What % body fat can be maintained without drugs?

[BroDeal]

I found this thread at VS interesting. 9% seems high.

http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f45/getting-too-damned-skinny-28359.html

 

[alitogata]

Percentage of fat is not something standart for everyone. It depents on your gender, high, body type, ( ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph ), race and other factors.

9% t is not high at all. And if you are a woman it is low. The percentage of fat that you get with medical tests is the fat that exists inside your body between your organs too, not only this that you can easily see in the shape of your body. So if you want to know what is the % of body fat that is better for you, you have to do some tests to a doctor and not making coclusions from other people's cases.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

 

[alitogata]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

Yes .. but these are your personal results and do not apply to anybody else than you and doesn't answer what BroDeal asked, not because what you do is wrong but because there is no right or general answer in such a question. And I think it will not be good to try to give an answer here, because this may give wrong impression to some people and make them alter their diet or training with dangerous results for them.

The % of fat that can be maintained is the % of body fat that is better for each infividual's body type. There is no general rule and not all % of body fat is good or safe for all.

 

[the sceptic]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

sounds like marginal pains

 

[Galic Ho]

I found this thread at VS interesting. 9% seems high.

http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f45/getting-too-damned-skinny-28359.html

With the correct diet, one can get to a very low body fat %. Of course the type of exercise helps. To do it well, don't eat what cyclists eat, don't exercise like they do and actually lift weights for the whole body.

Does this mean one cannot keep a low body fat % whilst being a cyclists? Of course not, but they have little real muscle mass. It's not a surprise they break bones easily given how skinny they are. So what do people want to do? Drop excess body fat and useless muscle for cycling? Or focus on total body conditioning with long lean muscle groups so they can show their abs? Abs come out when body fat % is low. For men, that is generally 12% or less. More likely 10%. With women it's higher. They come out at 18% and under...but again 15% is a better rule for women. A woman gets down to 8% body fat, she is borderline on uber big health problems. The bikini fitness models don't go under 10% for the most part. With men they go to about 6%. They also have lots of muscle mass, with the women they're not she-hulk types. Men are, women no. The body building females however generally are. They go too far.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Yes .. but these are your personal results and do not apply to anybody else than you and doesn't answer what BroDeal asked, not because what you do is wrong but because there is no right or general answer in such a question. And I think it will not be good to try to give an answer here, because this may give wrong impression to some people and make them alter their diet or training with dangerous results for them.

The % of fat that can be maintained is the % of body fat that is better for each infividual's body type. There is no general rule and not all % of body fat is good or safe for all.

Huh?

Here's the question: What % body fat can be maintained without drugs?

It doesn't ask, what's the minimum, or what's the maximum, just what %.

So yes, it does answer what Brodeal asked.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

With the correct diet, one can get to a very low body fat %. Of course the type of exercise helps. To do it well, don't eat what cyclists eat, don't exercise like they do and actually lift weights for the whole body.

Completely and utterly disagree.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

sounds like marginal pains

Only when I am going uphill! Flatlander for now...

 

[D-Queued]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

Damn. I've been training, and I am way higher than that.

The minimum percent body fat considered safe and acceptable for good health is 5% for males and 12% for females. However, the average adult body fat is closer to 15%-18% for men and 22%-25% for women

Dave.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Damn. I've been training, and I am way higher than that.

The minimum percent body fat considered safe and acceptable for good health is 5% for males and 12% for females. However, the average adult body fat is closer to 15%-18% for men and 22%-25% for women

Dave.

Pretty sure I was maintaining 10% on cycling training and eating right back when I was fit.

 

[alitogata]

Huh?

Here's the question: What % body fat can be maintained without drugs?

It doesn't ask, what's the minimum, or what's the maximum, just what %.

So yes, it does answer what Brodeal asked.

For who????

 

[BroDeal]

The follow-up question is how suspicious are riders with a super low BF % in the early season? It is one thing to time everything to achieve race weight for a big season goal but why compromise the body's immune system and thus risk loss of training months before?

