Hello...I've been out of the loop for awhile and I have a concern. I'm 5'5 127lbs and work out on a regular basis..whats bothering me is when I do my body comp. it's showing a body fat percentage of 30%..that's alot don't you think??? I do have a significant amount of body fat but I'm also weight training and muscular...could it be muscle as well? How do I get that percentage way down without being too low in weight?

How did you determine your body fat?

You know the body compositions machines they have at the gym?

There are many body composition machines, so it's hard to tell you if theres a problem or not. If it is just a scale that measures your body fat then there could be a margin of error. Body fat scales use a technique called Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis... or BIA for short. Very simply...

A small and completely harmless electrical current is passed through your body. The electrical current passes more quickly through fat free tissue like muscle than it does through fat or bone tissue. So...

The amount of resistance to the electrical current relates to how much fat-free mass a person has and their body density. Here's the first challenge...

Like all body fat tests, body fat scales don't actually measure your body fat percentage. They determine your body density. The examiner (or the scales) then uses a formula to calculate body fat percentage based on body density.

The problem with this is the results can change based on what you've eaten, and more likely, what you've had to drink. The more water in your muscles, the higher the body fat reading. So to start your percentage that was given to you may be flat out wrong. But the chances that your body fat % is higher because of the muscle alone is slim. Hope this helps at all!

online Calipers do not work at all. most calipers at they gym do not work at all. only ones that work are the ones that messures the air mass displacment and weight. so unless it was a completly sealed comparment it was not accurate. use your best judgment this is why ppl rarly post there BF%

5'5 127lbs and 30% BF does not sound right. If you were 227lbs and had a huge gut then your body fat may be high but not at 127lbs particularly if you work out.

Most women are between 20-30% BF. Female sprinters are anywhere between 12-20% BF. Women naturally have more adipose tissue than men, and weight is no determinant of muscle:fat ratio. Most female models are skin, bone and fat. Their BF percentages are very high.

It takes a lot of work to get under 20% BF when you're female. You know you've gone too far when you stop having periods

BIA machines aren't accurate for everyone.

I get numbers that I know aren't right

I don't doubt that most American (and maybe Canadian) women are around 30%, but that is pretty high (the difference between 20 and 30 is huge)

If a person is morbidly obese, they could easily have BF percentages in the 40s and 50s.

30% sounds gross, but your average female over 30 or 35 is at least that unless she works out like a dog.

I just went online and put my specs (weight, waist, wrist, forearm and hip measurements) into a BF percentage index and it came up with 17%. I'm not 17% and I know it. I'm more than that unless I've lost 3% in the last few months. And I think I look exactly the same.

Therefore, it's pretty tough to get an accurate measurement of a person's BF without actually doing an autopsy

Gee, I just did it again and it came up with 31%. In fact, every time I did it, it came up with a different number.

So much for online BF percentages