Body composition

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This article is about the body's content of fat, bone, and muscle. For the chemical composition of the human body, see Composition of the human body.

In physical fitness, body composition is used to describe the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in human bodies. Because muscular tissue takes up less space in our body than fat tissue, our body composition, as well as our weight, determines leanness. Two people at the same height and same body weight may look completely different from each other because they have a different body composition.

[edit] Recommendations

The National Institute of Health^[1] recommends that a healthy adult male's body should have between 13 and 17 percent fat. A healthy female's body should be composed of between 20 and 25 percent fat. Levels significantly above these amounts may indicate excess body fat. Athletes, leaner individuals, and more muscular individuals will have a body fat percentage lower than these levels. In general, most athletes experience greater performance benefits^[2] at body fat percentages between 7 and 19 percent for men, and 10 and 25 percent for women, depending on the sport.^[3]