Fit or fat? What is your body fat percentage?

[djcorneliuz]

Male 22, around 173cm, 78kg, 8.5%

My BMI says i'm on the heavy side, but we all know that a heap of s*#t anyway. I'm not a pure cyclist anymore either, so I have a bigger upper body than most riders too.

Dj C

 

[Meek One]

Male 22, around 173cm, 78kg, 8.5%

My BMI says i'm on the heavy side, but we all know that a heap of s*#t anyway. I'm not a pure cyclist anymore either, so I have a bigger upper body than most riders too.

Dj C

If your measurements are correct you must be huge! I'm 5 inches taller than you and my lean weight is only a few pounds more than yours. Enjoy your 400 lbs bench.

 

[djcorneliuz]

If your measurements are correct you must be huge! I'm 5 inches taller than you and my lean weight is only a few pounds more than yours. Enjoy your 400 lbs bench.

Hehe, - I can't spell conkrete, but i can lift it!!

Some serious military training lately has helped somewhat in the upper body department, but I still can't get rid of these huge sprinter's legs!!


Dj C

----------------------------------------------------------
"Yellow wakes me up in the morning.
Yellow gets me on the bike everyday.
Yellow has taught me the true meaning of sacrifice.
Yellow makes me suffer.
Yellow is the reason I'm here"
- Lance Armstrong
------------------------------------------------------

 

[Orange Fish]

not too sure if my scale is accurate or not. I am 5' 11 and weigh about 162lbs but my scale tells me I am about 17.5% body fat. That means I have about 28llbs of fat on my body but I am rather skinny. Is it accurate or way off or somewhere in between.

Those scales are typically way off. I'm 4% and my Tanita body fat scale tells me that i'm 12%. A lot of the variation with these scales is due to your hydration level, but even with that, I still think these scales are pieces of ****.

 

[diane143]

I have a Tanita scale as well. At the moment I'm around 135 lb and 29-30% BF. this is down from 148lb/34% (also up from ~118/18% a few years ago). I am definately on the road to recovery!

About the scale, I got a baseline pinch at the gym a couple of months ago, calipers, 3-4 spots and it showed 30.5% when my scale was at 32%.

I always go by my morning weight/BF and had the pinch done at the gym first thing as well. I do notice my BF decreases during the day, I've read it was due to hydration levels.

I'll be interested to see if it varies more than a couple of percent once I get down to my "ideal" weight/BF, I'm surprised so many of you are stating huge differences!

 

[yash]

5' 11". 144lbs and 3% bodyfat. Measured on both a Tanita scale and using calipers. My FTP is 280W.

Basically, I'm not too good at chasing on the flats or sprints, however, put me up a 5% climb and there are few that can hold on.

Tom, did You use Athlete Mode while checking with Tanita Scale??
First when i got Tanita (BF-662W) I used Athlete and got precentages as low as 1.8 - 2.5% . I didn't find that reliable and asked Tanita dealer, who is also a coach, about that - and he said that these readings don't seem to be very reliable. He suggested using Normal Mode for more accuracy.

In the season i got ~2% with athlete and 5-6% with normal mode and I did weight about 63-64 kilos. Now I'm in Hypertrophy phase with weights and weight about 68-69kgs and Tanita shows 8-10% at normal mode.

Cheers
yash

 

[tech.racer]

2% for me a few months ago. I believe it has risen a little since then. Why would under 3% be dangerous?

 

[omer]

2% for me a few months ago. I believe it has risen a little since then. Why would under 3% be dangerous?

Tech.racer,

3% limit is a generalized figure. The limit may be different for different individuals. However, the main idea about having a minimum healthy limit is that, we have fat not only in/underneath our skin, but also between our internal body members like stomach and liver etc. For them to operate smoothly, (probably not to rub each other we need at least some amount of fat in our body. Hence the lower limit for body fat percentile.

By the way, how did you measure your body fat, 2%?

 

[tech.racer]

Oh ok thanks for the info. The trainer at my local gym put me on one of their machines, calculated weight and height and it spat out that figure.....

 

[Gilders]

Those scales are typically way off. I'm 4% and my Tanita body fat scale tells me that i'm 12%. A lot of the variation with these scales is due to your hydration level, but even with that, I still think these scales are pieces of ****.

Yes indeed...got on the Tanita scales at gym yesterday and provided with a reading of 15.7% body fat...

...which would be fine, if it wasn't for the fact that I have been training my ass off for the last fourteen months (running and cycling) to the point that I cannot literally see where all this fat could possibly be. At 5' 11" and 71kg, I have a small waist, visible ribs, no love handles, broad-shouldered ...so where the hell is it? In my head? My hat?

I guess if you want an accurate BFI reading, you get measured with calipers or displacement, then?

