I rated a 4% body fat. Im happy, but is it correct?

[wise_mage]

I went to this free test with a machine at walmart.
they asked my height (5`7 / 167cm) , my weight (140 pounds / 63.5 kg), my age (19) then they made me grab this little machine with both of my hands and the machine said I had 4 % body fat.
only 2.5 kgs of fat in my body.
I am happy cause it told me going to the gym everyday is reaping rewards, but is it correct? because I dont look like brad pitt in fight club yet and do like 300 ab cruches a day. my upper abs show a bit but thats it. then brad pitt must have around .5 % body fat and very developed ab muscles right?

by the wayI have been dropping 5 pounds per month during the last four months. is that ok or is it too slow? are 5 pounds per month a good quantity o a small one? Im looking forward to dropping 10 more pounds.
I need more definition in mu musckles as well. so that the lines on my arms and chest show in any kins of light.like if I have my arm muscles relaxed they dont look defined, but if I put tension they do. I want them to look defined even without tension.

 

[MetalFortress]

You think ab crunches are gonna develop your ab muscles... hahaha that's a good one...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Barbell+Ab+Rollout+-+On+Knees

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Ab+Roller

These are going to work way better than crunches ever will...

 

[Cheiradawg]

hum... 300 crunches a day, wtf is that? That is girl stuff. If you wish to con't looking like a girl with your scrawney muscles then do so, however if you want to look like a man do this:

work abs twice a week
3 exercises
3 sets per exercise
6-10 reps per set

 

[Templeton]

Afraid to say the machine is probably giving you an inaccurate reading. Four percent is unrealistic. At the very least get a skinfold reading done with calipers - good quality ones at that not some cheap plastic affair. Oh and 300 crunches per day? Come on! You control BF levels with diet and cardio, not to mention your metabolism, rather than endless sets of ab movements. From what I can remember of Fight Club I imagine Pitt had BF of about 6-8%. I think he would be dead with 0.5% LOL!

 

[Drug_L0rd]

that's VERY inacurate.

body builders are at 4% body fat, and you know how hard they work to get there, with the diet and sh!t (wat a waste of time).

lol, 0.5% body fat. you'd die, the lowest anyone's ever been was barely 2%.

 

[DIESEL]

trust me wise.. if you were at 4 percent, you'd KNOW YOU WERE RIPPED!!

 

[Ledoyen]

i don't get it! it doesn't matter if you have 10% or 4% body fat! that's just numbers. If you look fat you are fat, if you look well trained you are well trained. It's as simple as that!

 

[Templeton]

Originally posted by Ledoyen
i don't get it! it doesn't matter if you have 10% or 4% body fat! that's just numbers. If you look fat you are fat, if you look well trained you are well trained. It's as simple as that!

Good point.

 

[Smooth as Anything]

Originally posted by Ledoyen
i don't get it! it doesn't matter if you have 10% or 4% body fat! that's just numbers. If you look fat you are fat, if you look well trained you are well trained. It's as simple as that!

Not true, to someone cutting, reading their BF% instead of weight will more accurately display the amount of fat lost.

 

[tx_xp]

wise_mage you should invest in a body fat scale or have a gym test it for you. I would be very interested to hear a different test result of your body fat as I am cutting also and would like to know if you can get to 4% without having defined abs.

 

[chim_chim]

you could try this site
http://www.mybodycomp.com/

 

[Templeton]

Originally posted by Smooth as Anything
Not true, to someone cutting, reading their BF% instead of weight will more accurately display the amount of fat lost.

What he is saying (well I am anyway) is that it is still just numbers and when someone "cuts" they are usually doing so for the cosmetic effect rather than anything else. Thus, how you look is the benchmark in such a situation. It certainly is for me anyway - I have thought I was looking pretty ripped with a bf level of 8% compared with someone else and yet that other person's bf reading was around 6%. But yes, it can be a good indicator of when someone is indeed losing subcutaneuous bf.

 

[DrunkMick]

First of all, being at 4% body fat isn't even healthy. Most professional athletes sit in the 8-10% range, and bodybuilders get to maybe 5 or 6%. Anything below 5 or 6% is getting to dangerously low levels, and I'm dead serious about that. The reason you probably don't look like Brad Pitt is this:

1) That body fat scale was probably off, although if it says you're 4% body fat, I'm guessing it's pretty low no matter what, so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

2) Other factors... height, weight. Someone who's 6', 200 (BTW, I'm guessing about Brad's weight... I'm not exactly a ****ing Brad Pitt expert, lol) and shredded looks very different from someone who's 5'7, 140 and shredded. Theoretically, if you wanted your body to look the most like his, you'd concentrate on getting your body fat percentage equal to his and your body mass index equal to his. Of course, most people don't think about that. Oh, and you'd probably have to have plastic surgery and use a lot of fake bake.

