The Supreme Guide To Body Fat Percentage With Pictures & Charts - King of the Gym (2025)

This is acomprehensive guide to body fat percentage for fitnessenthusiasts.

This guide includes topics ranging from a basic explanation of what body fat percentage is,to how it’s measured, to factors that influencedifferent body fat distribution patterns and MUCH more.

Readingabout all of these topics is great. But it’s not enough. I know you also want toseehowdifferent people lookat different body fat percentages…

…So, I’ve includedtonsof photos of men and women of all shapes and sizes — all of whomhave hadtheir body fat estimated with one of the most accurate body fat testing technologies.

What Is Body Fat Percentage?

Body fat percentage is the percentage of your total body mass that is made of fat.

So if a 200 pound guy has 20 lbs. of fat on his body, he has 10% body fat (20/200=10%).

The remaining 180 lbs., or 90% of his total body mass (i.e. muscle, bone, organs, water, etc.), is considered his lean body mass (LBM).

Why Is Body Fat Percentage Important?

The lower your body fat percentage is, the leaner you are.

The higher your body fat percentage, the fatter you are. After a certain threshold (around 25-30% body fat for men, 30-35% for women), it starts to become unhealthy.

If your goal is to get lean, tracking body fat percentage over time provides valuabledata that youcan use toreach your goal faster.

Tracking body fat is better than tracking only your body weight…

…Why? Because losing, let’s say,20 lbs of body weight does not necessarily mean youlost20 lbs of body fat. Some of that weight loss could be from water,muscle glycogen and/or muscle tissue. And it should go without saying thatyou want to keep as much muscle as possible.

Similarly, if you’re trying to bulk up and build muscle, you shouldn’t just track your body weight. If you gain weight for the sake of seeing the number on the scale go up, you’re bound to put on an excessive amount of body fat.

Tracking your body fat in addition to body weight will help to minimize fat gains as you bulk.

How to Measure & Track Your Body Fat Percentage

There are several ways to measure your body fat, but not all are created equal.

None of the methods are 100% accurate, but some are far superior to others. Unfortunately,the bestmethodswill cost youa bit of money and time to go toan appointment, but it’s worth it if the option is available to you.

Below, I’ll list, describe and review the pros and cons of all availablebody fat testing methods.

DEXA Scan

DEXA (Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry), orDXA, scans are arguably one of the top two mostaccurate body fat testing modalities available to the general public.

It’s rivaled only by hydrostatic weighing, which I’ll discuss in the section below. Althoughthe hydrostatic methodmaybe slightly more accurate in some situations, it is much more logistically difficult to carry out compared to the ~7 minutes of lying on a table that’s required fora DEXA scan.

DEXA machines are typically used by radiologists to analyze bone mineral density in patients who are experiencing, or at risk for, bone loss conditions (e.g. osteoporosis).

However, these machinesare also capable of detecting fat mass and lean mass(note: lean mass for DEXA scans includes everything except bone mineral weight and fat mass [i.e. muscle, organs, water and waste]).

Unlike other testing methods, the body fat data in DEXA scans isn’t limited tojust subcutaneous fat (fat under skin and atopmuscles). DEXA scan resultsalso include estimates of visceral fat (fat around organs) and intramuscular fat (fat within muscles like the marbling in a steak). Other testing methodseither estimate these values or do not include them at all.

If that wasn’t thorough enough for you, DEXA scans go even further by providing a breakdown of your body composition by body region. The scan resultstell you the mass andcorresponding percentages of fat, lean mass and bone in each of the following segments of your body:

• Left/right arms
• Left/right legs
• Left/right trunk (i.e. rib cage region)
• Android (i.e. lower abdomen region)
• Gynoid (i.e. pelvic region)
• Head

So, DEXA scan reports don’t justgiveyou an overall body composition reading.They show you how your mass is distributed throughout your body, including where you store your fat, and how much lean massand bonemass is in each body region.

Hydrostatic Weighing

Hydrostatic, orunderwater,weighing, is on the same level as, if not slightly better than, DEXA scans when it comes to accuracy.

