Practical bodyfat guide for women?

[DV]

Hi Robert,

From reading a few recent posts it seems that for the average male (say 5'9-6'1 tall and not completely new to lifting) you say that a 34-37 inch waist is a productive range to shoot for, and then otherwise focus more on weight on the bar than weight on the scale. Please correct me if I misunderstood you, because this has become my standard advice to fellow lifters, as I really like this idea (thanks!) as it is practical, easy and very portable for people that travel a lot, such as myself (a tape measure is easier to carry than a scale).

So I was wondering what the equivalent would be for a female? And would it include a hip measurement, too? Would it be smart to use navy BF method say once a month and then stay within a certain range? If yes, what would be the range?

The reason I ask is that I have a somewhat new (lifting age about 18 months) female lifter that I am sometimes helping a bit. She is 5'8 tall, weighs 158lbs, Navy Method says 25% BF currently (28 inch waist 39 inch hips 13 inch neck). Her most recent maxes are 242 squat 110 bench and 264 deadlift. Her lifts are steadily going up and BW is trending slowly upwards as well. So things are going as they should, but even though her goals are health and performance, she feels "fluffy" currently. As she has some history of eating disorders, I am trying to find a general guideline that wont cause her to obsess too much, while still allowing her to strike the balance of staying in a productive range while avoiding the trap of convincing herself she needs to "diet down" in order to comply with the weird standards for female appearance that she gets from Instagram or whatever.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to help. I can guarantee you that it will be put to good use by a very determined lifter.

KR

Dave

[Robert Santana]

Hi Robert,

From reading a few recent posts it seems that for the average male (say 5'9-6'1 tall and not completely new to lifting) you say that a 34-37 inch waist is a productive range to shoot for, and then otherwise focus more on weight on the bar than weight on the scale. Please correct me if I misunderstood you, because this has become my standard advice to fellow lifters, as I really like this idea (thanks!) as it is practical, easy and very portable for people that travel a lot, such as myself (a tape measure is easier to carry than a scale).

So I was wondering what the equivalent would be for a female? And would it include a hip measurement, too? Would it be smart to use navy BF method say once a month and then stay within a certain range? If yes, what would be the range?

The reason I ask is that I have a somewhat new (lifting age about 18 months) female lifter that I am sometimes helping a bit. She is 5'8 tall, weighs 158lbs, Navy Method says 25% BF currently (28 inch waist 39 inch hips 13 inch neck). Her most recent maxes are 242 squat 110 bench and 264 deadlift. Her lifts are steadily going up and BW is trending slowly upwards as well. So things are going as they should, but even though her goals are health and performance, she feels "fluffy" currently. As she has some history of eating disorders, I am trying to find a general guideline that wont cause her to obsess too much, while still allowing her to strike the balance of staying in a productive range while avoiding the trap of convincing herself she needs to "diet down" in order to comply with the weird standards for female appearance that she gets from Instagram or whatever.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to help. I can guarantee you that it will be put to good use by a very determined lifter.

KR

Dave

Thanks for posting buddy. Glad you've been reading and finding value here man. So for women I don't really like to put a hard standard beyond what is set by health organizations. The reason being that women tend to store more body fat on the hips and thighs, which is not associated with a higher disease risk and female lifters, in my experience, don't need as many calories or extra body weight to make progress under the bar as men do.