What body fat percentages REALLY look like: 50 actual men’s DEXA scans

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:29 5%

02:25 10%

04:08 20%

05:03 30%

05:38 40+%

06:07 Within individual

08:27 Conclusion

09:18 Outro

Transcript:

Many people in fitness are absolutely delusional about what body fat percentages really look like. Men and women alike. A big part of the reason for this is that many of the images you see floating around on social media, with various body fat percentages and photos attached to them, are based on absolutely nothing. Somebody just took a bunch of stock photos and put some numbers on them that seems correct to them at the time. Moreover, most of the body fat percentage estimates that people get in real life are based on crappy body fat estimation methods like skin fold calipers and bioelectrical impedance scales, especially single frequency ones, which are hilariously inaccurate. So when you step on one of those body fat scales, or you get a skin fold caliper expert to measure your body fat percentage, it typically significantly underestimates your body fat percentage if you have a substantial amount of muscle mass.

Most of these techniques are calibrated towards sedentary individuals, not towards athletes. To get a reasonably accurate estimate of your body fat percentage, you need to have access to a laboratory, in particular, a 3 or 4 compartment model. Unfortunately, those laboratories are not so easy to find and they are expensive and time consuming. Lucky for you, I’ve been coaching and teaching people in fitness for over a decade. In that time, I’ve amassed quite some photos of individuals that are willing to share those photos and at the time had access to a laboratory grade estimate of their body fat percentage. And the scans were, to the best of my knowledge, properly calibrated. Most of these photos are from my own clients, and I have explicit permission to use these photos. Some of the other photos were posted were posted publicly.

Starting at the low end of body fat percentage, we have Wesley Vissers at 4.1%, according to DEXA scans that he also posted on his YouTube channel. This is about as lean as it gets, because essential body fat levels for men are 2% to 5% body fat. So whenever you hear of somebody at 3% body fat, you have to wonder if they’re speaking to you from the afterlife, because if not, it’s very unlikely to be correct. 5% body fat is pretty much the lower bound of body fat level for men. That means you have striations everywhere, including in your glutes and a very grainy, dry appearance with absolutely no fat left. For example, here you can see Alberto Nuñez at 6.1% body fat, according to DEXA scans. He still has a complete Christmas tree muscle striations, and lots of vascularity. Its also worth noting that these body fat levels are basically only achievable with very high levels of muscle mass, otherwise, you look absolutely malnourished. Here we see 8% body fat, still absolutely shredded, absolutely chiseled.

And then we get to about 10% body fat. This is 9.6 versus 10.6. The difference between that is basically not visually discernible for most people. And this is still a good six-pack, very lean. For most people this is a really good target body fat percentage. Here you can see yours truly as well; 10% body fat, according to InBody scan that I also replicated a bit later. So this is a pretty good estimate I think of 10% body fat, and you can see that this is full six-pack level. At 10% body fat if you’re muscular enough, most men, especially when flexed, have a full six-pack. So here we see 11% body fat, 12% body fat, that’s Brad Pilon. 12% body fat, according to the Bod Pod. A client of mine. So you can see that even when relaxed, still good ab definition. 12.5% body fat. 12.6% body fat. You can see that to be 12.6% body fat for this guy, you need to be a lot leaner in terms of having less fat than be at 12.5% body fat if you have a lot more muscle mass, because muscle mass also decreases your body fat percentage. So with more muscle mass, you can basically have more fat and still be at a lower body fat percentage. That’s a huge advantage of being more muscular.

So 13% body fat, 15% body fat, 17% body fat almost, and 17% body fat. It’s only at this point for many muscular individuals that you truly lose all abdominal definition. So if you cannot see your abs at all, not even when you flex, for most people, that’s an indication you are above 15% body fat, probably closer to 20%. Many lifters have the idea that if they see the faintest shimmer of their abs, they are almost at 10% body fat. And the reality is, it’s not like that. It’s a much more gradual process, with abdominal definition gradually coming in being very high at 10% body fat, but still improving even below that.

So moving on, we have 17.6. 19% body fat, kind of skinny fat. 19% body fat. That’s Mike Cernovich. 20% body fat. Again, in favorable lighting, you still have some semblance of abdominal definition. 21.8% body fat. At this point, we are talking about overweight individuals. Depending on which organization you look at, 21% is generally recognized as the threshold for being overweight for men, with 25% being obese. So here we have 23% body fat. At this point, you know, we’re talking about higher body fat levels like 30 overweight. 24% 25.5%.

