What Is A Normal Body Fat Content Percentage?

Your body fat percentage indicates how much fat you carry when related to your body weight, according to Dr. Michael Hall, a family practitioner in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. Your body fat percentage represents stored body fat and essential body fat. You need essential body fat, but not stored body fat. Once you have a further understanding of body fat percentage, you can determine if you need to work at adjusting yours.

Significance

When you have too much or too little body fat, you can face various health problems. High body fat percentage can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, according to the University of Wisconsin---Steven's Point Health Services. On the other hand, a very low body fat percentage can alter your hormone levels, cause the body to break down muscle tissue for energy or cause death.

Methods

While many people and doctors rely on body mass index, also called BMI, to estimate body fat percentage, it does not measure body fat directly and can cause inaccurate predictions in people with a lot of muscle or large bones, explains Hall. The most reliable tests used to measure body fat percentage include skinfold measurement, bioelectrical impedance, underwater weighing, dual energy x-ray absorptiometry or DEXA and the Bod Pod or air displacement. Many of these tests are either expensive or unavailable to the general population. Body fat scales you can buy at the store can give you a general idea of your body fat percentage, but have a large error rate.

Men

The American Council on Exercise, also known as ACE, divides body fat percentages into the following categories: essential, athletes, fitness, acceptable and obesity. Normal body fat content percentages for a man include 6 to 13 percent for an athlete and 14 to 17 percent for fitness. However, it is acceptable for a man to have 18 to 24 percent body fat. If your body fat percentage falls above or below these numbers, you could face serious health problems.

Women

ACE uses the same categories of fat percentage for women as for men, but the body fat percentage range for each category differs. Normal fat content percentages for women include 14 to 20 percent for an athlete and 21 to 24 percent for fitness. However, you can have a body fat percentage of 25 to 31 percent and still be healthy.

Recommendations

To stay within the recommended body fat percentages you may have to increase your body fat or decrease your body fat. To increase how much fat you have on your body, increase your calorie consumption by adding more nutritious sides to your meals or eating more nutritious snacks throughout the day, advises Hall. To decrease your body fat percentage you need to combine a healthy diet with aerobic exercise and strength training, according to ACE. This will help you burn fat while building muscle.