Body Fat % - EXCESS

Over the Lorne Camp weekend (wrap up on that later), Jarrod Evans (AIS Coach) presented several talks on triathlon, training and nutrition.

One of the talks he gave was about skinfolds and Body Fat % (BF%). I volunteered to do this measurement (as did about 20 other people) to see where we are at now.

He took 4 measurements as part of the skin fold test - biceps, triceps, back and stomach. There are several methods of doing skin folds and calculating BF% but the important thing is that you must have the same method of measurement and done by the same person for the purpose of comparing like for like.

So, the good news is that my skin folds of my arms and back are OK. The bad news is that my BF% was blown out of the water by the skin fold measurements around my stomach area.

Using both the BMI measurement (BMI x 1.2) + (0.23 x Age) - 5.4** and Jarrod's skin fold measurement, I am at 32% which is classified as EXCESS FAT (OBESE) for a female.

For a female:
Essential Fat - 10 - 13%
Athletes - 14 - 20%
Fitness -21 - 24%
Just Average - 25 - 31%
Excess Fat - 32%+

I pretty much came out as the fattest female from the squad (who volunteered) and was very disheartened as I am fitter now than I was 3 years ago when my measured BF% was around 28%.

Breaking it down to compsition - my body consist of 68% muscle & bone with 32% fat (10-13% essential fat). I need to be around 14 - 20%. My ideal would be 42kg + XXkg, where XX is calculated as 20% x 61kg = 12.2kg. 42kg + 12.2kg = 54.2kg (max race weight).

Essentially, my goal (as it has always been for the last 5 or so years is to get down to 55kg) and this is EXACTLY in line with losing BF% down to the Athletes range.

Getting down to 55kg is not new news for me but the fact that my BF% is so high scared the living daylights out of me. Now I see the problem (again), it is time for action (again). Will seek a specialist to review my diet and training to see what is the missing link is as currently, I am tracking below my calorie allowance of 1100Cal/day. It could be the type of cardio excercise I am doing to use up my fat stores. I would like to see that there is a solution for this other than blaming it on genetics (fat stores around stomach area).

** BMI Calculations = (BMI x 1.2) + (0.23 x Age) - (10.8 x SEX) - 5.4 Where Sex = 1 for males and 0 for females.