I will also clarify that with "9% seems high to me" I meant that I expected a lower number, but I don't train at the workloads that pros do so my experience may not mean much.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

For who????

Irrelevant. Read the thread title - that's what I am responding to.

 

[mastersracer]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

next time ask them to continue the dxa scan above the neck - my guess is your percentage will skyrocket....

 

[alitogata]

The follow-up question is how suspicious are riders with a super low BF % in the early season? It is one thing to time everything to achieve race weight for a big season goal but why compromise the body's immune system and thus risk loss of training months before?

I will also clarify that with "9% seems high to me" I meant that I expected a lower number, but I don't train at the workloads that pros do so my experience may not mean much.

To your follow up question: Very suspicious but you give the reasons to your signature.

You can't expect lower than 9% unless you are talking for (almost) dead people.. Less than 9% of BF means malnutrition.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

The follow-up question is how suspicious are riders with a super low BF % in the early season? It is one thing to time everything to achieve race weight for a big season goal but why compromise the body's immune system and thus risk loss of training months before?

I will also clarify that with "9% seems high to me" I meant that I expected a lower number, but I don't train at the workloads that pros do so my experience may not mean much.

There's fat you can see and then there's fat you can't too. It's the loss of muscle whilst maintaining world-beating performances that WTF's me out as much as or no actually more than the low fat.

 

[slowspoke]

When I was properly training, I was tested/measured by some scientists researching elite athletes. I had 8% body fat and consumed 6500 calories a day. On no drugs

 

[alitogata]

Irrelevant. Read the thread title - that's what I am responding to.

I read the title and the title asks something that there is no general rule to give as an answer. The body fat that can be maintained is not the same for you and me. What you can maintain perhaps is too much or too low for me, or is not possible to me to maintain at all without drugs due to my body type, genre, race etc. I answered with details in my first post in this thread.

So making generalizations and trying to give an answer to such a question is without meaning. What is good and possible for you, might be bad and impossible for me.

 

[alitogata]

I've been maintaining 22% without any drugs, diet or exercise whatsoever.

To add to my previous post: If I maintained this % of fat you do, I would be ( personally ) as fat as a cow..

 

[Rip:30]

Percentage of fat is not something standart for everyone. It depents on your gender, high, body type, ( ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph ), race and other factors.

9% t is not high at all. And if you are a woman it is low. The percentage of fat that you get with medical tests is the fat that exists inside your body between your organs too, not only this that you can easily see in the shape of your body. So if you want to know what is the % of body fat that is better for you, you have to do some tests to a doctor and not making coclusions from other people's cases.

9% is really low for most people. And is extremely unusual for females.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

To add to my previous post: If I maintained this % of fat you do, I would be ( personally ) as fat as a cow..

I'm a lucky mesomorph type that can hide a lot of fat without looking fat - clothed at least. It's crazy how much lighter I look than guys taller than me that are actually lighter than me. And frustrating.

Also: been was deliberate. Am losing it as I am back training full-on. Summer rocks.

 

[Rip:30]

As with any complex biological trait there is no magic cut off number really that you can apply to populations. 9% for a guy is low, but especially in the population of cyclists that are selected to have low body fat, there are certainly some that hover around there. There's also the fact that you can just starve yourself to less than that for short periods of time to dip below your body's preferred status with self discipline.

TL;DR: There's no way to just say you can't be that skinny naturally, some guys are just skinny.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

So making generalizations and trying to give an answer to such a question is without meaning. What is good and possible for you, might be bad and impossible for me.

Apologies, I should have added a smilie - I am not taking this seriously at all.

 

[hrotha]

For the 2009 Tour, Wiggins said he had gone all the way down to 72 kg, with a body fat of ~5%. He said something to the effect of "of course I can't maintain that percentage of body fat for longer than a few weeks, as I would get sick".