LOW BF DANGEROUS?
I went to see a new doctor tonight. He did a total BMI and as accurate a bf count as he could with a caliper. Body fat is 8%. I'm 5' 9" (according to him and his slanted floor) and weighed in at 186lbs with only boxers on. Basically what he said is I'm teetering on the danger zone. He asked if I compete in a sport that requires me to be in this condition? No! Does my job require it? No! "We'll then why are you so low? You are obviously training to be this why but why?" He is saying that if I go around 6% my brain will slow down and none of my vital organs will function properly. He said the skin will begin to thin as well as hair and I will accelerate the aging process if I maintain this low bf! So most of you know the background I come from. I would cut weight 72 hours pre-weigh in then rehydrate and balloon up 10lbs for the showdown! I never paid much attention to bf. I'm by all means a ROOKIE bodybuilder! So my question to you all is, if so many around here have a bf similar to mine, how are you feeling? Tired? Slow? Lethargic? He seemed shocked that i dont feel these symptoms ,even after i told him i consume between 5000 & 6000 calories a day. I'm aware that there's really no point in me maintaining this. I'm not competing and it's the winter. Is it really as unhealthy as he says? I mean I know plenty of eroiders claim to have similar bf and everyone seems to be fine (so they say). Input please? Yes I'm researching this now buy I want to know what my brothers (and sisters) here have to say!
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I would not exactly say it is low body fat that slows the brain or causes any problems but rather what it takes to sustain low body fat levels that causes problems. Like being low carbs or not enough vitamins and minerals since you are cutting back to many calories, hence nutrient deficiency.
In the case that the person has super genetics and is as lean as you while eating plenty of foods, I doubt there would be any problems.
Where's my my body fat?
http://www.eroids.com/pics/off-cycle-1-month
I know what they tell me. What do you think?
I know a guy who is 3-4% year round, proven by the hydrostatic body fat testing method performed at different locations multiple times because the doctor didn't believe it. He's as healthy as can be. He has hyperactive adrenal gland. Hes 50 years old. It's true though he does look a little older but overall he's healthy.
I don't think you need to worry until you get to 5% or lower
BUMP.... yeah it was me.... time to bring a shit-hot topic back to life because NITTI aint no rookie bodybuilder anymore... he has a brand new skill set now and hes putting it to work just fine in my eyes
Lol. Thanks bro! Funny I was gonna bump this earlier and ask if anyone had ever gotten the true bf measurement in the pool. I want to do it and get a real measurement. I swear I never go over 10%. I feel pretty damn good most of the time.
We have a lot of new members who may not have seen this post... maybe one can jump in with some helpful stuff.
Anyone ever do a bf% in a pool? A true bf measurement? I hear universities are always looking for volunteers to d things like this. They weight you first then put you under water and weigh you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1nDJhhssY @1:15
he is going by an average bf% based on how tall and what you weigh. for my wifes age and height he says she should be x amount and she has been there and looked sickly. you have to take in to a count bone structure as well.which doctors do not. also the more muscle you have the more fat you have in between the muscles. I've heard that the mr. olympia's come in at 6-7% bf maybe even higher and look ripped to the bone because of all the muscle they have.
The more muscle more fat will cancel each other out in a percentage measurement. Percentage is of total body composition I believe. Like if you had a 1 gallon jug with 1 quart of oil and 1 quart of water in it. You have a mixture containing 50% water and 50% oil. Now if you add another quart of water and another quart of oil to the mixture you still have a 50% water 50% oil mixture. however if Fat increases exponentially with muscle gains you are correct.
yea I guess your right.
Before I really took the reins on my health, I was low to mid 4%. I literally felt like I would die any day. I would sleep all day - talking narcoleptic type symptoms. Doctors were highly concerned. Once I got to where I am now, fluctuating 5.5 to 6.5, I feel good all the time. I do just randomly fall asleep, compared to before it is nothing.
well the mr olympias come in around 0-2% bf so.....
