Xpost: Need info on Body Fat Percentage

Help! I need info from my WLS peeps about Body Fat. I went for my 9 month post op visit yesterday. I get called back to visit my friend "the scale."  It didnt used to be my friend but I love it as it is actually nice to me now!  Knowing at home (butt naked) my scale is reading 136.5 I felt pretty confident getting on the surgeons official scale. So clothes on and shoes off I eagerly jump on! Scarry huh!  137 it reads. 105 pounds down!  That I already knew and its great as I started at 242. Then the nurse gives me a little statistic that I didn't know previously.  "Your percentage of body fat has dropped from 49 percent, (the look of shock I sure started her as much as it did me to 5 percent."  It literally took me a good 15 seconds to think about it. I asked her to repeat it. Holly crap!  I knew I was fat but I hadn't known much less visualized that half my body was fat.  Then I got to thinking about the 5, yes five, percent body fat.  Wow! That was impressive to me and I admit I dont know a whole lot about percentage of body fat  but even to me that sounded really impressive!!!   So my homework tonight is to find out from my WLS peeps and educate myselft on what the body fat percentages in gastric bypass patients. What's normal for WLS patients that are at or near goal weight? Anyone with any info please chime in!!!

I think their scale is off. 5% is what anorexics normally have for body fat.

Woman are suppposed to have at leat 10% body fat for essentials and female athletes are generally in the 16-20% range according to the charts I've seen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage

Normal for women is around 18-26%; elite female athletes will be about 10-12%.  I'm 5'5", fit, and have  body fat % between 18-20 (depending on the day and time of day), which I'm very happy with.

I agree that it's unlikely that your body fat % is 5, but I'm sure you're good right where you are!

Linn

I would have to agree with everyone that 5% probably was inaccurate.   The scales where you stand on the metal strips that shoot a low electrical pulse the length of your body (like Tanita) aren't as accurate as some of the other methods to determine body fat percentage.  They may just need to calibrate it to get it in the ballpark again. 

But, look at it this way.   If that was the scale you weighed on pre-op then your body fat percentage did decrease by 44%.  That's an awesome statistic!   Congrats!  :)

Chad