Both methods have similar error rates when measuring individuals. Despite theirerror rates makingthem lessthanperfect, they are as good as it gets when it comes to accessible body fat testing methods.

So how does hydrostatic weighing work?

Hydrostatic weighing involves submerging an individualinto a water tank and onto an underwater scale. The test administratormeasures how much water their bodydisplacesand how much they weighunder water.

It’s important that the testsubjecteliminates all air from hislungs, as well asany air trappedin hisswimsuits orhair.Air changes how much water is displaced, so having excess air in or on the body willreduce the accuracy of the test.

The amount of water displaced is equivalent to the test subject’sbody volume. The subject’s underwater weight is put into an equation along with hisbody volume and out-of-water weight, tocalculate body density.

Body density can then be used tocalculate an estimated body fat percentage.

The major drawback of hydrostatic weighing, however, is that it’s not the easiest or most convenient process. You have to get into a swimsuit, get dunked in water, exhale all the air out of your lungs and hold your breath until the test administrator gets a good reading…

…So while hydrostatic weighing may be slightly more accurate than DEXA, it requires a lot more time and effort on the part of the test subject. It also does not provide a report that gives a detailed breakdown of body composition bybody region.

Bod Pod®

TheBod Podis the name of the onlycommercially sold air displacement plethysmograph on the marketfor testingbody fat percentage in adults (if you happen to be an infant, you’d use thePea Pod® to measure your body fat)…

…What’s that, you say? You don’t know what an air displacement plethysmograph is?! Fine, I’ll tell you. 😀 It’s an instrument that measures body volume based on how much air it displaces.

Specifically, the Bod Pod is a large, egg-shaped capsule. It has two chambers insideof it, which are divided by a seat that extends up into a wall.

The test subject sits downin the seat in the main chamber, wearing a bathing suit or underwear, and a swim cap to keep their hair down.

The Bod Pod also has a scale built into it to measure body mass.

The capsule door is sealed. Then a diaphragm mechanism between the two chambers movesback and forth multiple times, creating an equal, but inverse change in the chambers’ volumes each time the diaphragm moves.

The volume change in either chamber createsa pressure increase in one, anda corresponding pressure decrease in the other. Sensors detect the magnitudes of the changes in pressurein the chambers, which is then used to measurethe volume of the main chamber with the subject inside.Body volume is calculated by subtracting the new chamber volume from the original main chamber volume.

Body density is then calculated by dividingbody mass (as measured using the built-in scale) by body volume.

The body density figure can then be plugged into an equation to estimatebody fat percentage.

So, it is similar in concept tohydrostatic weighing, which involves measuring body volume by waterdisplacement. Unfortunately, however, the Bod Pod is not nearly as accurate as hydrostatic weighing.

This stems from the fact that, compared to hydrostatic weighing, there are several more variables at play that canthrow off Bod Pod measurements; namely, breathing pattern, body temperature, humidity, facialhair and tightness of the swimsuit/compression underwear.

Despite its shortcomings compared to hydrostatic weighing and DEXA scans, theBod Pod is still significantlymore accurate and consistent than the methods I’ll be discussing below (i.e. calipers, tape measurement/calculator, BIA scales)…

…In other words, it’s the worst of the best methods.

Skinfold Testing with Calipers

Skinfold testing involves pinching the subcutaneous fat through the skin to form a “skinfold,” and then pulling it away from the muscle to measure its thickness with calipers.

Skinfold measurements are taken at multiple points on the body. The specific skinfold sites depend on the method used to predict body fat, and the sex of the person being tested.

For example, here are the different skinfold sites for the three most commonly used skinfold testing methods:

Below is an excellent video demonstrating how to measure any of the 7 skinfold sites.

Note: There is a slight variation between how to measure the chest skinfold on men vs.women. As explained in this video, males should take the skinfold halfway between their armpit and nipple; whereas women should take it closer to their armpit.

The accuracy of calipers depends a great deal onwhether or not themeasurements are taken correctly.

How do you make sure your skinfold measurements are taken the right way?

For starters, themeasurements should be taken by someone else, if possible. Ideally, this person should be a professional withexperience administeringthis type of test.

