A fit body fat range is about 14 to 17 percent for men and 21 to 24 percent for women; average is 18 to 24 and 25 to 31. You can measure it at home with a tape and the US Navy method, using your height, neck and waist (and hips for women).
Two people can weigh exactly the same and look completely different. The difference is what the weight is made of. Body fat percentage is the share of your weight that is fat. The rest, your lean mass, is muscle, bone, organs and water.
Typical ranges
These are common reference ranges for adults. They are guides, not grades.
Men
- 2 to 5%: essential fat, the minimum the body needs
- 6 to 13%: athletic
- 14 to 17%: fit
- 18 to 24%: average
- 25% and over: high
Women
- 10 to 13%: essential fat
- 14 to 20%: athletic
- 21 to 24%: fit
- 25 to 31%: average
- 32% and over: high
Women naturally carry more fat than men. It is needed for hormones and health, so the ranges are higher.
Visible abs for most men start around 10 to 12 percent. That is a look, not a health target.
How to measure it at home
The tape method (US Navy). It uses your height and your neck and waist measurements, plus your hips for women. Done carefully, it is one of the most accurate methods you can do without equipment. Our body fat calculator uses it.
How to measure well:
- Use a soft tape, snug against the skin but not squeezing.
- Waist: for men, measure around the belly at the level of the belly button. For women, measure at the narrowest point.
- Neck: just below the Adam's apple, with the tape sloping slightly down to the front.
- Hips (women): around the widest part of the buttocks.
- Stand relaxed, breathe out normally, and do not suck in.
- Measure at the same time of day, ideally in the morning, every one or two weeks.
Smart scales send a tiny current through your body. They are handy, but readings swing with water, food and time of day. Use the trend, not a single reading.
DEXA scans at a clinic are the most accurate common option, but they cost money and you do not need them to make progress.
How to bring it down
Body fat comes down with the same tools as weight loss, with one difference: you want to keep your muscle while the fat goes.
- Eat in a small calorie deficit of 300 to 500 calories a day.
- Eat plenty of protein, around 1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram of bodyweight.
- Lift weights two to four times a week.
- Walk more every day.
- Sleep seven hours or more. Short sleep makes you hungrier and makes it harder to keep muscle.
Why track it
Watching only the scale can be misleading. When you start training, you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, and the scale barely moves. Your waist and your body fat estimate will still go down. That is real progress, and it is the kind that lasts.
Re-check your body fat with the calculator on this page every couple of weeks, and log your weight in the Shulah app to watch the trend.
Sources
- The US Navy tape-measure method for body fat: Hodgdon and Beckett, 1984
- How smart scales (bioelectrical impedance) work, and their limits: Kyle et al., 2004