[LandonsBaby]

I thought the healthy range for women was 18%-24% (or even lower for athletes, etc). But now I'm finding a bunch of info that says higher ranges are still healthy. I'm confused.

[mandalinn82]

So is most of the medical community, so you're in good company.

From the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, from an article about developing guidelines for body fat: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/72/3/694

Unfortunately, there is no consensus on how body fat is linked with morbidity and mortality because of the absence of appropriate prospective studies. Specifically, no accepted published body fat ranges exist; those reported based on empirically set limits, population percentiles, and z scores have serious limitations. Additionally, methods of limited accuracy such as anthropometry are typically used to estimate fatness in population surveys

Body fat % just isn't used to measure fitness. Therefore, different individuals have different standards. Jillian Michaels likes to see her females in the high teens to low 20's. About.com's Low Carb section has this table: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/librar...yfatcharts.htm. The American Counsil on Exercise has published a different set: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fa...ecommendations

Since there is no consensus, I'd recommend just finding a spot that feels right to you, or working on strength training and seeing where your BF% lands at that point. You could reevaluate, once you know that number, to determine if you want to continue lowering your number or not.

[LandonsBaby]

Well I know I want to be in a healthy range. I would like 20%-22% but we'll see about that. I had wanted to go lower but that is just more than I can handle. I don't really need to see my abs.

I was just wondering where I fall now. No big deal, I'm just curious. Four weeks ago I was at 29%. I would say I'm still the same. I will be having it checked again in another 4 weeks.

[est1991]

how do you find out your BF%?? do you have to go to the doctors to find out??

[Hummus]

There are a few ways to test your body fat: some gyms have people who are trained to do skin-fold tests (they pinch you with tongs, it's a little awkward and not very accurate). There's a device that sends a slight shock through your body (you can't feel it at all) and it works kinda like sonar - the wave travels faster through water than fat, so it measures how much fat is in your body. You can get scales with that in them too (you have to go barefoot). There's an underwater immersion thing that I'm not too familiar with. The "gold standard" is a machine called a DEXA - it's most often used to measure how dense your bones are, but can give you a very accurate, precise printout of exactly how much fat AND muscle you have, and is kinda like an x-ray. It's pretty easy, you just lie there for 5 minutes with your body in a machine, but it's expensive to have done.

I know some Curves have the electrical one, and it's the easiest to use. I had the DEXA done, and it was so neat to see what my body was made of! It even breaks it down into how much muscle and fat you have in your torso, legs, arms etc.... I found out my left thigh really does have more fat than my right - it's not my imagination

(sorry to hijack, just think it's pretty cool )