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For clarity, you could have just quoted the body fat percentages from the next couple sentences in the abstract. >> Mean (+/-SD) percent body fat values for me
by frickinLasers 7y ago
For clarity, you could have just quoted the body fat percentages from the next couple sentences in the abstract.
>> Mean (+/-SD) percent body fat values for men and women were 17+/-5 (range 5-35) and 21+/-6 (range 10-29) , and ranged from 6 to 14 and 14 to 27 among the fastest three men and women.
I would imagine the fastest finishers are not "bizarrely jacked" (they usually look pretty scrawny), but their BMI is not very well correlated with their body fat percentage.
- eredengrin 7y agoAlso this line > We conclude that despite wide variations in BMI and percent body fat among ultramarathon participants, the faster men have lower percent body fat values than the slower men, and finishers have lower percent body fat values than non-finishers. So I do stand corrected that not all of them are significantly below 10% body fat, but some definitely were (I don't see a breakdown anywhere giving an indication of how many), including some of the top finishers. I'd also imagine the ones at higher percentages who performed well probably have higher floors to begin with for how little body fat they can reasonably reach. In any case, it is not at all abnormal for BMI to have nothing to do with body fat percentage or how jacked someone looks, especially with athletes. BMI is probably one of the most meaningless health metrics in common use.
- dmix 7y agoEven further I'd imagine looking at the data for the top 30% of runners who are in the competitive tier this article is talking about would have more relevant and uniform data with narrower ranges.