At this point, we’re talking about obese individuals, technically speaking. And again we see that, overweight individuals don’t have a huge gut or anything like that if they are reasonably fit in any way. So if you have a serious gut as a guy and you are not exceedingly unlucky with your body fat distribution, then you are probably obese. Basically 27% body fat here. 27% again. Again, kind of the skinny fat look 28%, 29% 30% body fat. 30% and 31% More photos at 30% and 31% according to both InBody and DEXA scans. Again, the 31% here is kind of the skinny fat look If you don’t have a lot of muscle mass and you don’t store your body fat mostly in the abdominal area, so you’re actually kind of lucky with your fat distribution, then you can be at a quite high body fat level before you have like major love handles or a huge gut.

So 33% and 33.8% body fat. And here we have an example of someone from 40% losing fat and going down to 34%. You see that when you are talking about obese individuals, for most lean individuals, you probably cannot see the difference. You need to lose a lot of fat before you start seeing any difference in like muscle shape and muscularity and the like. When there is too much fat to lose, it’s mainly the kind of overall body shape that you see a difference in. You will see that in clothes potentially, but it’s actually hard to see in photos sometimes. And then 43% body fat. This would be very morbid obesity by medical terms.

So these photos have been across individuals. Now let’s look at some photos within the same individual a different body fat percentages using the same scanning technique. Here we have Sigvar Garfors. I’m very confident he’s natural at this point because I was coaching him the whole period. Starting at the left we have him at 6% body fat, which again is pretty much as lean as it gets for a natural trainee. He had glutes striations at this point. And then in the middle he’s 11% body fat, still full six-pack. And then at the right he has 17% body fat Bulkier, but still some abdominal definition. Not fat by any means because he has a good amount of muscle mass to back it up. And this is another client of mine on his fat loss journey starting at 16% body fat, going to 11% and then 8%. He actually managed to build a decent amount of muscle in the process, again, naturally. And as a result, he ended up looking absolutely shredded at 8% body fat.

Another client of mine; 18% to 8% body fat. You can see at 18% body fat he had a bit of a belly, but still actually some abdominal definition in there because he had a good amount of muscle mass. And and then when he got rid of all that, that 8% body fat, he was shredded. Here we have an example of 10% versus 16% body fat. Again at 10% body fat, he has a full six-pack and at 16% body fat, he actually still has significant abdominal definition, and he’s lean by most standards because he has a good amount of muscle mass. Here we have an example of 12% versus 19%. The lighting is not great so the difference is not as market, which is also a good illustration that lighting can have a huge effect on how lean somebody looks.

You can easily see this in yourself as well. We you have kind of the bathroom, gym-type lighting, then you look amazing. And then when you have just the plain sun or bad lighting, you don’t see your abs and you look a lot worse. Funny enough, some of the worst lighting for your physique, in my experience, is in dressing rooms where you would expect that the lighting is good. But no, your profile looks worse, your physique looks worse. It’s not even a good look for the clothes either. In any case, here’s another example of someone with less muscle mass at 12% versus 8% body fat. You can see a 12% he’s already lean has good abs, at least when flexing, and at 8%, body fat he is absolutely shredded and he needs to be extremely lean because he doesn’t have a huge amount of muscle mass. Here’s another client progress photo with 14% to 10% body fat across four different DEXA scans. Actually also building muscle in the process.

So here you can see the dual effect of muscle growth and fat loss occurring in the same period. And this positive body recomposition has a gradual but significant effect on how he looks. And here’s a compilation photo like you often see on social media, but this time based on actual laboratory-grade, body fat percentage estimates of real individuals. Now, where you’ve seen all these photos, my experience is that many people feel a little bit disillusioned, and they still have a hard time visually estimating some of these body fat percentages. That is for good reason.

It took me many, many years to learn this skill, And even when you see these photos, there is still a lot you don’t know. For one, it’s not unusual for even DEXA scans to still be off by a couple percentage points. Second, you don’t see someone’s entire body in most of these photos. People vary substantially in how they store their body fat across their body. So some people might look very lean even at 15% body fat, but it just means that they store much of their fat on their legs and if you don’t see those, then of course they look relatively lean in their upper body. Still I think these photos give you a much more realistic perspective of what body fat percentages actually look like for men.

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