Percent Body Fat (PBF)

[Anonymous]

For those of you monitoring PBF instead of BMI, how do you track and how often? At what PBF did you start, what are your goals, and where are you now? What are you doing to achieve your goals? Are you male or female? How old are you?

I started this journey after receiving an assessment of osteopenia, high cholesterol, and “skinny fat” at age 55. I’m eager to learn from others who have transformed themselves after age 50.

[Anonymous]

I’m a male at 55.

If I have a 4 pack it is safe to assume below 12%. Which is where I hover.

If you hit full 6 pack that means I am probably below 10%.

No visible abs means my body fat is too high.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't particularly happy when I found out in my efforts to get more fit that I somehow gained weight. My diet was pretty much the same and if anything I tried to restrict my diet and liquid intake. At one point where it almost got unhealthy and I had to go to the doctor about it.

It's something that I've always noticed that would happen with my body, where my weight would increase when I do cardio.

But after looking into it several times, it isn't necessarily out of the ordinary to gain weight from cardio. Where there are posts about weight gain being due to gain in muscle, body repairing itself, and/or the body increasing glycogen stores or something like that.

And tracking hip to waist ratio, I can see that my measurements haven't really changed even then though I gained weight. My clothes fit the same and my hip and waist both measure about the same.

The three more easily available ways to measure body fat I know of are:
-BMI-I used to kind of discount this because when I first looked at it, the normal/recommended range was the range where people used to body shame me and call me skin and bones. Nowadays I don't think it's too bad of a target to go for. But seriously, screw the people that used to give other people body image issues

-Hip to Waist ratio-just started tracking this

-skin calipers-some parts/methods seem kind of complicated where you need to get measurements in harder to reach areas, like along your back

I used to know someone who talked about getting the body fat percentage by going some place that measures it by submerging you in water. But this doesn't sound like it's easily available and why I didn't include it in the three methods above.

[Anonymous]

I get an InBody Scan done a few times a year at my gym for free. It’s pretty illuminating but subject to error like all methods. I think it’s good for measuring trends.

[Anonymous]

Use DEXA or dont bother. If you are getting stronger you might be gaining muscle. If your waist is getting bigger, you are getting fatter.

[Anonymous]

I don't track PBF, but I have been taking photos and comparing them. It has been pretty illuminating

[Anonymous]

Get a Dexa Scan. Cost me $150. Going to get it again in 6 months to see the difference. Reliable scan and tells you a lot.

[Anonymous]

It is very hard to track percent BF unless you have access to highly calibrated and very expensive scanning equipment.

This is an excellent video on percent body fat and what it really looks like using high end scanners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9QhkPww44v

[Anonymous]

As posted above - you get a scan but focus on one part of your body as your “baseline”.

Most people lose fat last in their abs so that what typically you will see the first fat come back to.

If your stomach is defined and you get scanned you (as a female) would be under 20%.

If you lose definition you know you are over 20%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As posted above - you get a scan but focus on one part of your body as your “baseline”.

Most people lose fat last in their abs so that what typically you will see the first fat come back to.

If your stomach is defined and you get scanned you (as a female) would be under 20%.

If you lose definition you know you are over 20%.

This is a pretty straightforward metric that holds true in my case. I range from 19-22% and the abs don’t lie.