Way off brother, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but a sub BF% reading is just not humanly possible.. BBs do get real low yes! but its only for comp day and cannot be held without leading to serious health issues.. in the past i have been down to 3.odd BF but can only maintain it for a couple of days before feeling like death itself.. being "RIPPED" is a massively different thing to what most people class as ripped.. ive seen comments on my pics were guys have said wow ripped bro!.. truly to be classed as ripped is when the actual muscle fibers are seen through the skin and move and twitch like they have a life of thier own on your slightest movement.. it is by far the most unhealthy state a BBer can ever be in before organ failure takes its toll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1nDJhhssY @ 1:15
ive just seen alot a videos were jay cutler and arnold ,watched one last night jay was 2 weeks out said he was 3% bf... so shit idk lol
I believe that. You said 0-2% at first. Maintaining 2% is certain death. 0% fugetaboutit!!
oh yeah lol i just meant the mr olympia comes in at... from what ive read.
Before a show you mean? That's plausible. I bet he feels like someone just shot him in the head and spent 6 hours beatin him! Lol
completely agree. cut and ripped are two diff things. cut... wow you have abs. ripped... don't flex or your skin will split.lol
This is exactly what I suspected. A 3 or 4% bf can only be maintained a couple days at best. Shit 10% bf is impressive but still healthy. I'm still reading up on this based on what my doc said but so far I'm finding that I'm in fact not in the "danger zone" as he stated. I feel good and all tests point to a clean bill of health. I really think they should take another look at their protocol for assessing what is or isn't healthy. They should take lifestyle factors into consideration and not just classify ppl "adult male or female".
LOL.. thats the fk problem bro.. as far as BMI charts read i am obese and should weigh around 12 stone (168lbs) FK that i come in at over 16 stone now and am sub 10% BF 30in waist with a 50+ chest lol.. how can they compare me to the usual joe thats eats shit for fun and lies on the sofa all day doing zero exercise ever!.. bollocks to the doctors and there systems.. stick to bro-science and look and feel like an immortal i say.
Exactly!!
0-2%? That's gotta be off man! That's just about a death sentence from everything I read. BBing competitors drop excess bf/water pre contest but don't maintain that bf percentage. Correct me if I'm wrong here. But maintaining 2% bf will kill you.
look it up
I will. But if you're saying that Mr. Olympia competitors are 0-2% bf, I still say no way. I don't know if that's even possible. Even emaciated Somali kids aren't that low. Your brain and vital organs cannot function. I'd say more like 4-6% for those guys. But I'm gonna look it up anyway
In the hospital....the folks who come in with basic illness' then take a downhill slide is the vegans. No bf at all to dustain health when its needed and vegan meals ate low calories. So simply ill goes bad quickly if that'd his bf story. You're lean cut but will eat anything as well as high calories. So, imagine if YOU had surgery with complications and your diet was strictly vegan. Not even enough there to speed revovery or fight infection. Very different
After I posted this I started reading. I'm seeing that the doctors have a set idea of what's healthy and what isn't. They didn't factor in the fact that I am an athlete and have a job where I'm very active. I believe there should be a different standard. For instance 1 being typical average adult male. 2 the athletic adult male. Thanks for the reply fast
Anonyou're right. you know these guys still use the BMI as an indicator of someone's level of overall health. a person like you would be classified as overweight or obese with this perspective. it's simply a relationship of heigth to total weight. at my height (5'9") my healthy range, according to the BMI, should be 128-162 lbs. i've weighed 160 once in my adult life, and i was a skinny mofo. i remember my science of nutrition course. in the book they used hulk hogan as an example. in his prime he was 240+ and ripped the fk up. BMI, of course, classified him as being morbidly obese... Solid muscle and ripped up, but obese...?
Last time i "got the speech" was over year ago. 5-4 194 & cut. Step on scale and nurse bout crapped peaches! According to the 30year old outdated height/weight chart I'm 80lbs severely obese. I Pop off shirt and ask her yo find the fat/obesity?! She rolled her eyes and stomped off. It's an archaic system in many ways. My degrees are headed toward sports med...when i get off my lazy butt. Lol!
id say around 8-10% is safe for staying lean.
