think I'm quite that. I weigh 87kg or so. Can I have an honest opinion? I've been training quite hard lately and eating well and have lost about 10kg in the last couple of years (slowly but surely I guess). Too shy to show my face.

daveirl

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NZdubstar

20%, is that considered overweight or what? I know there are no set measurements for overweightness (if that's a word) but would it be considered overweight?

ali.c

NZdubstar wrote:

20%, is that considered overweight or what? I know there are no set measurements for overweightness (if that's a word) but would it be considered overweight?

Em its the high end of the ideal scale boardering on average depending on your age. Its not great but its not terrible either if that helps? I suppose the question you need to answer is are you happy with it? If so then its grand if not then you have scope to get it lower.

daveirl

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Money Shot

NZdubstar wrote:

I have NO IDEA what my bodyfat is, recently I did one of those machine things where you stand and it gives weight/height/bodyfat BMI etc. It told me I was overweight with a bmi of 27 or something and 26% bodyfat? I don't think I'm quite that. I weigh 87kg or so. Can I have an honest opinion? I've been training quite hard lately and eating well and have lost about 10kg in the last couple of years (slowly but surely I guess). Too shy to show my face.

You look in decent enough shape to me. Decent enough not to be worrying about having high body fat - you certainly don't look overweight to me.

You seem to be living a healthy lifestyle too - I wouldn't worry about your BMI - they are just general guides and can't really be applied to all individuals - you've probably put on a fair bit of muscle over the last couple of years. The machines for bodyfat are poor too and can be way off apparently - so you ignore that too.

I don't think you are overweight.

t-ha

Money Shot wrote:

You look in decent enough shape to me.

I'd agree - I wouldn't put him in an overweight category from those shots.

g-punkteffekt

you seem to be in decent enough shape. I wouldn't say you're quite 26% but my guess is as good as yours. Just keep at it and you'll improve. Maybe ask Juanveron he seems to be the expert at all these things.

FunkZ

g-punkteffekt wrote:

Maybe ask Juanveron he seems to be the expert at all these things.

Excellent.

It's looks like you'd be able to tone up very quickly man!

cowzerp

At a guess i would say your about 20%, i have 1 of the stand on body fat monitors and it gives silly fat readings, i generally store more fat in my bum and legs so maybe they mainly read the lower body, i've done a different 1 that attaches to your feet and hands and it almost matches the hand held devices if the right info is put into these devices, unless its a very high standard machine i would forget about it-i just use mine as a weigh scales now!

Kattyboy25

Yeah I did one of these bmi machines 2 weeks ago, the results was 19%. My butt it's that low, i'm about 26%. Althought the result has made me a very happy man :-)

*Kattyboy likes chocolate, ice-cream and beer*

personaltrainer

A womans body fat % should b between 21% and 33% and lower ur underweight any higher ur overweight.

Smellyirishman

So, without wanting to make a new topic because I know it's been asked a few times before and it may help some people in this thread. Where did any of you buy your calipers? I'm in America at the moment, so any sites should be able to deliver to me if you have any suggestions.

Hanley

personaltrainer wrote:

A womans body fat % should b between 21% and 33% and lower ur underweight any higher ur overweight.

I know you're full of enthusiam, but please stop making blanket statements. As I've said before, there are no absolutes.

Accurate bf% readings are hard for the average person to get and can vary wildy depening on the method of calculation etc. For that reason alone trying to determine whether or not you're overweight from them is a bad idea. And don't even get me started on BMI indexes.

unreggd

them machines suck, they always tell me im like 26% bf when I already know im very close to 11


the only one that ever worked was the one in the gym u stand on bare-foot

Hanley

unreggd wrote:

the only one that ever worked was the one in the gym u stand on bare-foot

Fo' serious?? In my exp those things are junk!!

SMI, these are the ones I have http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/products/index.html

amazingemmet

Tbh the mirror is the ultimate test of body fat for me, If I don't like what i see in it I'm too fat. Easy really and saves times trying to mess about with calipers and machines that will give four different readings all varying all over the place or depending on which formula used.

"the best calipers is the one that gives the lowest bf%"

Smellyirishman

Cheers Hanley, was looking at those the other day.

I agree with the mirror and "two levels of body fat" ideas, but I'm a numbers guy and it's hard to see the change over time in the mirror.