What Is the Ideal Body Fat?

Ideal body fat is the amount of fat in the body over the total weight of the body. There are different ideal body fat for each of us. It may differ from the age level to the type of person you are. The type of person that I am talking about here is about your gender, whether you are a male or a female. The age level that I am also talking about is how old you are.

Well for women, the ideal body fat will vary depending on the physiological differences that we have. An example for this is women with large or small breasts. Some women are born with large breasts and with large breast, you may weigh a lot higher than usual because of the weight also of your breast while for women with smaller breasts, you weigh a lot lighter than the usual. Well for women who are trying to get pregnant or who wanted to get pregnant, their body fat should be higher a little bit not to the extent that you are already obese.

For men, the only thing that will make it different is your age. If you are very young then you are encouraged to have a higher amount of body fat since your body is still undergoing development. For old men, they are encouraged to have a higher body fat only for a little bit since only since all will already depend on how healthy or how sick you are. It is better to consult a doctor for this.

Below is the chart for the ideal body fat.

DESCRIPTION

WOMEN

MEN

Essential Fat

10-13%

2-5%

Athletes

14-20%

6-13%

Fitness

21-24%

14-17%

Average

25-31%

18-24%

Obese

32%+

25%+

As you can see, there is a big difference for the ideal body fat between men and women. That is because men's body is more compact with muscles than that of the women's body. Yes, that is true. A woman's muscle is much loose than that of a man. Try to observe a man with a big tummy comparing to a woman with a big tummy. If you know people who are like these, try to ask in a respectful manner that you are going to touch their belly. If you have, you will observe that a man's big tummy is harder than a woman's big tummy. A woman's big belly is so soft while a man's tummy is firm. But even though their tummy is firm, it has still a lot of fat.

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