Your number

Is 16% bodyfat good for a woman?

By GyroscopeWomen, 16%US data by DEXA scan

For a woman, 16% is lean, in the athletes band on the American Council on Exercise chart (14 to 20%). It's under the healthy range at every age from 20 to 79. By DEXA scan, fewer than 5 in 100 American women aged 20 to 39 had less bodyfat than that, and fewer than 5 in 100 aged 40 to 59.

Very low bodyfat, often with hard training and too little food, is one of the signs of periods stopping for lack of energy, the NIH says. If yours have stopped or come irregularly, see a doctor.

Where 16% sits on the chart

The American Council on Exercise chart is the one most tools and scales use. Women carry more essential fat than men, so each band sits about 7 or 8 points higher for them. On a man, 16% is in the fitness band (16% for a man).

How many women are leaner, by age

At every age in the survey, fewer than 5 in 100 women had less bodyfat than 16%. Bodyfat climbs with age on average, about 5 points from the 20s and 30s to the 60s and 70s, so the same number puts you among leaner people as you get older. These shares come from DEXA scans of about 13,000 US adults in the national health survey (NHANES), 1999 to 2004.

Is 16% healthy for your age?

At 20 to 39, the bottom of the healthy range is 21%, 5 points above 16%. The ranges come from a 2000 study of 1,626 adults measured in labs in the US, the UK and Japan, which matched bodyfat to the BMI lines for a healthy weight. Under the low edge, the researchers called it underfat.

Where the fat sits counts as much as the total. A waist over 35 inches raises the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, even at a normal weight, by the US heart and lung institute's line. Check your waist

16% in pounds

Everything else is your lean mass: muscle, water, organs and bone. It's what protein and lifting protect while you lose fat, and your protein range is counted from your weight. Your protein

Holding 16%

There's no reason to diet lower. 16% is in the athletes band and under the healthy range at every age from 20 to 79, and the plans on this site stop at 18% for women. Eat at least your maintenance calories, keep protein in the typical range and keep lifting, so anything you gain is muscle.

Your calories gives the number that holds your weight, and your new maintenance calories covers holding it for good.

Your number is a range

The tool that measured you changes the answer. The shares above come from DEXA scans. The Navy tape method's typical error is about 3.5 points, so a tape that says 16% means about 12.5 to 19.5%. In a 2023 lab test of 15 devices in 73 adults, home scales missed the true number by about 3.5 points too low to about 12 points too high on average, depending on the model. They did better on change, within about 2 to 3 points over 12 to 16 weeks, so a scale is for the trend.

15% Every number 17%