It’s definitionally not healthy. I’ve been sub 10% body fat as part of a personal goal/experiment before and it’s pretty fucking awful and totally unsustainable. 10-15% is maintainable for most people and you still have visible definition…but when you’e talking about stage ready bodybuilders or even some more modern shirtless scenes in movies it should always be stressed: they’ve literally starved themselves in preparation for this brief few minutes/hour long window. Absolutely nobody in the world looks like 24/7 365. It simply isn’t possible even with drugs and even if it were nobody would want to live that way
The thing is if you are at that amount of bf% you know it because of how miserable you are and there’s no “yeah man I’m about 10% bf” it’s all high school wrasslin bullshit. Which is why I’d literally just ask them if they pulled it out of their ass or if they did a DEXA
I dunno what a DEXA is, but when I certified for wrestling the athletic trainer was purposely generous with their measurements and I came in at 10% body fat. This was after cutting 15 pounds of fat and when I started I had a six pack. Those last few pounds were a miserable time.
So anyway, what’s the point of this story? If I had to guess, my comfortable floor is probably 10% body fat. I was probably a bit lower when I certified and miserable because of it. When I was probably around 15% body fat I looked great.
Anyway if you actually know your body fat percentage you’re either a wrestler or have an unhealthy obsession. Hell if know what I am now, I’ve lost loads of muscle and gained a little fat. You can still see a few abs, but I don’t have the full six pack anymore.
DEXA is basically an X-ray of your body, high school wrestling is notorious for giving people the impression that they are at a way lower bf% than they actually are which leads to people saying “yeah I was at 10% bodyfat when I did wrestling because my coach said so”, at that percentage doing actual wrestling would’ve seriously impacted your performance it’s generally just not where most athlete wants to be even endurance athletes like Ironman runners and triathletes will be around 12% bf
I had mine legitimately measured at 10.2% by bioimpedance in a gym this year. It’s definitely possible to legitimately get this number as a result of a measurement, although this certainly might vary by body type and measurement, etc.
BIA is honestly not that good, just depending on how much you drink you can read as 5% lower than you actually are, there’s a reason why most lifters will generally ignore all the non DEXA results. Yes it is possible to get low bf% but the person that did it would know once you get towards single digit it is something you mentally and physically feel. It’s genuinely miserable and doesn’t look good, when you see some somewhat built guy with ok definition but not super dehydrated they are probably around 15% so many people just don’t know how much fat is needed to like fill out our body.
I knew someone who cared a lot about bf snd got down to 5%.
It did not look healthy. Mostly dehydrated.
It’s definitionally not healthy. I’ve been sub 10% body fat as part of a personal goal/experiment before and it’s pretty fucking awful and totally unsustainable. 10-15% is maintainable for most people and you still have visible definition…but when you’e talking about stage ready bodybuilders or even some more modern shirtless scenes in movies it should always be stressed: they’ve literally starved themselves in preparation for this brief few minutes/hour long window. Absolutely nobody in the world looks like 24/7 365. It simply isn’t possible even with drugs and even if it were nobody would want to live that way
The thing is if you are at that amount of bf% you know it because of how miserable you are and there’s no “yeah man I’m about 10% bf” it’s all high school wrasslin bullshit. Which is why I’d literally just ask them if they pulled it out of their ass or if they did a DEXA
I dunno what a DEXA is, but when I certified for wrestling the athletic trainer was purposely generous with their measurements and I came in at 10% body fat. This was after cutting 15 pounds of fat and when I started I had a six pack. Those last few pounds were a miserable time.
So anyway, what’s the point of this story? If I had to guess, my comfortable floor is probably 10% body fat. I was probably a bit lower when I certified and miserable because of it. When I was probably around 15% body fat I looked great.
Anyway if you actually know your body fat percentage you’re either a wrestler or have an unhealthy obsession. Hell if know what I am now, I’ve lost loads of muscle and gained a little fat. You can still see a few abs, but I don’t have the full six pack anymore.
DEXA is basically an X-ray of your body, high school wrestling is notorious for giving people the impression that they are at a way lower bf% than they actually are which leads to people saying “yeah I was at 10% bodyfat when I did wrestling because my coach said so”, at that percentage doing actual wrestling would’ve seriously impacted your performance it’s generally just not where most athlete wants to be even endurance athletes like Ironman runners and triathletes will be around 12% bf
I had mine legitimately measured at 10.2% by bioimpedance in a gym this year. It’s definitely possible to legitimately get this number as a result of a measurement, although this certainly might vary by body type and measurement, etc.
BIA is honestly not that good, just depending on how much you drink you can read as 5% lower than you actually are, there’s a reason why most lifters will generally ignore all the non DEXA results. Yes it is possible to get low bf% but the person that did it would know once you get towards single digit it is something you mentally and physically feel. It’s genuinely miserable and doesn’t look good, when you see some somewhat built guy with ok definition but not super dehydrated they are probably around 15% so many people just don’t know how much fat is needed to like fill out our body.
Yeah, that makes sense.