health body fat % for woman

[srs_81]

what body fat % goal should I be aiming for?  I don't wan to lose my lean mass, I want to keep moving the bf% scale down, but don't know where I should be aiming for. 

I recently learned the scale only scans the lower portion of your body, which I carry my weight in my abdomen so I know it's off, which is frustrating already, but I am wondering what is healthy for a woman.

10%? 15%?

[smhermione]

I was wondering this too... following.

[Dominique]

This is found in your Dashboard, FWIW:

This link illustrates with photos what various percentages look like for men and women.

[srs_81]

well, either my scale is a complete POS or ... I don't know. But I look NOTHING like the 17% range woman in that image you linked...N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

guess I'm still confused.  I just want to get rid of this abdominal jiggle.  *sigh*

-frustrated-

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@Dominique wrote:

This is found in your Dashboard, FWIW:

This link illustrates with photos what various percentages look like for men and women.

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[SunsetRunner]

First off, throw the pictures out the window (even if they're suitable for a rough estimate).
I'd say read up on the accuracy of your body fat measuring method. There are many different ways to figure out your bf% but many of them have huge margins of error. The most accurate ones will typically cost more than most people are willing to spend to satisfy their curiosity.

However, 20-30% body fat in women seems reasonable to me. Obviously this also depends on age, as increasing age tends to increase fat around the organs and such.
10% body fat for a woman is nearly impossible. Around 10% would be only essential fat and nothing more. Think body builder.
15% is apparently at the lower range of a female Olympic swimmer.
I've read some on this subject earlier, but the consensus seems to be that you'll, among other things, stop menstruating between 13 and 17% body fat. This is caused by hormonal imbalance and is not good for you (or anyone basically).

Since I've seen this all over the boards and many people are very generous with sharing bad information dealing with weight loss, muscle gain and such, I'll include some extra information that might enlighten you and others:
Body fat % in adults can be changed by either losing fat or gaining lean mass (muscle), but be advised that weight loss and cutting calories may also cause you to lose muscle in the process.
Also, for women building muscle takes forever. The average man can do it in half the time of the average woman. It's the testosterone and all that manly jazz.
Gaining weight is not a crisis, even if it feels like it sometimes. I have seen numerous posts of numerous boards and sites where people are upset about the fact that they gained x pounds/kgs the last week/month. The advice or support is often "you probably gained muscle".
I'm sorry to break this, but you probably didn't. Not several pounds of it anyway. Maybe some, but most of it is probably fat, water or something.
Under the best circumstances in training, eating, resting, etc. a woman can potentially gain about one pound of muscle per month. And not while cutting calories.

My advice is to take everything with a grain of salt.
A healthy combo of cardio, strength training, food, rest and so forth is also highly advisable.