I had body composition / hydrostatic testing done at the Buchanan Excercise Lab at UBC. Hydrostatic is kind of interesting you are weighed underwater after your exhale all the air from your body. This is compared to your actual body weight (out of water). Since fat floats and all other body tissue sinks, they can formulate what percentage of that difference is body fat, this is the “Gold Standard” of body fat tests. Anyways mine was scored at 7.8% or 12.1 total pounds of fat, which is good because that means I can still shed around 3-5 pounds of weight. Males in my age range should not go below 4% body fat because you may start removing organ fat etc which is not healthy. Anyways I am happy with this I thought I may have maxed out because I feel fairly lean right now, but I can still loose a few pounds that will be alot of time savings 3 seconds per pound / mile.
So what are normal ranges for non athletes? For women, an acceptable percentage is between 25 - 31%. For men, it’s 18 - 25%. Any number over that is considered obese. For male distance runners optimal body fat is between 4-7%
