Had the opportunity to go to Texas Tech & get tested at arguably North America's premiere body composition facility. We did every single test (BIA, BodPod, DEXA) and weirdly enough, it appears most influencers are completely wrong about Body Fat. