Is 20% bodyfat good?
For a man, 20% is average. It’s just over the healthy range for men under 40 and inside it after 40. For a woman, 20% is lean, at the top of the range athletes sit in. Measured by DEXA scan, the average American adult was about 28% for men and 40% for women.
Why the same number means different things
Women carry more essential fat, the fat the body can’t do without, so every range sits about 7 or 8 points higher. A bodyfat number is like a shoe size: the same number fits differently on a man and a woman.
| Category | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Essential fat | 2 to 5% | 10 to 13% |
| Athletes | 6 to 13% | 14 to 20% |
| Fitness | 14 to 17% | 21 to 24% |
| Average | 18 to 24% | 25 to 31% |
| Obese | 25% and up | 32% and up |
These are the American Council on Exercise categories, the chart most tools use.
By age
Healthy ranges rise with age. These come from a 2000 study of 1,626 adults measured in labs in the US, the UK and Japan.
| Age | Healthy for men | Healthy for women |
|---|---|---|
| 20 to 39 | 8 to 19% | 21 to 32% |
| 40 to 59 | 11 to 21% | 23 to 33% |
| 60 to 79 | 13 to 24% | 24 to 35% |
The US averages, measured by DEXA scan in about 13,000 adults from 1999 to 2004, were 26%, 29% and 31% for men in those age groups, and 38%, 41% and 42% for women.
What we’d do with it
- Treat your number as a range. A tape or a home scale can miss by several points, so 20% may be 17% or 23%.
- Check your waist too. Where the fat sits matters. Over 40 inches for men or 35 for women raises the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
- Watch the trend over months, measured the same way each time.
6 sources
- American Council on Exercise bodyfat categories, as printed in Healthline, Ideal bodyfat percentagehealthline.com
- American Council on Exercise, press room, Bodyfat percentage averages for men and womenacefitness.org
- Gallagher et al., Healthy percentage bodyfat ranges: an approach for developing guidelines based on body mass index, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Akindele et al., The relationship between bodyfat percentage and body mass index in overweight and obese individuals in an urban African setting, with a table of healthy ranges based on Gallagher et al., Journal of Public Health in Africa, 2016pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Assessing your weight and health risknhlbi.nih.gov
- Borrud et al., Body composition data for individuals 8 years of age and older: US population, 1999-2004, National Center for Health Statistics, Vital and Health Statistics 11(250), 2010cdc.gov