However, even in this best case scenario, skinfold testshave a significant margin of error for estimating body fat. Themain reasons for this – aside from the test administrator’s skill – are as follows:

• The commonly used Jackson-Pollock equationis aprediction ofbody fat percentage based on hydrostatic weighing. However, hydrostatic weighing itself is a prediction that comes with it own margin of error. Therefore, there is a compounding of margins of error on caliper tests that could potentially produce a large discrepancy between estimated and actual body fat percentage.
• JacksonandPollock, who published their skinfoldequations in 1978, useda demographic ofnon-obesesubjects for their research. This made sense at the time because obesity was uncommon at that time. However, in thefatterworld we live in today, their equations may not be the best fit for everyone (pun intended). The equations were based onaquadratic model, which worked just fine for the non-obese demographic characteristic of participants. However, evidence shows that as skinfold measurements increase, thequadratic-based equationsbecome less accurate. Researchers have developed a modified equation based on an exponential model that seems to have greater accuracy for obese populations.¹⁾ It’s also worth nothing that the demographic in the 1978 study was all or mostly white, meaning that the equation may be inaccurate for different races/ethnicities. I’ll discussthe relationship betweenrace/ethnicity and body fat laterin this article.

If you want to do a skinfold caliper test,all you need to do is:

1. Get apair of calipers (and preferably someone who can help take proper measurements).
2. Decide which skinfold test you’re going to do (i.e. 3-point, 4-point or 7-point, as discussed earlier).
3. Take the skinfold measurements and record them.
4. Plug the measurement values intothe calculator on this website.
5. Keep in mind that this, like most other body fat testing methods, can vary significantly for individuals.

Circumference Method

The circumference method involves measuringthe circumferencesof a few key body parts with a tape measure.

These measurements, along with your height, are plugged intoan equation to estimate body fat percentage.

There are actually a few different circumference methods/equations that have been created over the years. However, for this article, I’ll focus on one of the better-knownequations: the U.S. Navy Circumference Method.

Specifically, the measurements include:

• Height: Most people already know their height from going to the doctor. But if you don’t, then up straight, with your heels, butt and back against a wall.Measure barefoot.
• Weight: Weigh yourself to the nearest pound.
• Waist circumference: Measurearound your torso at belly button level.
• Neck circumference:Measure below the Adam’s apple on the front of the neck and just a bit higher on the back of the neck; from a side view, the tape should be angled slightly downward from back to front.
• Hips circumference (women only):Measurehips/butt areaat the fullestpoint.

For the most accurate and consistent results, follow these guidelines:

• Wrap the tape snugly, but not tightly: For all circumference measurements, make sure the tape makes contact with the body along all points, but is not so tight that it squeezed into the body and produces an inaccurately low reading.
• Use imperial units of measurement (i.e. poundsand inches):If you only have a metric (i.e. kilogramsand centimeters) body scale or tape measure, then you’ll have to convert your measurements to pounds and inches.
• Consistent measurementtiming: Take all measurements at the same time of day every time you do the test. Preferably, this would be in the morning upon waking – after using the restroom and before eating. Certainly, do not measure after eating a large meal or after a workout
• Measure multiple times: Cycle through all the measurements 2 or 3 times (i.e. weight, waist, neck, repeat) and take the average of each.

The Circumference Method Equation

As I noted earlier, these equations only work with measurements taken in inches.

As per this instructional document from the US military, below are the equations for estimating body fat percentage using the circumference method:

Equation For Men

Body fat % =[86.010 x Log10 (waist – neck)] – [70.041 x Log10 (height)] + 36.76

Equation For Women

Body fat % = [163.205 x Log10 (waist + hip – neck)] – [97.684 x Log10 (height)] – 78.387

If you don’t feel like whippin’ out your scientific calculator (I don’t blame you), then you can simply plug your measurements into an online calculator like this one…

…Or you can reference the tables I made, below:

Navy Body Fat Test Table For Males

Click image below to enlarge:

Navy Body Fat Test Table For Females

Click image below to enlarge:

Accuracy

The circumference method shares some key similarities with skinfold testing. Specifically, both methods are:

• Relatively easy to perform
• Based on anthropometry (i.e. based on measurements and proportions of different parts of the body)
• Not veryreliable for accurately tracking body fat percentage on an individual level(though they’redecent on a population level)…

However, they differ somewhat in at least one important category:accuracy.

