Here’s body fat percentage results for someone who has never worked out

[yourservant]

Hello everyone! F/24/5’8”/135lbs here.

I’ve been interested in building muscle and wanted to find my BF% for a good starting ground. I found this place for pretty cheap and ran a whole analysis. Figured I’d post if it were interesting or if anyone wanted to provide analysis. I don’t eat ridiculously but not as good as I should. I don’t workout beyond walking.

Link to full results here but I will write an abridged version below.

Despite my mom saying I’m too thin, turns out I’m in the overweight category as far as body fat percentage goes: 33.4%, yikes.

Here is the breakdown by region:

Arms: 38.5%
Legs: 39.1%
Trunk: 29.0%
Android: 29.0%
Gynoid: 38.8%
Total: 33.4%

A/G ratio: .75

So yeah, turns out I have a fat ass and no muscle. Not surprising really. I would appreciate any comments or analysis, because I don’t really know how to interpret this other than my overall percentage is higher than it should be. Oh yeah, and my bone density seems to be OK. Excited to see if these results change when I start trying to build muscle.

 

[chelle]

@yourservant I thought it was really interesting to see everyone sharing so I just thought I’d put mine in too.
F/24/135 24% body fat.

I have worked out on and off before. I’ve started Strong Curves at least 3 times but I always fall off the wagon when life gets in the way. I’m back in the gym now and enjoying it more than ever so hopefully I can complete the program this time the last time I went to the gym consistently was 2 years ago, but actually starting back up again I’m finding I didn’t lose that much strength and I’m already quite close to the numbers I was using then.

I’m looking forward to putting on some pounds and hopefully building some muscles! Rn I’m just eating what I like but making sure I hit my protein goals and not worrying about much else since I have the wiggle room.

 

[colamex]

@yourservant We are about the same weight but I'm 5 inches shorter than you lol. Did my recent scan with BodySpec as well xD with your height and weight, I would've guessed you would be underweight with lower body fat if I hadn't seen the scan results! Just to show it's so hard to guess the correct body fat percentage with just weight or pics alone !!

 

[hbksfilms]

@yourservant Are you comfortable posting a photo of yourself? It's always interesting to see how the BF% matches up to a real life visual.

 

[echoub]

@yourservant Hey! I got a DEXA scan last week, and I'm in a similar position. I'm F/27/5'6"/130lbs. I found out my bodyfat % is 34.6%. My bone density isn't great, but it's fine. I talked to an RD about my results and because I have a high amount of Visceral Fat, I'm mostly likely going to need to run a calorie deficit in the future to try to bring that down, which is frustrating because I'm already thin.

I'm happy to see someone else feels excited by results like these! I feel discouraged, mostly because I don't know where to start. I do Barre every morning already, but had only been doing it for 2 weeks before the scan.

 

[darcie]

@yourservant I am clueless. What kind of a scan is this and where do you get it? It is fascinating. Thank you for posting!

 

[yourservant]

@darcie No problem! This is called a DEXA scan, which measures what percent of your body is fat compared to muscle. It also shows where my fat is deposited and my bone density.

I got it through bodyspec.com and paid around $50, well worth it in my opinion if you’re interested! If they don’t have a location in your area, just Google DEXA scan.

 

[darcie]

@yourservant Thanks! I’ve had a DEXA scan for bone density. Did not realize all the other information I was missing out on!

 

[twinklesamir]

@yourservant I remember mine, it was shocking! I was 108lbs with 33% body fat. Kinda scared to do it again because I've tried to work out a bit and it would be invalidating if it wasn't changed.

 

[peterh99]

@yourservant Are most of us just in the 30-35% BF range? I'm 5'9 180lbs and I'm also right around 33% BF and working out 5-6 days per week (with strength training). I was concerned that this percentage was quite high, but maybe this is closer to the "average" than we think?

 

[tommy114]

@peterh99 5'6 168lbs here and around 33% BF. I also workout running and weight training 5 to 6 days a week. Albeit, I took a long break and have only really been consistent again this last year. I'm focusing on protein intake with a slight deficient to get down into a healthy BMI range and drop that BF % down. I wish I knew what it was back when I was 135 lbs.

 

[darcylbridge]

@peterh99 I think 30-35% is normal for women. But DEXA tends to be higher and people think of calipers ranges with body fat. Based on what I’ve read over 35% is where you’d see an increase in health issues due to body fat.

https://dqydj.com/body-fat-percentage-comparison-calculator-by-age/

At this link you can see ~40% is average for US women and we have a high prevalence of health issues.

 

[streetlight]

@darcylbridge Sometimes it seems so hard to figure out what is actually the normal/healthy range for this kind of thing because so often "normal" is conflated with "average" when the average is so unhealthy.

 

[peterh99]

@streetlight I was actually hesitant to use either "normal" or "average" in my original comment as I'm not sure either one is really accurate language. I'm not sure what word I would use - healthy?

 

[dishfarmer]

@darcylbridge Agree, got mine tested early June and was at 30%. Anecdotally, the employee said that women are typically healthy between 25%-35%, and I was fine being right in the middle. I still would like to be closer to 25%, though, so now I'm attempting a recomp.

 

[darcylbridge]

@yourservant For analyzing my DEXA reports I like to use FMI(fat mass index) and FFMI(fat free mass index). Most women are 5-9 FMI and ~16 is average for FFMI. 4-5 FMI is a mild fat deficit and 35% is analogous to overweight.

I’m 5’4’’ and have a bit more lean tissue than you now but when I started off I was pretty skinny. I went from 17.6 BMI to 20 BMI after a couple years lifting and 21.4% to 22.7%. So FMI 3.8 to 4.5 and FFMI 13.8 to 15.5.

 

[markotwain]

@yourservant I’m really curious what mine would be. I’m super underweight (5’7” and 114lbs) from some health problems but also am a pretty active person. It’d be interesting to see if I’ve been able to retain ANY muscle when I lost a bunch of weight when I was sick

 

[tniles408]

@yourservant I’ve been Dexa scanned a bit. I don’t know if it’s as reliable as we’d hope. Like hydration levels can skew results day to day.

 

[kalistos]

@yourservant We are the same height and weight and our measurements aren’t that different but I was at 22.9% at my DEXA in March!

 

[yourservant]

@kalistos Lol that’s so interesting!! I’m guessing your body is a hell of a lot tighter than mine is