What are the body fat percentages of the best world class runners up to the marathon?
What are the body fat percentages of the best world class runners up to the marathon?
You will see wildly differing figures quoted, but using the skin caliper method, the men are 6-11% the women 9-14%
An interesting point here is that if you look at the top East African runners, they don't have the super low body fat levels of yer typical OCD muzungu elite.
3%
I looked up maybe 15-20 of the top North American atheletes a while back because I wanted to see how I stood up in comparison, because people on here are always talking about how light you need to be as a runner.
I used one of those online BMI calculators based on weight and height and heights and weights listed in online profiles, so this is obviously not going to be really accurate.
Out of the ones whose heights and weights I could find I saw a trend that the ones who tend to be injured more often were also the ones who had the lowest BMIs. This obviously didn't account for muscle mass versus fat mass, individual differences, etc., but it was still interesting to me. It seemed like the ones who showed a BMI of 18-19.5 were fragile compared to the ones who were between 19.5 and 21ish. If I recall correctly, on the lower end: Jenny Barringer, Evan Jager, Matt Tegenkamp, and Dathan Ritzenhein. Can't remember who else.
I would be interested in seeing actual studies on this kind of thing. Obviously the people whose BMIs are higher are still fit. They weigh more due to muscle mass, I'm sure. Just wondering if there actually is a correlation.
For sure there is a correlation. Most chronically injured athletes (Ritz, A.Goucher, etc) have a history of under-eating. They aren't recovering means their bodies are breaking down.
The BMI is a convenient function, but not well-tailored to the task. Weight is based on volume, and thus is Length^3. Height is 'linear', Length^1. The BMI function is "weight over height squared.", which means that short people will have lower BMI scores for the same relative 'leanness'. One example of this is that most of the players in the NBA have high BMI indexes, and few think of them as fat.
Now, it is likely the case that using the weight over the cube of height goes too far, but something more like height^2.5 or 2.3 would be better; of course it would not be simple, but then who even calculates these things rather than reading them from tables.
Thus, when you compare with elites, compare with someone your height (and gender).
I would copy and paste, but you can read here in Lore of Running:
lore of running wrote:
I would copy and paste, but you can read here in Lore of Running:
http://books.google.com/books?id=wAa9qq9kbncC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=lore+of+running+and+percent+body+fat&source=bl&ots=cxg7zN-jmD&sig=0YBLVjqQVXTcw1NjSJRLRCYIFI4&hl=en&ei=4sqcTfvQEJT0swOvkoScBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Male 4-7% (lowest measured 3.5%)
Female circa 15% (lowest measured 6%) - Grete Waitz 8%
Looks like I saved the list.
Dathan Ritzenhein - 5'8, 117 = 17.8
Abdi Abdirahman - 5'11, 130 = 18.1
Jenny Barringer Simpson - 5'5, 110 = 18.3
Evan Jager - 6'2, 145 = 18.6
Ryan Hall - 5'10, 130 = 18.7
Shalane Flanage - 5'5, 113 = 18.8
Kara Goucher - 5'7, 120 = 18.8
Molly Huddle - 5'4, 110 = 18.9
Shanon Rowbury - 5'5, 115 = 19.1
Matt Tegenkamp - 6'1, 145 = 19.1
Galen Rupp - 5'11, 138 = 19.2
Simon Bairu - 5'8, 128 = 19.5
Bob Kennedy - 6', 146 = 19.8
Meb Keflezighi - 5'7, 127 = 19.9
Adam Goucher - 5'10, 142 = 20.2
Bernard Lagat - 5'8, 134 = 20.4
Craig Mottram - 6'2, 160 = 20.5
Anna Willard Pierce - 5'4, 120 = 20.6
Leo Manzano - 5'5, 125 = 20.8
Chris Solinsky - 6'1, 160 = 21.1
Alan Webb - 5'9, 145 = 21.4
I would imagine the BMI will vary depending on which calculator is used. Also, the weights would be off if they were recorded a couple of years ago. I think I guessed Solinsky at 160 based on interviews, but he may be 5lbs more. Of course, people like Mottram, with his lengthy recent injury, kind of throw off the pattern.
Body Fat % for the typical male marathon runner is probably around 14%
14% is a fat runner for a guy
I've posted this a few times throughout the years, but to reiterate what others said, it really depends on the method used. I haven't tested any world class marathoners, but I had the following worth mentioning from using the BodPod.
13:56 5K runner - ~3% body fat
14:11 5K / 2:19 marathoner - ~10% body fat
15:12 / 30:55 - ~3% body fat
A bunch of others in the high 14 - 15min 5K range in the 5- 10% body fat range. It really varies.
Bell Lapper wrote:
3%
Agreed. When I was running my fastest at age 26, I was 3%. I wasn't world class, but not a scrub either.
3%?
I don't believe these claims of very low body fat levels. How can elites be measured at 10% by one method and 3% by another?
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