Ideal body fat

[Dominique]

This blog post gives two ways to look at the "ideal" body fat percentage for women and men: 1) the first one comes from the American Council on Exercise (ACE), 2) the second one is based on a study by Jackson & Pollock. Interestingly enough, the second one takes the view we older folks are "allowed" to be fatter than younger people .

This makes me wonder whether this is the reason I’m finding it so hard to lower my body fat (I’m 55). I’m aware of the limitations of scales that use BIA (bioimpedance) as a way to estimate your body fat %, but my Fitbit Aria (which is such a scale) has always given me consistent body fat estimates. However, in the close to three years I’ve been using it, I’ve never managed to go lower than 16%. Now Jackson & Pollock are telling me 16% is the "ideal" body fat % of a 40-45 guy... So no chance of getting leaner if you’re old?

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Nice @Dominique

Maybe it's around that percentage your precious body likes to stay..

PS: Enjoy all noms

[Suji]

The only way for me to get to ideal body fat is by juicing and/or making green smoothies at least once a day--and I'm 7 years older than you. : )

[Marcy]

Interesting chart, the disparity in ideal body fat% between the genders gets smaller with age.

[Dominique]

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@Marcy wrote:

the disparity in ideal body fat% between the genders gets smaller with age.

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Probably because we older guys are more like women, with lower (if any at all left!) testosterone, "manboobs" and all