A close examination ofthe accuracy of circumference testing vs. that of skinfold testing reveals thatthecircumference method is the least accurate of the two.²⁾

And as I discussed in the previous section, the skinfold method itself is not very accurate to begin with.

The relative inaccuracy of the circumference method is even more apparentfor muscular individuals. If you’re on this website, chances are that you fall into this group(or will fall into this group in the future).³⁾

Despite all the negatives of the circumference method, it actually has some significant redeemingmerits that make it aneffective tracking tool in the right context.

Specifically, if measurements are done correctly and consistently with enough time between tests, you’ll be able to see if you’re losing fat over time simply based on whether your body weight andcircumferencemeasurementsare getting lower.

I’d argue that anyone wanting to track body composition changes should take circumference measurements periodically – even people who are doingDEXA or hydrostatic weighing.

However, it’s not necessary to plug the measurements into an equation to get a percentage, since it may very return a value that’s way off. Simply knowing the general trend in circumference measurements changes over time is enough to let you know if you’re on the right track.

NOTE: I recommend also tracking the circumferences of other major body parts besides the waist, neck and hips. Ideally, you would also measure your legs [mid-thigh], biceps, forearm, chest, shoulders and calves. Seeing how all this data changes over time can provide great insight into your body composition changes, and overall progress – Plus it’s great for motivation!

BIA Scales

BIA scales are thebottom of the barrel when it comesto methods for measuringbody fat percentage.

However, I’ll still give you an overview on them – and tell you why they (mostly) suck.

So, what exactly are these BIA scales and how are they supposed to work? Glad ya asked…

…BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) scales use electrodes to transfera very low-level electrical current through the skin and into the underlying bodytissue.

The sensors then measure how much the body tissues resist the current. This datais used to estimate the total amount of water in the body, which in turn is used to estimate fat free mass, and by extension, body fat percentage.

You’ll most commonly see the relatively inexpensive commercial versions of the BIA scale. They come in the form of a handheld device, or the technology may be built into a digital bathroomscales. These consumer-grade products also happen to be the most inaccurate types of BIA scales.

There are more accurate, and much more expensive types of, BIA scales. Butthose are usually only found in clinical settings.

These higher quality, clinicalBIA scales do have somemerit. However, they are not practical – Even though they would be more accurate than a consumer-grade BIA scale for estimating body fat on an individual basis, they’re still not accurateenough to justify the time or cost involved in getting access to one…

…They are reallyonly useful forthings such as tracking group averages in clinical research when better options (e.g. DEXA, hydrostatic, BodPod) are unavailable.

So whileclinical-grade BIA scales have some use for tracking group body fat averages in research,youcould make a persuasiveargument that the cheap consumer BIA scales are totally uselessfor group tracking, and especially for individualtracking.f

ABCs of Body Fat Measurement: Always Be Consistent

When trackingbody fat, taking consistent measurements iswhat matters.

That is, from a practical standpoint,it doesn’t matterif yourbody fat testing method precisely measuresyour true physiological body fat percentage. (As a side note, knowing yourtrue body fat percentage wouldonly be possible if someone couldphysically separate all of yourfat from yourbody and weigh it).

Rather,what’s important is thatyourbody fat testing method can detect change over time, even if the percentages it calculates each time arewrong.

Of course, the more accurate testing methods are generallymore consistent.However, the point is to do everything you can to keep measurements consistent, no matter which test you’re doing.

In other words, control your variables!

