Farmer Dave

Hey guys I'm a 19 yr. old male and I'm 5'11 and weigh 120 lbs. In my health class in college we used an electric scale that measured all sorts of different things. However one number in particular concerned me, it read my body fat percentage as 4%. Should I be concerned about this? I eat decently well and eat a lot of food in my opinion. I also bike of course. Let me know what ya'll think.

jmX

I assume at 4% your arms and legs are veiny (vascular) and you've got the full 6 pack? If not, the scale was probably off a bit (for some people the numbers those machines give are practically useless).

From what I understand it seems 4% is probably the bottom of what is safe.

If you're really curious, I'd get a little $5 fat pinch tester off amazon and see if it matches up with the electronic tester.

Farmer Dave

Haha you would be correct. The health instructor said that once I get to about 3 percent that is when I should start looking at maybe getting checked out by a doctor. I lift weight as well (heavy weight low reps) but without the fat I don't really bulk up, just get super toned you know? Oh well somethings people just can't change, at least can climb hills like a mountain goat!

JMR

Those electronic scales are notoriously inaccurate, but 4% is very low and if it is correct may cause you some problems down the track.

I would see a dietician or sports nutritionist and get them to check your body fat %... they can also help you with your diet if you are too low.

JMR

Commodus

I recommend you solicit medical advice on an internet forum.

Oh...right. Carry on.

aztimm

Did the scale have an 'athlete' setting?

I have a similar scale, and it is pretty cool, sends the data through WiFi online where I can graph it, and even see it all on an iPhone app. While I certainly know it isn't 100% correct, I do look for trends...sudden jumps or drops in body fat. But I definitely take the actual reading with a grain of salt (if not the whole shaker).

caloso

I think you came on here just to make us feel fat.

blcknspo0ln

1. Yes, go to a medical professional.
2. You have classic "skinny man will never actually get big" syndrome. If putting on weight and bulking up is as easy as you bodybuilding Fred's think, everyone would have a 6 pack, have 6% body fat and weigh 200lbs at 5'11".

blcknspo0ln

No need for that. At 5'11" and 120lbs, he is well within the 4% BF range.

Dilberto

I'm at 10% body fat. The six pack is already outlined....but I want those deep cuts now. Intervals!

zazenzach

as someone who has many bodybuilder friends, i can tell you getting to 4% body fat is virtually impossible. not even anorexics and bulimics can get that low.

at 4% you're basically dead

the most elite bodybuilder drops down to 6% body fat at the absolute MAX for their competition weight. and even then, they only stay that low for a week or two. during training they hover around 9-10%

zazenzach

are you talking about the seratus or the v below your abdomen?

either way, those would be visible by 10%


Point is most people have no clue what their actual bf% is. all at home testing methods are going to be innaccurate

eugenek

This is all impressive but a little scary. As zazenzach says, it's usually considered quite hard to keep the bf% so low, your body is supposed to resist that.

What kind of weights are we talking about (say, bench press & squat 1RM)?

Bob Dopolina 

Lie down now and call an ambulance before your internal organs start moving around inside you body because your body seems to be eating your connective tissue!

Kurogashi

Don't worry about body fat percentage. If you've seen those SUPER ripped people on TV (you can see their obliques/their calves are 'divided' into two - it's actually meant to be that way, but most people have too much fat covering their calves), they have body fat percentages around 4-6%. I highly doubt you're super ripped. You have to adopt an extremely strict diet to get to that point. Simply not eating (assuming you do that), won't get you to that point because by then, your body sends a signal to retain all the leftover fat in the body. So to get 4-6% body fat, you need to do a few diet/supplement tricks.

If you have a 6 pack, you're probably around 10-13% because by 13% is when they appear. Those scales are hugely inaccurate. Don't pay too much attention to them. If you want to get your body fat measured correctly, go see a doctor for one of those special MRI machines (not MRI but it sort of does the same thing), where they can measure your body fat mass by an accuracy of like 2-3%.

Head over bodybuilding.com's forum if you are concerned about your diet/physique - or consult with a professional.

eugenek

This forum surprises and confuses me sometimes. I'm 5'6". At 180 lbs, I was visibly overweight. At 160 lbs, I don't see my 6-pack yet but I consider myself well proportioned (33" waist, 38" hips). But I don't even begin to comprehend what it could possibly mean to be 5'11" and 120 lbs.

DropDeadFred

#2 is not necessarily right. We all are succeptanle to the roadie gut
I used to be at 4% until I was about 24 then my beer drinking and fast food eating caught up to me

generalkdi

If you run out of fat, your buddy will start burning muscle during long rides!

rkwaki

Due you must have fat bodybuilder friends
When Coleman won his last Olympia I believe he came in at 2.3%. Cutler was in around 3.5 when he won his first and I don't believe that Phil was much over that last year. To have striated glutes you have to dip below 4% on comp day. That is at the most elite level.

I have been around it a long time and would agree that off season they are at 9-10% but can gaurantee you that at the elite level they are well, well below 6%.

VA_Esquire

You are still too fat for this sport. HTFU.

banerjek

Electronic scales are not very accurate. It probably wouldn't hurt to see a doc just to make sure something is not out of whack.

Your BF will be low because 120 lbs @ 5'11" is very thin. Too thin in fact. If they don't find anything wrong, they'll tell you to eat more. I'm shorter and fatter than you, and they suggest that I eat more. FWIW, The numbers I usually see on those type of scales is 7% and change (I have no idea what my actual BF% is as docs say I don't need to worry about it) so I'm not at all surprised that you're seeing something below 6%.

StanSeven

Your friends and you are just wrong.

Lots of elite athletes have below 4% at peak conditioning times. For example Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno is consistently tested at 2.6%

Bob Dopolina 

Incorrect.

Link.
Link.

You need about 4% as connective tissue alone so no-one is below 4%. Very, VERY lean is 6%~7%.

Boby builder phosphate load to get that sicky, uber valscular look during competition and can only maintain it for a few days (which is good because it is unhealthy).

Mos6502

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/sp...cs/14ohno.html
Ohno has come in below 3% regularly. In this article stated as 2.8% and at other times in his career as low as 2.5%

As for the original topic, I'd assume the scale was a percentage point or two optimistic. If you're not feeling sick you're probably not sick.

RT

This forum is waaaaay too concerned about fat, and knows far too much about the science behind it. You may be right, but in my every day cycling life, threads like this are white noise.

Just ride your bike, be 19, and eat more for God's sake. My son was like you because he lived on friggin' chicken tenders until he was 18 and had the metabolism of a hockey player. He is 23 now and is in great fighting shape mainly because his diet changed (this from his doc).