You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

0
4

[–] theepilepticferret 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago  (edited ago)

First of all, everybody needs to have fat on their body. Your brain is the fattiest organ in your body, with some sources citing it as up to 60% fat. The percentage of essential fat is 2-5% in men and 10-13% in women source. So fat isn't inherrently bad, we all need some to live.

That said, it becomes a problem when there is too much of it. Here is a chart that outlines body fat at different percentages Whether "average" means "normal BF%" or a mathematical average (meaning it would be "overweight" because the average Westerner is overweight) is unclear.

You can find websites that will estimate your body fat % (BF%) based on various measurements, but the gold standard is the DEXA scan.

Here on FPH we generally use BMI. It's a quick and dirty tool to give a rough estimate of whether someone is overweight or not. The range for a normal BMI is 18.5 to 24.9. Anyone with a BMI of 25 of greater is considered fat; 30 and over is obese. However, research has suggested that the "obese" cut off could be changed to 28 for men and 24 for women. For the purposes of this sub, we still use the cutoff of 25. Those with a "normal" BMI and high BF% are termed "skinnyfat" and may receive ridicule as well, because as the science evolves, we are learning that BMI generally underestimates BF% and risk from obesity-related illnesses. We also do not encourage anyone to have a BMI lower than 18.5 ("underweight") as this is associated with health risks as well.

I think a large part of the problem lies in the fact that 2/3rds of the population is overweight or obese, so when you go out in public and have a look around, everyone is fat so fat appears "normal". It skews one's perception. Sort of like if you have a man who is 6'3", he might be considered tall based on everyone else around him. Stick him in the NBA where the average height is 6'7" and now he seems short.