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It’s surprisingly tricky to measure how much body fat you have yourself – but more on that later. There is also no universal percentage to aim for. Individual needs vary.
Nevertheless, as a broad guide, healthy adult men tend to have around 10–20% body fat. Healthy adult women tend to have around 20–29%. Those living with obesity tend to have body fat above 30%.
In terms of how much is optimal, "it's very difficult to say exactly a range," says Ryden. "This might differ between people, sex and ethnicities."
Among athletes the typical amount of body fat tends to be lower.
In her research, Tamara Hew-Butler, a sports performance researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues scanned over 700 athletes using a Dexa scanner. This measures the body's composition including internal fat. "The lowest body fat that we ever found in an athlete was 10% for [a] male and 16% for [a] female." Some of the participants were surprised at this result, she says, as the athletes in the study trained regularly. They believed their body fat was as low as 1-2%.
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