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Thread: Anyone else looked into this FFMI thing?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
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    2,631

    Default Anyone else looked into this FFMI thing?

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    Since hearing about it I've been curious about using it as an idea of where I'm at in terms of personal potential. I know it's more of a bodybuilding/aesthetic measurement, but the lean mass is what generates the strength. What's bizarre to me is how way off the mark it seems to be. Just today, going off my highest estimate for bodyfat percentage, which was about 24% using the simplified "navy" method with measuring tape, mine still came out to over 23, which is classified in benchmarks as "advanced gym freak". Using more detailed caliper pinch testing, my percentage is estimated even lower, with the method generating the lowest coming in at about 18%, which puts FFMI at 25, the range for an "elite strength athlete"! That's preposterous. Even the 23 seems ridiculous. The numbers I can produce on the bar definitely don't bear out to "advanced gym freak" levels. Has any of you with far better lifts than me tried calculating this on yourselves and also produced confounding results?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    7,856

    Default

    I haven't been impressed or convinced by the claims of those who put much stock into the FFMI and the so-called natural limit. Back in 2016, I calculated my own, and I would've had to have bodyfat into the low to mid 30%s to be under the so-called "natural limit." I don't know my exact bf% at the time, but it was more likely 20-25%, and certainly not 35%. And this is despite not even being an elite lifter. So ya, draw your conclusions from there.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Posts
    318

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    I love the FFMI. The idea that someone like me, a physical idiot, can plug in his body weight and height and be told he is a superior specimen - in fact, almost suspiciously so! - is a tremendous ego booster. I think we should advocate for its use to be as widespread as possible.

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