Unhealthy body fat - Diet & Nutrition Message Board

shelleyfosho · 08-13-2006, 08:59 AM

Ever since I was little we were taught to eat healthy. No sugar cereals, ALWAYS finish your vegetables (even if it meant sitting at the table an extra 2 hours) skim milk, etc......Funny thing is both of my parents are obese and have been since I can remember (for my mom, all her life) but they wanted to teach us different.....anyways, ever since my mom went back to work about 6 years ago (when I was 12) I had been eating nothing but junk. I used to sit and eat a bag of chips and drink a 2 liter of pepsi in a day. Now I'm doing much better, exercize more often, work requires alot of walking, and my diet is better (but not great).......My parents bought one of those scales that also messures your body fat so I decided to try it and this is my question....is it possible that a 5'8" 140lb girl (who is actually pretty thin...unless size 6/7 is now obese lol)could have 33% body fat?...I looked it up and it said that was in the range with obesity. I have a small bone structure and am not very "in shape"...a little squishy if you will.....could this be part of it??

Lenin · 08-14-2006, 05:54 AM

shelly,

A 33% bodyfat for your size is conceivable but highly inprobable.
First thing to know is that Tanita makes a good scale but a useless bodyfat guage.
At 5'8" and 140# your BMI is at 21.3 which and 17th percentile, meaning 83% of the population is fattter than you.

Your actual bodyfat is probably between 20 and 25% somewhere.

Net result:
Forget the Tanita's claimed capability to measure bodyfat...there just isn't any such capability. They should be banned from making such a claim.