The variables that can affect your results are different for each testing method, but there’s a lot of overlap. Below, I’ll describe how to control for some of the most common variables:

• Use the same testing method each time (e.g. Don’t jump from skinfold testing to DEXA to Bod Pod)
• Have the test performed the same way each time (e.g. using the same machineandfacility for DEXA/hydrostatic/Bod Pod, having the same person use the same calipers in the same wayfor skinfold testing)
• Do the test at the same time of day with approx the same amount of food in your stomach (e.g. in the morning on an empty stomach)
• Do the test on a typical day (e.g.not after a night of drinking, or after a major day of cheat meals)
• Do the test before working out for the day
• Wear the same clothes/swimming trunks (this applies toDEXA/hydrostatic/Bod Pod testing)
• Avoid big shifts in water weight (this could be caused by a number of things: consuming a lot more/less sodiumthan usual; having a lot more/less caffeine than usual; drinking a lot more/less water than usual; menstruating)
• For any of the non-clinical/at-home methods that require inputting your body weight, make sure you use the same scale each time

Don’t Get Too Caught Up On The Number

Among the fitness crowd, it’s common for someoneto at leastsomewhat-arbitrarily guess whattheir ownbody fat percentage is.

They getthis number in their head, and they cling to it. At some level, they may even begin to identify with it.

Once they actually get their body fat professionally tested, the results are often higher than they expected.Whether this is because theyunderestimated their own body fat or because the test was inaccurate, is irrelevant.

Predictably, theyare surprised anddiscouraged because they were so attached to being at some arbitrary percentage…

…What’s unfortunate is that they’ll feel this way even if they had been making progress and getting objectively leaner.

This is why it’s important that you:

1. Do not get attached to a certain body fat percentage, especially if it’s just based on a“guesstimate.”
   1. Even if you’ve previously been tested using one of the more accurate testing methods (i.e. hydrostatic orDEXA), you still shouldn’t take that number as gospel.Even the most accurate body fat percentage measurement methods have noteworthy margins of error –Hypothetically, you could test at 12% one time, then after losing a few lbs of pure fat, you couldtestat 15%.
2. Use progress pictures/video and observe your physique in the mirror. Using thesevisual tools, in addition to periodic body fat testing, will give you the best possibleideaof if, and how much, your body composition is changing over time.

Ideal Body Fat Percentage

There is no single “ideal” body fat percentage for every person.

Your ideal body fat percentage depends largely on these three factors:

1. Sex
2. Age
3. Physique goal/fitness level

Male vs. Female: How Sex Affects Ideal Body Fat Percentage

Women require more body fat than men.

Theyneed this extrabody fat for productionofthe key female sex hormone, estrogen, whichis necessary for reproductive function (as well as bone formation andother functions).

In a 2000 study, researchers Gallagher et al. createdthe groundwork for a method of todetermine normalvs.overweight vs. obesebody fat percentageranges. They did this by coming up with equations to estimate body fat ranges that correspondto the BMI ranges established by theWorld Health Organization…

…While BMI is very accuratefor estimating body fat on a population level, it can be highly inaccurateon an individual basis (e.g. muscular bodybuilders with low body fat percentages may be classified as overweight or obese using BMI).Whereas, body fat percentage guidelines are much more useful for individuals.

According to theGallagher et al.study, a normal/healthy body fat range for a younger adult female(ages 20-39) is21-33%, with 33-39% considered overweightand anything over 39% classified as obese.⁴⁾

For younger adult males (ages 20-39), the healthyrange is 8-20%, 20-25% is considered overweight and anythingexceeding 25%falls under the obesity category.⁵⁾

NOTE:AsI’ll discuss in the next section, the ranges for healthy, overweight and obese body fat percentages increases as age increases. Additionally,the body fat percentage ranges given above are based on black and white individually, however, I should note that the percentageschange slightly for every race (I’ll talk more about race/ethnicity later on).

How Age Affects IdealBody Fat Percentage

In the previous section, I touched upon how age affects ideal body fat percentage. To review:

• Women between 20-40 years of age are considered to have ahealthy body fat if they are within therange 21-33%. Whereas, women over 40 have a slightly higher healthy range of 23-36% body fat.
• Younger men aged 20 to 40 have a lower healthy body fat range between 8-19%, compared to their over-40counterparts, whose healthy range is11-25%.

I created a table below that summarizes this data:

This data raises a question – Why does a higher age mean higher levels of body fat are acceptable?

