Bodyfat percentage chart for men and women, by age
On the chart most tools use, 18 to 24% bodyfat is average for a man and 25 to 31% for a woman. The real US averages are higher: by DEXA scan, the typical American man was 28% and the typical woman 40%. Healthy ranges rise with age, by about 3 to 5 points from your 20s to your 70s.
Where do you rank?
The chart most tools use
| Band | 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 bands. Essential fat is the fat the body needs to run, and women carry more of it, so every band sits about 7 or 8 points higher for them. A bodyfat number works like a shoe size: the same number fits differently on a man and a woman.
Healthy bodyfat by age
| Age | Men | 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% |
These ranges come from a 2000 study of 1,626 adults measured in labs in the US, the UK and Japan. The researchers matched bodyfat to the BMI lines for a healthy weight, which is why the ranges climb with age: at the same BMI, older adults carry more fat.
Average bodyfat by age in the US
Men
| Age | Average | 5th | 25th | Median | 75th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 to 39 | 26.1% | 15.5 | 21.2 | 26.1 | 30.4 | 37.2 |
| 40 to 59 | 28.6% | 19.3 | 25.2 | 28.5 | 32.2 | 37.7 |
| 60 to 79 | 30.8% | 22.0 | 27.3 | 30.7 | 34.4 | 39.6 |
| 80 and older | 30.7% | 21.9 | 27.3 | 30.8 | 33.9 | 38.8 |
| All 20 and over | 28.0% | 17.4 | 24.1 | 28.0 | 32.1 | 38.0 |
Women
| Age | Average | 5th | 25th | Median | 75th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 to 39 | 37.8% | 25.8 | 32.5 | 37.8 | 42.9 | 49.8 |
| 40 to 59 | 40.5% | 28.5 | 36.4 | 41.0 | 45.1 | 50.7 |
| 60 to 79 | 42.4% | 32.3 | 38.9 | 42.8 | 46.2 | 50.7 |
| 80 and older | 40.4% | 29.8 | 36.9 | 41.0 | 44.4 | 48.9 |
| All 20 and over | 39.9% | 27.6 | 35.4 | 40.5 | 44.7 | 50.4 |
Percentiles by DEXA scan, from the CDC's national health survey (NHANES), 1999 to 2004, about 13,000 adults. The 25th percentile is the number a quarter of people were under. The median man aged 20 to 39 was 26.1%, already over the chart's obese line of 25%.
Which chart is right?
All three, for different questions. The ACE bands come from a fitness organization, the American Council on Exercise, and sort you from athletic to obese. The healthy ranges tell you what's linked to a healthy weight for your age. The percentiles tell you where you sit among real Americans. A 34 year old woman at 26% is average on the ACE chart, inside the healthy range for her age, and leaner than about 95 in 100 US women her age.
The tool that measured you changes the answer as much as the chart does. The percentiles are DEXA scans. The Navy tape method's typical error is about 3.5 points, and in a 2023 lab test of 15 devices in 73 adults, home scales missed by about 3.5 points too low to about 12 points too high on average, depending on the model. How to measure bodyfat at home has the trade-offs.
Every number
For men
For women
Each page has the band, how many US adults your age are leaner, the healthy range for your age, what the number is in pounds, and what it takes to reach the next band down.
8 sources
- Borrud LG, Flegal KM, Looker AC, Everhart JE and others, Body composition data for individuals 8 years of age and older: US population, 1999 to 2004, National Center for Health Statistics, Vital and Health Statistics series 11 number 250, table 3, 2010cdc.gov
- American Council on Exercise, press room, Bodyfat percentage averages for men and womenacefitness.org
- American Council on Exercise bodyfat categories, as printed in Healthline, Ideal bodyfat percentagehealthline.com
- Gallagher D and others, 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 MO and others, 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 and others, 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
- Siedler MR and others, Assessing the reliability and cross-sectional and longitudinal validity of fifteen bioelectrical impedance analysis devices, British Journal of Nutrition, 2023pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Hodgdon JA, Beckett MB, Prediction of percent bodyfat for U.S. Navy men and women from body circumferences and height, Naval Health Research Center, reports 84-11 and 84-29, 1984
