Table 13.2B Body fat percentage for the athletic population Table 13.2A Body fat percentage for the average population Generally, a good body fat percentage range for women is 21 to 35 percent, and for men, its 8 to 24 percent depending on age. Body weight and body composition should be discussed in relation to functional capacity and exercise performance. The ideal body composition is highly dependent on the particular sport or discipline and should be discussed on an individual basis with the coach, physiologist, and nutritionist or dietician. No accepted percentage body fat standards exist for athletes. In sports such as bodybuilding, increasing lean-body mass and increasing body weight without increasing body fat are desirable. Therefore, in these sports both low body fat and low body weight are necessary. In sports such as gymnastics, marathon running, and other weight-bearing activities, a lower body weight and high power-to-weight ratio are extremely important. In some contact sports such as American football or rugby, a higher body weight is generally seen as an advantage. The term athletic in this context refers to sports where low body fat is an advantage.ĭifferent sports have different requirements in terms of body composition. 20s and 30s: During these decades, a healthy body fat percentage generally ranges from 16 to 25 for women and 10 to 20 for men. Please keep in mind that these are only rough estimates. Table 13.1 Body fat percentages for males and females and their classification Average percentages body fat for the general population and for various athletes are presented in table 13.2.
BODY FAT PERCENTAGES ON MEN PLUS
In general, the total body fat percentage (essential plus storage fat) is between 12% and 15% for young men and between 25% and 28% for young women (see also table 13.1). Women are believed to have more essential body fat than men because of childbearing and hormonal functions.
Essential body fat is approximately 3% of body mass for men and 12% of body mass for women. Storage fat, on the other hand, represents an energy reserve that accumulates when excess energy is ingested and decreases when more energy is expended than consumed. Essential body fat is present in the nerve tissues, bone marrow, and organs (all membranes), and we cannot lose this fat without compromising physiological function. This is an excerpt from Sport Nutrition-2nd Edition by Asker Jeukendrup & Michael Gleeson.īody fat consists of essential body fat and storage fat.
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