It’s because as people get older, they accumulatemore fat around their organs (i.e. visceral fat) and within their muscles (i.e.intramuscular fat). However, thefat under the skin and over the muscle (i.e. subcutaneous fat) doesn’t necessarily have to increase, though itoften does because most people become less active as they age while keeping their same diethabits.

Also, the healthy vs. unhealthybody fat percent ranges shownabove take into account the body’s natural tendency to lose lean body mass (i.e. bone and muscle loss) as age progresses. If lean body massdecreases, thenbody fat makes up a higher percentage of body weight bydefault…

…However, older individuals can negate or at least significantly slow down this lean mass loss if theystay active andregularly do some form of resistance training (preferably weight training).

How PhysiqueGoal And Fitness Level Affect Ideal Body Fat Percentage

If we’re talking about competitive physique athletes, theirideal body fat will be much lower than that of a non-competitive avid gym-goer. And the gym-goer’s ideal will be lower than the average sedentary office worker, and so on.

Real Life DEXA-Verified Body Fat Percentage Photos

When researching this article, I became annoyed that most other articles on this topic reference photoexamples of people at different body fat percentages without any type of verification thatthey were tested at all, or what type of testing method the percentages are based on…

…Basically, it looks like thecommonly referenced body fat guide photo collages found online are based on guessesofbody fat percentages.

This wouldn’t be bad if the guesses were accurate. Instead, these popular photo collages tend to consistentlyunderestimate body fat compared to what a DEXA or hydrostatic test would likely show.

Of course, this isn’t intentional and the creators of these body fat photo collages are only trying to help (and they do help; some more than others).

I wouldn’t complain about this if I didn’t have a better alternative.

I took on the tedious task of scouring the Internet for hours looking through bodybuilding and fitness forums, personal blogs and social image sharing sites to find as many verified examplesof people who have done DEXA scans and reported their results with pictures.

I have compiled these results in the three slideshows below. The first two are DEXA-verified examples of men, and the last one is of women. I’ve includedattribution to the original sources for each set of photos:

Male DEXA Body Fat Percentage Examples – Part 1 of 2

Male DEXA Body Fat Percentage Examples – Part 2 of 2

Female DEXA Body Fat Percentage Examples

Things To Understand When Thinking Of Body Fat Numbers (And Comparing Yourself To Pictures):

Essential Body Fat & Storage Body Fat

Body fat can be divided into two sub-categories:

1. Essential fat
2. Storage fat

Essential fat

Essential fat is theminimum amount of fat your bodyneeds to remain healthy andcarry out its normal functions.It is stored in and around the organs as a necessary part of their structureandto protect and insulate them them.

The amount of essential body fat differs between men and women. Essential body fat is 3-5% in men, and about 12% in women.⁶⁾

Women require so muchmore essential fat than men largely because oftheir reproduction system needs. As you may have guessed, thisis related to why women have more fat in their breasts, hips and thighs.

Storage fat

Storage fat includes all other fat in the body. Here’s the breakdown of storage fat:

• Most of it subcutaneous fat, which accumulates under the skin and over the muscles.
• Some of itis intramuscular fat, which is within muscle like in marbled meat.
• And some more of it is [storage] visceral fat, which is located around the organs.(NOTE: some essential fat is also visceral fat. However, storage visceralfat refers to any amount of visceral fat in excess of the limited amount ofessential visceral fat).

Body Fat Distribution

Body fat distribution refers to where your body prioritizes fat storage.

Fat loss works on a first in, last out basis –That is, the first place you gain fat is the last place you lose it.This is whyyou’ll often hear people talking about their “stubborn”areas.

So, let’s say you’re a guy whose body prioritizes fat gain on lower abs. If you’re dieting down for a bodybuilding or physique competition,then the last little bit of fat you’ll losebefore you’re competition-ready will be from the lower abs region.

The biggest factors determining yourbody fat distribution pattern are your sex,ethnicity and age.

Male vs. Female Body Fat Distribution

Women store more of their fat in their hips, butt, thighs and breasts. This is referred to as a gynoid fat distribution pattern, which lends itself toa more pear-shapedbody.