Appreciate any comments on any of the above - cheers

 

[john t]

Hmm, Gilder it sounds as though you have many crunches to do. Consider what your ideal weight should be minus ten pounds. If acceptable weight is based on 15% body fat (average male BF) and you were 175 lbs., at 165 lbs. you would be about 11% BF. BTW, abs grow as you exercise them too.....

Im 5'2" and about 140lbs,i have a six pack and i'm pretty muscular all over.
i used to be in to weights and rock climbing,i'm not that fastest climber and seem to climb on power.
I've done all the big climbs in the alps(du hueze,glandon,madalien,.telegraphe,galibia)and a few others.
Also in the pyreneese,tourmalate,luz ardidon,aubisque,hautocam,and others.
What i'm trying to say is although i'm quite heavy for a small guy,and not the best climber,i enjoy the sport for what it is,hard and rewarding

 

[Cyclist14]

I am 6 ft. tall and I weigh 142, before I started Cycling I ran cross-country three years in a row and got MVP two of those years

 

[tech.racer]

Im 5'2" and about 140lbs,i have a six pack and i'm pretty muscular all over.
i used to be in to weights and rock climbing,i'm not that fastest climber and seem to climb on power.
I've done all the big climbs in the alps(du hueze,glandon,madalien,.telegraphe,galibia)and a few others.
Also in the pyreneese,tourmalate,luz ardidon,aubisque,hautocam,and others.
What i'm trying to say is although i'm quite heavy for a small guy,and not the best climber,i enjoy the sport for what it is,hard and rewarding

Rock climbers have my utmost respect. I have always believed cyclists in general were mentally tough but RCers really take it to another level. Especially the free climbers....(without ropes!)

 

[john t]

Yes,free climbers are mad,and bad,i wouldn't climb with out ropes!!
But seriously,the pain we as cyclist suffer can only be appriciated by other cyclist,when i try to explain this to my none cyclying mates,they just dont understand.
And who can blame them??.if i wasn't a cyclist and a rock climber,how do you explain it!!
We push our selfs to the limit,where we just can't go on(but we do)our eyes hurt ,legs kill,we are dieing.......then we come back for more.
Explain it to me..cause i dont get it,even though i do it time and time again

john t

 

[hashde]

Well,
I'm 5'11 240, and 20%. Now I know there is a margin of error, but does this not mean that at 192 lbs I'd have 0%? I'm an ex wieghtlifter, but it's been 3 years, when will all this heavy muscle go away so I can keep up with the average people?

 

[Orange Fish]

Well,
I'm 5'11 240, and 20%. Now I know there is a margin of error, but does this not mean that at 192 lbs I'd have 0%? I'm an ex wieghtlifter, but it's been 3 years, when will all this heavy muscle go away so I can keep up with the average people?

You can't look at it like that. If you're 5'11", 240, and 20% now, then you have approximately 192 pounds of fat-free mass (muscle, bone, etc) and approximately 48 pounds of fat mass. If you got down to 192 pounds, your body composition may change, but you won't go down to 0% body fat. It's all relative....body composition gives you the relative amount of fat mass and fat free mass with regard to total body weight.

If you're an ex weight lifter and you have quite a bit of muscle, it's not going to go away quickly if you completely stop lifting. What may happen if you decrease your exercise is that the muscle will atrophy a bit, but you'll most likely just put on more fat mass since you're not stimulating muscle growth. I'd suggest that you continue lifting, but not as you did before (i.e. powerlifting or lifting however you did for competitions). You should try to maintain muscular development and strength, but don't drop weight lifting in the hopes of loosing all of your muscle mass. Look at the big picture and take what you have now and develop it to the best of your ability...don't worry about keeping up with the average person because there really isn't an average person if you're talking about measurements like body composition - typically they use a 75kg male and I believe 5'9" as a reference male. There aren't many of them around that I've seen, and it's not very representative of the population. So be happy with having 20% body fat. That's fine. Don't worry about weight as much...just focus on maintaining or decreasing your body composition. A healthy body composition for males is around 15%-18%, so you're right there.

 

[gtpirate]

I'm 5'-11", 152 lbs. and just got measured as being 7%. I'm lean from running track in college and am a newbie to cycling. Is the first sign of an addiction telling your drinking buddies that you are staying in on a weekend night so that you can go on a group ride in the morning?

 

[Orange Fish]

I'm 5'-11", 152 lbs. and just got measured as being 7%. I'm lean from running track in college and am a newbie to cycling. Is the first sign of an addiction telling your drinking buddies that you are staying in on a weekend night so that you can go on a group ride in the morning?

Absolutely! Welcome to the club

 

[Jon Packard]

I just had a tanita measurement at 12.3%. But according to folks here, it seems like I should be lower. I'm 5'11" and 156...

 

[AmpedCycle]

I'm at around 5-7 percent @ 6'2'' 155 lbs. 23 male.