% of Body fat

[ivan]

hi

I was reading through Martin Stepanek's website and noticed that it says that he has less than 1% body fat. I was interested about how this helps with freediving, does having less fat go along the same rules of having less muscles in that the less muscle you've got the less oxygen you use. Also less than 1% sounds pretty low so I looked it up on some websites and this is something I found.

"BTW, 3% of this bodyfat in men, and 10-13% of bodyfat in women is termed essential and surrounds the organs and such. Thus, reports of BF much less than 3% for men and 10% for women should be taken as circumspect."

So how does Martin survive properly with less than 1%.

Now Im sure I have a hell of a lot more fat than that but Im interested in what are the best exercises at reducing your body fat. Is doing something like running the way to go or what. What about light weights wouldn't this reduce body fat by turning it into muscle.

cheers

 

[kingohyes]

Yes I read that too. And I looked it up. I found that it was very rare to have 3% bodyfat, and that many bodybuilders would have around this. Anything under three percent would be very very rare..

 

[Alun]

i remember reading that statistic once too. i assumed that the 1% figure was just a bad guess. 4-5% would be a more likely and realistic value from the photos i've seen of him... i.e. very lean but not abnormally so for a high level athlete.

i actively try to maintain a reasonable amount of body fat, just by balancing calorie intake and exercise. i'm currently at around 10%. it may sound a lot but it isn't really - as you can see from the photo on the left. if i eat and exercised 'normally' i would probably be down closer to 6-8%. i don't think being super-lean is particularly beneficial for freediving, especially in cool/cold water.

when was the last time you saw a seal with 1% body fat?

 

[groats]

Ivan
I have some 7% which is low enough because i feel tired and exhausted with less than 5-6% (and i do light bodybuilding). Less than 1% is surely not what martin has, because at that level your body will collapse, now think about freediving...
Want to lose weight? Eat half and sports (running or swimming is a very good idea). The only diet that works if you make sure you don't eat too little and keep it up for the rest of your life.

Greets, joe

 

[Erik]

That 3% bodybuilder number is also a number that they hold for a very short time....hours even, at a contest where they have starved and dehydrated themselves for extreme vascularity. I've seen bodybuilders look very different within a day, and have seen pics of contestants that look very different within a few hours after a contest.
10% is a healthy and lean number for most men, and when people start saying that they're 1 or 2% bodyfat I can't help but laugh, since they obviously have no idea.
I have seen Marten in the pool and he is indeed in phenomenal condition. He is blessed with genetics that no drugs or amount of training can buy, trains hard, and deserves all he has achieved.
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[mishu1984]

studies have shown that having below 6% of bady fat is harmfull. David Beckham and other professional athletes (mainly soccer players) have an estimated 8% during the professional season and during the off-season it wil fluctuate between 8%-15%.
if you want to loose weight you simply have to burn more calories than what you take in. the SAFE rate of weight loss is about 2lb (1 kg) per week.

 

[nickw]

I had a buddy who ate all the crap within 10 feet of him and his entire body had about as much fat as my pinky finger.
He went to the lab and got results back of 1% body fat more than once. He was told everytime that some people do not test accurately and there is always room for error. They told him he was around 3-5%, which is realistically as low as you can get while still being athletic.

 

[ivan]

hi

Thanks guys I thought the less than 1% figure was a bit suspect. However some of those 10km african runners at the olympics would be pushing close to those levels they are just so thin

cheers