Body fat percentage and calculating a goal weight

[cyndidee]

I used the US Navy Body Fat Calculator and got 35%, with 129 lbs of lean mass and 69 lbs of fat mass. At first I thought they were suggesting I weight 129 lbs, but then I read Steve's article about calculating body fat percentage and I'm aiming for 20-22%. But what does this mean for a goal weight? I guess I could keep entering numbers into the calculator until something close to 20% comes up, but I'm trying to do the math and I can't get it worked out in my head.

 

Btw, I'm about 6' tall and I've always assumed my goal weight would be around 170 lbs (before I started to work out). I'm still trying to change my thinking that it's not all about weight, and that I might be suprised what my end weight will be when I get to 20% body fat. I guess I'm just curious.

[Frost of the Gloaming]

don't stress over numbers, do what you know you need to do and when you think you start to look good naked you know you are there

[weirdquark]

I used the US Navy Body Fat Calculator and got 35%, with 129 lbs of lean mass and 69 lbs of fat mass. At first I thought they were suggesting I weight 129 lbs, but then I read Steve's article about calculating body fat percentage and I'm aiming for 20-22%. But what does this mean for a goal weight? I guess I could keep entering numbers into the calculator until something close to 20% comes up, but I'm trying to do the math and I can't get it worked out in my head.

 

Btw, I'm about 6' tall and I've always assumed my goal weight would be around 170 lbs (before I started to work out). I'm still trying to change my thinking that it's not all about weight, and that I might be suprised what my end weight will be when I get to 20% body fat. I guess I'm just curious.

 

The 129 LBM means that if you had no body fat at all, that's what you would weigh. So if you didn't increase your LBM at all and were at 22%BF your LBM would be at 78%, so if 129 is 78% of your total weight, divide 129 by .79 to find you would weigh about 165, and 20%BF with no change in LBM would mean you'd weigh about 161.

 

That may or may not be a good weight for you -- you may find you feel and perform better at your initial guess of 170 but you'll have to add a bit of muscle to get down to 20-22%BF at that weight. So shooting for something between 160-170 makes sense to me. I like the idea of being strong, so I'd err on the heavier side and try to put on muscle; you may or may not care about that.

 

But I second just doing things to make you feel healthier by working out and eating well and not worrying about hitting particular numbers; goals can change and that's okay.

[cyndidee]

The 129 LBM means that if you had no body fat at all, that's what you would weigh. So if you didn't increase your LBM at all and were at 22%BF your LBM would be at 78%, so if 129 is 78% of your total weight, divide 129 by .79 to find you would weigh about 165, and 20%BF with no change in LBM would mean you'd weigh about 161.

 

That may or may not be a good weight for you -- you may find you feel and perform better at your initial guess of 170 but you'll have to add a bit of muscle to get down to 20-22%BF at that weight. So shooting for something between 160-170 makes sense to me. I like the idea of being strong, so I'd err on the heavier side and try to put on muscle; you may or may not care about that.

 

But I second just doing things to make you feel healthier by working out and eating well and not worrying about hitting particular numbers; goals can change and that's okay.

Thank you so much, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I'm a numbers person and the percentages were throwing me off a bit because it's more than just a weight thing. I do need to focus more on building muscle, and I think I'm the right place to get help on that.