Obesity Thresholds (Body-Fat Percentage)

Regarding relative leanness for positive health, the percentage of a person's body weight that is fat is far more meaningful than scale weight. Women and men are considered obese if they possess greater than 32% and 25% body fat, respectively.

For reference, the source notes that college-age men average about 18% of total weight as fat and college-age women about 22% (page 484), and that men and women who exercise or are physically active tend to have less fat than untrained counterparts.

• Obesity threshold: >25% body fat for men.
• Obesity threshold: >32% body fat for women.
• College-age averages: ~18% fat (men), ~22% fat (women).
• Active people tend to have lower body fat than untrained peers.

• body-composition — the framework for measuring fat.
• essential-fat — the lower limit of body fat.
• overweight-vs-overfat — % fat is more meaningful than weight.
• obesity-public-health — health consequences of obesity.
• body-fat-norms — current ACSM/ACE obesity thresholds (>=~25% men,

  =~32% women) match these figures almost exactly -- confirmed current, not dated.