What is a healthy body fat percentage for a man?

For most men, 14-24% covers ACE's fitness and average ranges. Athletes often sit at 6-13%, and 25% or more is classed as obese.

What is a healthy body fat percentage for a woman?

For most women, 21-31% covers ACE's fitness and average ranges. Athletes often sit at 14-20%, and 32% or more is classed as obese. Women carry more essential fat than men, so their ranges are higher.

What body fat percentage is considered obese?

ACE's chart starts the obese range at 25% for men and 32% for women. Many research studies use a slightly different cutoff based on WHO guidance: more than 25% for men and more than 35% for women.

Is 20% body fat good for a woman?

20% sits at the top of ACE's athletes range for women (14-20%), so it's lean. It's well above the 14% level ACE flags as possibly too low.

Is 25% body fat bad for a man?

25% is where ACE's obese range starts for men, and it sits right at the research cutoff, which counts more than 25% as obese. Your waist size and other health markers matter too, so ask your doctor what it means for you.

How accurate are smart scales for body fat?

Smart scales use bioelectrical impedance, which shifts with hydration, meals and exercise. They're useful for spotting a trend if you weigh at the same time each day, but less reliable for a single absolute number.

Can you lose fat from one specific area?

No. In a 6-week study, people who did abdominal exercises 5 days a week without changing their diet lost no belly fat, though their ab endurance improved. Fat comes off across the body when you're in a calorie deficit.

Body Fat Percentage Ranges: What's Healthy for Men and Women

Q: What is a healthy body fat percentage?

The American Council on Exercise puts the average range at 18-24% for men and 25-31% for women, with fitter people at 14-17% and 21-24%. Below 6% for men or 14% for women may be dangerously low.

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) puts typical body fat at 18-24% for men and 25-31% for women. Athletes usually sit at 6-13% (men) and 14-20% (women), and the obese range starts at 25% for men and 32% for women.

Going too low carries its own risk: ACE says body fat below 6% for men or 14% for women may be dangerously low. Many research studies define obesity slightly differently, as more than 25% body fat for men and more than 35% for women.

Key takeaways

Average: 18-24% for men and 25-31% for women, according to ACE.
Women's ranges run about 7-8 points higher because women carry more essential fat.
BMI misses about half of people who have excess body fat, so body fat and waist size add real information.
Use one method and watch the trend. Readings from different methods often disagree.
You can't spot-reduce. Fat loss comes from an overall calorie deficit.

Body fat percentage chart for men and women

This is the ACE classification most charts are based on.

Category	Men (% body fat)	Women (% body fat)
Essential fat	2-5	10-13
Athletes	6-13	14-20
Fitness	14-17	21-24
Average	18-24	25-31
Obese	25 and up	32 and up

The categories describe where people tend to fall, not a grade. Plenty of healthy, active adults sit in the average band, and the athletes band is hard to hold for most people outside a sport that needs it.

Our body fat calculator estimates yours with the Navy tape method or from your BMI.

What is a healthy body fat percentage?

For most adults, the fitness and average bands are a sensible target: about 14-24% for men and 21-31% for women. Above that, the ACE chart moves into the obese range.

Research uses its own cutoffs. A large analysis of US adults (NHANES III) used body fat over 25% for men and over 35% for women, based on WHO guidance. By that measure, 43.9% of men and 52.3% of women had obesity, against 19.1% and 24.7% by BMI.

That gap is why body fat is worth knowing. A meta-analysis found that standard BMI cutoffs picked up only about half of people with excess body fat, though they rarely flagged someone who didn't have it. Our guide to body composition beyond BMI goes deeper, and the BMI calculator is there if you want both numbers.

Body fat percentage by age

Body fat tends to rise with age at the same BMI, as people lose some muscle. The Deurenberg equation, built from 1,229 people aged 7-83, estimates adult body fat from BMI, age and sex:

Body fat % = 1.20 x BMI + 0.23 x age - 10.8 x sex - 5.4 (sex = 1 for men, 0 for women)

Here's what it predicts at two common BMIs.

BMI	Sex	Age 25 (% body fat)	Age 45 (% body fat)	Age 65 (% body fat)
22	Men	16	21	25
22	Women	27	31	36
25	Men	20	24	29
25	Women	30	35	40

Treat these as estimates. The equation's typical error is about 4 percentage points, and it slightly overestimates body fat in people with obesity. It also can't tell a muscular person from a heavier one at the same BMI.

Essential fat vs storage fat

Essential fat is the fat your body needs to function: in your nerves, bone marrow, organs and cell membranes, plus sex-specific fat in women. It's about 2-5% of body weight in men and 10-13% in women, which is why women's ranges are higher across the board.

Storage fat is your energy reserve. Most of it sits under the skin (subcutaneous fat), and some sits around the organs in your abdomen (visceral fat).

Where fat sits matters as well as how much you have. You can't see visceral fat, but waist size is an easy stand-in for fat around the middle. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes rises when a woman's waist is over 35 in (88 cm) or a man's is over 40 in (102 cm). The waist-to-hip ratio calculator gives you another view of fat distribution.

How to measure your body fat percentage

Method	What it measures	Where	Main drawback
DXA scan	Fat, lean and bone mass, by region	Clinics, some gyms and universities	Cost and access
Hydrostatic weighing or air displacement (Bod Pod)	Body density, converted to fat %	Labs, universities	Access; assumes average tissue density
Skinfold calipers	Fat under the skin at several sites	Trainers, at home	Depends heavily on the person measuring
Bioelectrical impedance (smart scales)	Resistance to a small current	At home	Shifts with hydration, meals and exercise
Tape measure (Navy method)	Neck, waist and hip circumferences	At home	An estimate from body shape
BMI-based formula	Height, weight, age and sex	Anywhere	Can't see muscle

No method is perfect, and two methods can disagree by several points. What works is choosing one and sticking with it:

Measure under the same conditions each time, for example in the morning before eating.
Check monthly, not daily. Daily readings bounce around, the same way scale weight fluctuates.
Pair it with your waist measurement and how your clothes fit.

How to lower your body fat percentage

Eat in a moderate calorie deficit. This is what actually removes fat. The calorie deficit calculator sets a target.
Keep protein high. Higher-protein diets help preserve lean mass while you lose weight. See how much protein you need for recomposition.
Lift weights. Keeping or building muscle lowers your body fat percentage even at the same weight. The body recomposition guide covers the approach.
Don't count on crunches for belly fat. In a 6-week trial, 24 sedentary adults were split into a control group and a group that did seven ab exercises 5 days a week, and everyone kept their calories the same. The ab group's endurance improved, but their body fat, belly fat and waist size didn't change. For realistic timelines, see how long it takes to lose belly fat.

If you're aiming for the low end of the athletes range, talk to your doctor or a sports dietitian first.

Nutrify tracks your calories and protein from photos, barcodes or voice, so the deficit and protein targets are easy to hit. It has a 7-day free trial, then a paid subscription.