20-25% body fat: Normal/healthy level within the average. Slight muscle definition (shoulders and upper arms) is visible. The abdominals are not yet clearly visible. 17-19% body fat: Fit.
20% body fat: Muscle definition is not as present and noticeable especially in the abdomen. A man with this level of body fat typically has the “soft” look and has a pouch on his abdomen. 25% body fat: There is almost no separation of muscles, no noticeable veins and no muscle striations.
The recommended ranges for healthy men are between 10-20% body fat, and for women, the ranges are 18-28%. If your body fat exceeds these ranges, but you have a normal weight when you stand on the scale, you may be skinny fat.
For people aged 20 to 39, women should aim for 21% to 32% of body fat. Men should have 8% to 19%. For people 40 to 59, women should fall between 23% to 33% and men should fall around 11% to 21%. If you're aged 60 to 79, women should have 24% to 35% body fat and men should have 13% to 24%.
But there's more to life than a six-pack, and a body fat percentage of up to 20 per cent is considered healthy and will help stave off diseases that are associated with higher levels of body fat.
And you can't just focus on losing belly fat alone; getting shredded requires losing total body fat - to see more abdominal definition usually requires a lower body fat percentage - around 15% or less for men and 20% or less for women.
For a visible jawline to humans, 12 to 14% of body fat is required. If you're determined to improve your jawline, you'll need to reduce your body fat.
According to the American Council on Exercise, the average for a guy is 18% to 24% body fat; 15% to 17% body fat puts you in the fitness category, while 6% to 13% body fat is athlete status. But what's the real difference among the numbers? Guys below 20% body fat typically have muscle definition of some sort.
For men, your abs will typically start to become visible at around 15%. But at 12% is when you start to really see some good definition with your six-pack. And at 10%, your six-pack is clearly visible and well defined. For women, I wouldn't recommend a “clearly visible six-pack” as being the goal.
Example: a 100kg male with 20kg of body fat mass has a 20% body fat. Body fat percentage is useful for assessing body composition and covers some of the limitations of Body Mass Index (BMI).
You definitely want to bulk if you are skinny fat. This is for a few reasons: It's much easier to build and preserve muscle in a caloric surplus. If there are any hormonal issues (i.e. high cortisol from stress), cutting would only worsen them.
Your body, especially the upper back area, arms, tend to hold on to fat and if there is no exercise, with weight loss, they would become flabby and that's one of the most common reasons why women tend to look obese even after weight loss.
The normal amount of body fat is between 25 and 30 percent in women and 18 and 23 percent in men. Women with more than 30 percent body fat and men with more than 25 percent body fat are considered obese.
The study found that 12% was the most attractive body fat percentage. Attractiveness by body fat followed a bell-shaped curve: 12% body fat is optimum. If you exceed this value, you become less attractive as your body fat percentage increases. Less body fat than 12%, however, also reduces attractiveness.
Men's Physique
Depth and density are required to both the chest and back muscles. In terms of conditioning, the typical body fat percentage of a men's physique competitor sits at around 8 to 10%.
People with high body fat percentages or anyone who's been bulking for 12-16 weeks should focus on losing fat before building muscle. People who are skinny fat, new to strength training, or those who want to prioritize their performance in the gym over their appearance should consider bulking before losing weight.
Cardio is an excellent way to burn fat and lose weight. The CDC state that the right amount of cardio for losing weight will vary from person to person.
This is why we have to get pretty lean before we see noticeable changes in our facial appearance. Specifically, most men need to get to the 10% body fat range before they see a noticeable shift from facial roundness to angularity, and most women need to get to around 20% body fat.
Changes in the chin and jawline are some of the first signs of aging that start to get noticed in our 40's. Not everyone is structurally blessed with a strong chin and jawline, and if the bony structure is not naturally strong, then this area will start to look saggy even before your 40's in some cases.
The facial features continue to change and mature until about age 22. Most people reach their “peak” at age 22 to 24.
If you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible and you're at or below 10% (men) or 20% (women) body fat, then you should bulk. And if you want to lose fat as quickly as possible and you're at or above 15% (men) or 25% (women) body fat, then you should cut.
The cut off should be around 15-20% body fat for men and around 25-30% for females, wherein anyone who is above these body fat percentages should most likely start with a cut.
Body Fat Percentages – What you need to know…
If you're 20% body fat or less, you can definitely achieve shredded abs in 8 weeks. But if you're above 20% body fat, it's probably going to take you longer than eight weeks to get shredded abs. The more body fat you have to begin with, the longer it's going to take.