I dont believe this to be true at all. I was a 6% body fat guy all my life naturally no matter what I ate until I turned mid 30's then I started to put on a little. I have rarely been sick throughout my life and still have all my hair.
Anoni tried referencing this in one of my old books, but i can't remember where i read this: the endocrine system begins to be adversly affected when body fat has reached approximately 4-6%.
Ohh, he also said this (which I chuckled at) but he says hormones are adversely effected because they are produced in the fat cells. This is news to me. I know we have Andro receptors in fat cells but produced there?
Anonyou weren't picking the brain of your child's pediatrician where you? lol. jk. that just goes to show that some of us know way more than the dr's do about this shit.
Mabey he was more refering to this fact Nitti. Cholesterol serves as precursor to steroid hormones including cortisol, estrogen and testosterone.
This is why I posted. Because I really don't know the answer and I was iffy about asking questions. He's a new doctor. I'll be the first to admit I have a lot to learn about our body chemistry. But again, I am tested annoyingly frequently (bi monthly). Scans , blood, contrast ct etc for a different reason. At the moment , I feel fine and all my testing is normal.
your fine in my humble opinion. %1-%3 is required by the body to meet body functions. As long as you feel fine and arent going around having brain farts all day long your good. lol
Anonthis is true
i can give you a couple %bf if you need! i think you are good at 8%, below that and i dont think your food can provide you with enough energy to maintain proper function. i say that but ill be happy as shit stumbling around at 6%
It's gets dangerous around 3% but you should be fine at 8% I've been as low as 5-6 and felt fine. I'm 10 right now and feel like a damn fattass.
It's a problem of causation. Nearly all examples that the Dr. is referring to are examples of malnourished individuals whose low body fat is also correlated with decreased brain function and immune system weakness. The sampling in his medical texts is most likely filled with malnourished individuals who exhibit low body-fat, and a whole host of other bad stuff.
You are correct that your high caloric intake does indeed make up for the lack of body fat, but if you were to say cut you caloric intake drastically you would likely feel the effects of malnourishment very rapidly.
Correlation doesn't imply causation. There are just very few individuals that maintain low bodyfat, and also maintain high caloric intake. You are what the medical community refers to as an outlier. You just don't fit the standard model, and medical textbooks are written to address the average individual, and you are clearly not maintaining the diet of a average individual.
Whether it's dangerous or not? You should trust your own body. I'm sure at least once in your life you've felt the effects of not eating enough, and felt some brain fog. That's approaching malnourishment.
Anongood job! +1 bro
This is what I was looking for. Thank you. Perfectly laid out. Truth is I do feel fine. On cycle off cycle, doesn't matter. I always eat this much. If I don't, it only takes a few hours to start feeling tired and lethargic. I used to think I was just dehydrated but that wasn't the case. I spent years doing high intensity training and carb loads for energy. I don't know how much is nature and how much nurture but the bottom line is this is me now. I feel good so I will assume all is well. I am tested frequently for a totally different medical reason and all is well right now. I believe you're correct in the doctors assumption. +1
Thanks for the +1 I forgot to mention why you should trust how you feel. You're brain is composed of alot of fatty tissue. It's your brain's reserve gas tank. Once your brain starts to use those fatty stores it goes "oh shit" time to slow down, and you feel that brain fog. That's when you know you need to eat some fats or carbs.
I had a neurologist who I do crossfit with every now and then explain that to me.
AnonCorrect i have been as low as 5 and could not think straight
mick118In my experience there may be some merrit to this depending on your age.
I try to maintain about 10% off cycle. Any less and I need to be pinning test to feel the same.
The older you are the more you will notice this.
I don't have any evidence to support this however.
I'm 32. I feel fine. I can see how this is valid but even with such a high calorie intake? Doesn't that or wouldn't that compensate?
peeps5-6k calories and 8% body fat?
You have either got very good genetics or a super clean diet
Low body fat is better than having a high body fat % so i would not worry about it tbo.
I have always been this way. Not a single person in my family overweight. I come from a fighting backround and always trained high intensity. High calorie intake is necessary for me to feel normal. My body is like a furness! I'll be happy to show u a pic