Body fat percentage tells you how much of a person's weight is made up of essential fat and stored body fat. Body fat gives a more precise measure of fitness and healthy weight ranges than height/weight charts or body mass index measurements because it individualizes the analysis of body composition. No standard of body fat exists, since age, gender and genetics all are factors. For women, achieving a healthy level of body fat reduces risk factors for specific diseases and improves physical appearance and performance.
Essential Vs. Stored Fat
Everyone possesses essential and stored fat. Women tend to have a higher essential body fat percentage due to needs for childbearing and hormone production. Essential fat also provides padding for internal organs and assists in vitamin absorption. For women, essential fat is about 12 percent, notes author and physician Andrew Weil. Stored fat is simply adipose tissue. If you have too much adipose tissue, you are overweight or obese.
Healthy Range
The American Council on Exercise offers a range of body fat percentages through which you can estimate your fitness level and possible need to reduce weight. A healthy female usually falls somewhere between 14 and 30 percent. For an average, modestly active woman, a healthy range is between 21 and 31 percent. The range of acceptable fat percentage increases slightly with age. Elite athletes and figure competitors usually fall below 20 percent and might dip to the very low range during races or competitions.
Measuring Body Fat
Some methods of measuring body fat are more accurate than others. The most readily available, reliable method is a skin fold caliper test performed by a skilled technician like a personal trainer. Kelli Christensen, MS, notes in an issue of "Obesity Management" from 2007 that the most definitive methods of body fat measurement are the DXA scan and hydrostatic weighing. But these are only available in specialized centers and usually involve significant expense. Body fat scales and equations can give you an idea of your range, but are subject to many variables that make the results of questionable reliability.
Considerations
A good indication of body fat being too low is an irregular or absent menstrual cycle. Too low body fat affects energy levels and athletic performance. Having too much body fat--above 31 percent--indicates obesity and increased risk for chronic disease. A healthy level of body fat makes weight management easier--muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than does fat tissue.
Achieving a Healthy Range
Changing your body composition for the better requires dedication to diet and increased physical activity. Crash dieting and starvation might stimulate fast weight loss, but a lot of that weight comes from valuable lean muscle. Stick to a regimen that helps you lose just one or two pounds per week to target fat loss. Exercise, along with diet, helps promote preservation and development of muscle. If you are underweight and have extremely low body fat levels, follow a healthy, higher-calorie diet to promote weight gain.
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