Embrace A Healthy Body Fat Percentage And Feel Fantastic!

Having a healthy body fat percentage is an absolute must for those looking to embrace good health and achieve their optimum weight today. This is a fact that more and more health and dieting experts are recognizing as time goes by. Whereas the emphasis has been placed on reaching an ideal weight to height ratio, it is now widely acknowledged that this is not the best way to look at losing weight. Instead, aiming for a healthy body fat percentage is.

Now healthy and fat do not often go in the same sentence. Unless you are talking about losing fat to get healthy. But there are some facts that you should recognize before asking the negative question “am I fat?” First of all, not all fats are unhealthy. In fact, you may not know this but the human body requires a certain amount of fat to survive.

It is essential that you do not lose too much fat because of the number of functions a body fat aids in terms of performance is phenomenal. They help the reproductive, hormonal and immune systems to function properly as well as maintaining a healthy body temperature and protecting the organs. Fat also provide energy. But this is by no means exhaustive. However, if you have too much fat then you will find that your bodily functions become sluggish and begin to cause serious problems.

So how much fat is a healthy amount?

Well, that depends on a number of factors, predominantly age and gender. Different authorities have different recommendations. The average man should have between 15% and 20% body fat to be healthy with the average woman having between 22% and 28% body fat. The general rule is the younger you are, the less body fat you should have to be healthy. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

For example, an ideal body fat percentage level for an individual with a high muscle mass, such as an athlete, is between 8% and 10%. Nobody should ever have it less than 5%.

How to calculate a healthy body fat percentage