Posted on March 13, 2016 by Kate Halsall

If you’ve read our blogs before, you will know that the amount of body fat we have varies dependent on age, body type and sex. We know that women naturally have more body fat than men. Every body needs some essential fat for our bodies to function correctly, but do you know exactly what your body fat should be?

If we look at the industry standard “ideals”, our body fat should fall between the following:

Male

AGE        16-29                     30-49                     50+

%             13-17%                 15-19%                 17-21%

Female

AGE       16-29                     30-49                     50+

%           21-25%                 23-27%                 25-29%

However, losing weight does not mean that you will just lose body fat, you may in fact, actually lose muscle tissue too. Ideally, if you are losing weight your weight loss should come from losing as much body fat as possible and minimal loss from muscle mass. As muscle tissue is ‘active’ tissue, retaining muscle mass is important for keeping your metabolism as active as possible.

It’s not just your total body fat percentage which is important. We take readings from multiple sites, because where you store body fat is equally important. These readings suggest genetic and hormonal indicators of why you may store fat in specific areas. For example if you store more fat around your abdominals, this suggests that your cortisol levels are high. Stress and lack of sleep cause and increase in cortisol, so addressing these factors may help you see a reduction of body fat in these areas. Measuring your skinfolds allows us to plan training sessions appropriately and suggest lifestyle changes which may help to optimise your fat loss goals.

How quickly can you lose body fat? This can be managed through:

• Lifestyle changes such as less stress, less alcohol and more sleep
• You food intake such as the reduction of sugar and processed carbs
• Ensuring your perform the right type and amount of exercise such as interval training and resistance training

If you want to know what your body fat is and how to reduce this then speak to one of our trainers and we will be happy to help.