Body Fat
 

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

BMI isn't really a valid indicator of condition for athletes due to increased muscle mass. Are you confusing visible fat with loose skin due to reduced elasticity? Some fat is ok. You are certainly in the healthy weight range so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

When I want to lose the stubborn pounds, I reduce my daily caloric intake to what I burn on the bike. I let the metabolic calorie burn take care of the weight loss.

I have to question that BMI. When I weighed 160 and I am 5-11 barely I had a BMI of 5 or 6. Unless you have a very thin frame there is hardly any way you could be 5-11 and have a BMI of 22, does not make sense. Right now mine is at 18 and I am 170 pounds.

loose chain, I am using the on-line BMI calculators. They all say at 5'11" and 160, bmi = 22.3 http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
gkk2001

I've only not had love handles once in my life and I -never- want to be that thin again. 6'1 150. If you want to spot fat reduce get some lipo otherwise stay fit and be happy. Not all of us can be blessed with a beach bod.

Quote from my crazy athletic female body builder with two kids masseur: "You a very rare build and store fat in an odd distribution for a guy."

Yeah, It's hard to fight Genetics.

BMI is mass (kilograms) divided by height in metres squared. i.e. 160~=73 kg. 5.11 ~=1.79m. So your BMI would have been ~23. (73/(1.79 x 1.79) )

I think you are getting confused with percentage body fat.

Some of us are endomorphs - no matter what we do, we will always be an endomorph.
You should stay fit, but you can't fight genetics, you won't win.

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/...1515628666.jpg

I'm pretty skinny and I'm 55. BMI is 20, body fat about 9%. For a lot of men, in terms of losing weight, fat around the waist is the last to go.

BMI is a function of weight and height, so musculature will affect it as muscle weighs more than adipose tissue. For that reason, I don't think anyone can tell you what BMI will correspond to fat loss.

If you want to lose weight, increase exercise intensity and eat reasonably.

Take the BMI with some caution. It is a guideline only. For me to get to what the tables consider normal weight I would have to weigh 30 pounds less than I did when I was in the light infantry running 3-6 miles every day.

BMI is the LEAST important number in your "health screening"; resting pulse, BP, cholesterol numbers, etc., are far more telling about your health. And appearance is nothing but vanity.

I'm 'a bit chunky' -- by BMI standards, about 30 pounds overweight -- but my health numbers are good, I'm strong, I have better endurance than half the 20-somethings out there -- and I couldn't really care any less about how I "look" to other people, or even the mirror.

As far as the genetics, go, it's simple -- genetics know better than you do how you're supposed to be. Health issues creep in with the lifestyle -- predisposed to hypertension? Eat low-salt. History of diabetes? Stay conservative with sugars. And EVERYONE -- exercise, exercise, exercise! It's not a magic bullet -- nothing is -- but it will help, and the earlier you start, the better. (My daughter got 'scared straight' about excessive sugar consumption by her mother, who related the family history of diabetes, and she's 12)

All of this business about BMI's, diets, and all that is as much targeted to the "Hollywood ideal" as it is overall health. We as a society are so programmed to think the 'beautiful people' in films and TV are the standard, that voices like mine get routinely drowned out by the chants involved in hero worship. Screw that -- when a movie star is paying my mortgage, then they will matter.

Yes, sorry, I had a "moment" there, yes, body fat percentage was what was on my brain cells. Sorry.

40 years ago when I was boxing- I was 5'6" and weighed in at 126lbs- well 128 just before the events but lost the two lbs by sweating it out and starving. As soon as I stopped boxing I went to133lbs. One thing was common there though. In training I had a 6 pack and it was solid. At 133lbs that 6 pack had turned to flab and fat and I have never lost it since.

Gradually my weight has gone up and there is no way that I can be called large or fat. But I now weigh 150lbs and still have the extra 7lbs round the waist. There is no way I am going to lose it- I remember how hard I had to train and how carefull I had to be with my diet to keep excess weight off and I am not going through that again.

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.

This is probably one of, if not the best forum around. A great group of people responding in earnest with several excellent comments. It really helped me put things into perspective.

Thanks very much.

Greg

Body fat does not have anything much to do with height or weight. Body builders have really high BMIs and they have very low percent body fat. Fashion models have really low BMIs and usually a surprisingly high percent body fat.

Percent body fat is weight of fat/total body weight. People with low body fat usually have a reasonably high muscle mass.

Also your level of diet and exercise is pretty important here. If you exercise a bunch but eat to much, you can be kind of plump - fit as all get out but plump. I have seen many very strong cyclists who were pretty pudgy. Or you can be light and have very little muscle so a surprisingly high amount of your total weight is fat - I guess all fat and bones. It is pretty tricky to get really lean and have muscle mass at the same time. I have known competitive body builders and they tell me that getting into top form (around 4% to 5% body fat) is very difficult. It is so hard that most only "peak" for competitions.

A number of really well informed and well intended views here.

My experience isn't typical, and is in no way advice... just me

I was always skinny, but a bit athletic. As a teenager, I was a bike racer and cross country runner to national finalist standards. Also was a rowing (crew) participant, and certainly used to pull my weight,

Which was 125 pounds to 6 ft 1 inch. I thought I was just great for my sports just then.

I was skinny because I was proto-diabetic. Wasn't diagnosed till I was about 20. By then, I'd stopped being athletic, maybe because I weighed 84 pounds by then

Now, 40 years on, I'm still a bit on the skinny side. Was about 140 lbs, through about 20 marathons and a lot of cycling. Currently 150, as I had a lay off of exercise following an accident, but now I'm back on the bike a bit more I'm progressing towards a happy zone of 145 or so

Yeah, BMI is not the most accurate. It's hard to lose the fat around the waist, try a change in diet. Lower your carb intake (I cut out the obvious carbs, bread, pasta) and vary your workout (bike, elliptical, running, weights, yoga) in both light and high intensity/ cardio and wt train. Basically you want to shock your muscles so they don't get used to one particular task. It also makes exercise more interesting for you too.

The belly fat and love handles are the last the go. It's about the only extra I currently carry but it just never seems to go away. I'm about as fit as you can get and would love for that stuff to disappear but it just loves hanging around.

Hey! I resemble this remark!

What the...HEY! I resemble this remark! :D

When I was in my late 30's I was lifting weights, doing aerobics and on a strict diet - I lost a lot of weight, I was down below 150 (I'm about 5'10").
I still had what look like a little belly pounch and some love handles - but I was thin (too thin) and very fit. I was still an endomorph. I figured the only way I was getting 6 pack abs and a different look was with plastic surgery - and I wasn't going there.