Getting The Ideal Body Fat

Fitness can be measured in terms of the amount of body fat you have. The more fat you have, the less fit you become.

This is true, but now a question comes up. How much fat must one have to have in order to be called fit?

Well there is a measure of body fat that is used to determine fitness in people and it is called body fat percentage.

Body fat percentage does help measure fitness but the problem is that it depends first on the person’s sex and then age. So there is no ideal body fat percentage but there is a range of body fat percentages depending on age and sex.

Sex affects body fat percentages due to the fact that men generally have less fat than women. Thus the body fat percentages for women are generally higher than those for men.

Age also affects your body fat percentage by increasing it so as your age advances your body will obtain more fat gradually. The following is a guideline of the ranges of body fat percentages that are considered for fit persons, both for men and women according to their age groups.

Age Male Female
18 – 39 8% -19% 21% – 32%
40 – 59 11% – 22% 23% – 35%
60+ 13% – 25% 24% – 36%

If you do not fall in any of the ranges stated, you need not despair for that does not mean it’s the end of the world for you.

You can do exercises to shed off the excess body fat. On the other hand you may not look fat at all from the outside all because your body fat would have been distributed evenly around your body.

So you might then choose to ignore the warning. It is however good to note that though you may feel fine a high body fat percentage can reflect health problems for you in the future.

Since women are said to have more body fat than man do, they should not use that as an excuse to accumulate fat, for women too can achieve body fat percentages just as good as those for man.

If you are not familiar with how body fat percentage can be measured, you can consult your physician or go online and get some useful methods on how you can measure your own body fat at home using simple techniques.

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