Originally Posted by
gkk2001
Is it possible to be really lean (I mean no excess visible fat) and over 50?
I reduced my weight to 160 (5' 11") with a BMI now of just slightly more than 22 and still have belly fat and some thigh fat. I would have thought all body fat would have been gone but no.
I don't see me going so light that my face cheeks draw in and everyone starts to say I look sick. (even thou I would probably feel great).
For those that have been cycling a while and are fit and trim and really lean, will the belly fat ever go away and what BMI might that be if relavant?
Greg
It is possible, whether it's healthy or not, that is really what is up for debate. You need some fat in order to be healthy, 3-5% body fat for men, 8-12% for women as an essential minimum, but that isn't the whole story.
During the first 5,700 years of human history, life was actually a cycle, the feast/famine cycle, some years the crops were good, and even the most lowly peasant ate well, and people could gain some weight, other years the crops were bad, and people would lose weight, because they still had the same hard labour to do as the good years. That 40lbs you put on during the good year, that comes off and maybe some extra during the bad. We developed the ability in the 20th century to ship food from place to place before it could spoil, and that meant if a people were rich enough, they could feast whether the local crops were good or not. The last famine cycle in North America was in the 1930's. This means any person in North America, less then 75 years old has never seen a famine cycle. Machines now do most of the heavy labour, so you have a people able to constantly feast, doing less physical labour, and surprise they turn into a nation of 10 ton Tony's.
The only way to break this artificial condition is to impose an artificial famine cycle, while artificially imposing more physical labour. As we age, however, we tend to reduce activity and therefore require less energy, we also tend to get ill more often, so having a little extra energy isn't always a bad thing. As far as BMI is concerned you right about the middle of the Normal range. A couple of things to remember about BMI though, when he was winning Mr. Universe competitions, Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been classed as obese, so it's not perfect. If your health numbers are good, BP, blood sugar, cholesterol, and your not having any weight related health issues, you shouldn't worry about a little visible fat.
Whether fat is visible or not, is partly genetic, some people will distribute their fat evenly up to a fairly large amount, other people (like me) if they gain a milligram of fat, it will show up as belly fat.