3) Coming off 2... when I talk about body mass index, I'm talking about height/weight. On a BMI scale, someone who's 6' and 200 lbs. is about a 27. You're sitting at about a 22. All this really means is that someone like Brad Pitt or myself (6'1, 205) is going to be wider than you, proportionally speaking.

Your dropping 5 lbs. a month is going to do nothing but make this descrepancy bigger.

4) Doing 300 crunches a day is for ****ing girls. Significant muscle growth is caused by taking on heavy loads. Your chest will get much bigger if you do 4 sets of 6 with a heavy bench press than it will if you do 500 pushups. MUCH bigger. Your abs, which are also muscles, by the way, are no different. The only way you're going to see significant growth in your midsection is if you do some form of weighted movement. Period. Try some weighted situps or something.

5) Muscle definition. Hey, the only thing that makes your muscles look defined is lowering your body fat %. Period. Whether you do this by losing fat or by gaining muscle is up to you. Either is plausible. Doing 202340234023 curls does not make your bis significantly bigger, it does not "spot reduce" fat there (spot reduction doesn't exist, btw), and it certainly does not make the muscles themselves any more shredded (muscle fibers, anatomically speaking, look more or less the same no matter what you do... the only thing you can change is their size).

I guess that's about it for cutting through the bull****.

Dude, if you want a suggestion from me, the best way for you to look more like Brad Pitt isn't cutting weight, it's intelligently bulking up. If you can watch your diet and lift like a man (not like a girl with the ****ing crunches) consistently, you could add a ton of muscle without having your body fat change noticably at all.

Someone who's 5'7 and 165 or 170 with about 12% body fat is going to look a whole lot more like Brad Pitt than someone who's 5'7, 130, and 9% body fat.

End of story.

 

[DJintheworks]

you are not 4% body fat.
your abs would be clearly visible for a mile
My college health class teacher when I was a freshman took everyones bf%. I weighed 130 at the time and I don't remember what the exact % was but it was probably between 7-9. Anyway I weigh about 170-175 now and I have no idea what my bf% is (im sure over 10) but my abs still show easily and I do around 25 half-@ss crunches every two weeks.

 

[Kendrick]

You must control your fat because 4% fat is too high....
It must be be 2.5% round about...

 

[PDubb75]

You must control your fat because 4% fat is too high....
It must be be 2.5% round about...

Please don't listen to this.

I know a guy who is 4% BF and he looks anorexic. He eats like crazy, he just cannot gain weight.

I agree that if you were 4% BF, you would look extremely ripped. So, the fact you are questioning it makes me doubt that you are. I know exactly what BF reader you are talking about (at least based on the description) and that is what they have at my gym. According to some of the workers, that is actually a more reliable test than calipers. However, I have noticed that the number can shift a lot based on certain factors (ex. i get different numbers before and after a workout, different numbers on days i drink more water, etc). I would test it with the machine a couple different times and see if you get different results.

If you have been dropping 5 lbs a month, and still looking to drop 10lbs, there is no way you are at 4% BF. And if you can do 300 crunches, it's way beyond the time to step it up to much better exercises. Crunches don't do anything.

 

[NorwegianDJ]

This is a 7 year old thread.

Anything below 5% is considered highly dangerous. And he got incorrect information.

 

[Irvin]

What do you want to say that having low percentage of fats than five is dangerous for health...?
Did you really mean this...?

personal trainers orange county

 

[Duracell_Bunny]

then they made me grab this little machine with both of my hands and the machine said I had 4 % body fat.

Answer to your question. No, a very big NO.

That would be BIA analysis (sends a small electrical current thourgh your body to estimate muscle and fat), and just holding the thing with your hand will product even more inaccurate results.

I have a BIA device that also sends the curent through the feet as well, its way off. I've been cutting for three weeks, according to these scales in the three weeks I gained 4% body fat and lost 10 pounds of muscle even though my waist size has gone down a tiny amount.

While the calliper (11 or 12 point test, can't remember how many sites) from my trainer showed I'd lost 3% body fat and lean mass has stayed roughly the same.

 

[garruk]

if you are 4%. you will be SHREDDDED.

at 15% you are have defined abs. the guys you see in the movies are around 10%.

fact!