Whereas, men tend to store fat more centrally on their body, specificallyin the abdominalregion. This is known as an android fat distribution pattern,which gives the body a more apple-shaped silhouette.

That said, body fat distribution can vary from person to person within each sex, at leasttoan extent.

For example, compared to the average male, some men might carry more fat in their lower bodyrelative to their gut.

This is why some guys can have a relatively high body fat percentage yet still have a faint six-pack. Whereas, guys with bodies that prioritize fat gain in the stomach region could look pretty ripped in a loose shirt, yet they’dbe sporting aslightbellyif they went shirtless.

Conversely, some women deviate from the average female fat distribution pattern. That is, theymayhave lessfat from the hips down, and more fat in the midsection.

Ethnic Differences in Body Fat Distribution

Research suggests that the following arebasic differences between ethnicities/races.

I found a great book that summarizes the very complicated subject of fat distribution differences between races/ethnicities (among other body fat related topics). The book isEncyclopedia of Obesityandwas edited by Kathleen Keller, PhD, an obesity researcher and professor.

In this section, I’ll try to give very brief summaries of the ethnic body fat differences, and include a screenshot of supplementaltext from the book to give additional information.

Hispanics

Compared to white women, Hispanic women tend to hold more fat in their trunk than peripherally⁷⁾ As indicated in the excerpts below, there is some evidence indicating thatHispanic men may also have a centralized fat distribution pattern, though the research is not conclusive:

African Americans

Compared to Caucasians, African Americans tend to carry more fat in the trunk and less in the arms and legs. See the excerpts below from the Encyclopedia of Obesity for more on African American body fat distribution.

Additionally, African Americanstend to carry more fat on the rear and side parts of their body.⁸⁾

Asians

Compared to other races, Asians tend to hold more fat centrally in their trunk region, with a relatively large portion of this being visceral fat.

NOTE: It’s important to notethat research also shows that body fat distribution is affected by environmental and behavioral factors such as stress, alcohol consumptionandsmoking. Specifically, these factors are associated with an android fat distribution as well as increased visceral fat, both of which likely play a role in many health problems.

Other Factors Affecting Body Fat Distribution Pattern

I’ve already discussed the two biggest factors determining body fatdistribution patterns: sex and ethnicity/race.

However, there areother notable factors that affect fat patterning. I’ll mention these, but I won’t go in-depth on them for this article:

• Age: As we get older, ourbodies tend to shift body fat storage toward the trunk and upper body, and away from the lower body.⁹⁾ This shift toward a more central body fat distribution islargely duean increasein visceral (i.e. intra-abdominal) fat accumulation.^1011)12) It is less clear whether there is also a disproportionately high increase in central subcutaneous fat accumulation.¹³⁾In women, there is a big jump in intra-abdominal fat during menopause.¹⁴⁾¹⁵⁾ In men, the age-relatedintra-abdominal fat increase is more gradual in its acceleration.¹⁶⁾
• Physical Activity: Evidence suggests that higherlevels of physical activity causes a greaterreduction in intra-abdominal fat, resulting in a less centralized body fat distribution.^17)18)19) In particular, high intensity physical activity has been shown reduce intra-abdominal fat/central adiposity significantly more than lower intensity activity.²⁰⁾²¹⁾

Same Body Fat Percentage Looks Different With Different Lean Body Mass

Hypothetically, let’s saythere’s a pair of identical twins who share allthe samecharacteristics(including but not limited to:sex, height, body fat percentage, body fat distribution), except one important difference – one of the twins has 40 lbs. more muscle than the other…

…Even though they have identical body fat percentages, the more muscular twinwould look leaner.

This is because the muscle “protrudes” somewhat through the layer of fat covering it. Thiscreatescontours and a more defined shapecompared to the body of the less muscular twin.

It’s important to bear this in mind if you’re ever trying to compare one person’s body fat percentage to your own body fat or to someone else’s.

If nothing else, the ability to minimize the negative visual aesthetics that come from gaining an extra bit of fat is just one more reason to embrace weight training tobuild muscle.

References