Have you ever wondered what your body fat percentage "should" be?
With the general standard that higher than 33% body fat for women is considered obese and the considerable stigma around that term, the outrageous claims of low body fat for celebrities and "fitness influencers", and the unrealistic images in the media (often photoshopped, but sometimes the result of dangerous weight-cutting / dehydration pre-photo-shoot), we've been given some really skewed perspective to work with.
As another example, back in 2015, a fitness blogger for a British tabloid posted that an "insider" told her Victoria's Secret Angels were required to maintain 18% or better body fat percentages, so that somehow became "the goal" if you wanted to look fit, athletic and sexy. This has led to this stupid number being widely pushed on social media like Pinterest and Instagram as the ideal for years.
The wildly inaccurate and inconsistent methods used for body fat measurement at the consumer level certainly don't help either. Between body fat scales, caliper measurements and other methods, there is a HUGE margin for error, and even the smallest difference in hydration, or the meals eaten in the days before a measurement can skew the numbers significantly.
This combination of popular media influence and inaccurate / inconsistent measurement tools has led many women down a crazy, unattainable rabbit hole of trying to hit a sub-20% body fat level.
The REAL TRUTH about the so-called "ideal" body fat level
An interesting study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning was recently reviewed by the folks at PN, looking at a group of female Division I college athletes across 12 different sports and measuring their body fat percentages using the gold standard DEXA (or DXA - Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry) method, and the results may surprise you.
Spoiler alert - the average was NOWHERE NEAR 18%.
Bear in mind, these were high-level, super-fit, 18-23 year olds. Division I is the top tier in college level sports in the US, and many of these athletes would even be what you'd consider "genetically gifted" to get to that level of performance.
So where did they score?
The leanest athletes were the cross country runners, at 23%, followed closely by gymnasts at 23.5%, with the top two sports being field throwing sport athletes (E.G. shot put and discus) at 36% and tennis players at 31%.
The average across all 12 sports was just over 28% - that's nearly 1.6x higher than the supposed "ideal" from the media, but is well within the "normal" range for the 20-39 year old female group based on guidelines adapted from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.
Again, remember, these were super-fit, top shelf, national caliber young athletes, not just average women off the street, and most of them aren't even close to that fictional ideal.
Here's a link to the study if you're interested in checking it out:
Dobrosielski DA, Leppert KM, Knuth ND, Wilder JN, Kovacs L, Lisman PJ. Body Composition Values of NCAA Division 1 Female Athletes Derived From Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry. J Strength Cond Res. 2021 Oct 1;35(10):2886–93.
Even bikini and fitness competitors (whose sport requires unhealthy levels of leanness in the low teens on contest day to be competitive) generally walk around at DEXA-verified body fat percentages averaging 23% before their contest-specific cutting routines according to another study.
Finally, another study looked at 17 year old, elite level gymnasts (I.E. Olympic / world championship caliber competitors), and their DEXA-verified body fat percentages averaged 22%.
For what it's worth, I have taken groups of clients to a facility in the lower mainland to have DEXA scans done a couple of times, and the one female client that "everyone wanted to look like" came in at 24% body fat, so my personal experience with this absolutely agrees with results of the studies.
The takeaway here?
If even young, elite athletes measured using the gold standard for body fat measurement can't meet the "ideal" portrayed in the media and on social networks, THE IDEAL IS BULLSHIT.
Forget about chasing arbitrary numbers that you can't accurately measure anyway, and focus on eating and moving to THRIVE and be the healthiest, happiest YOU possible.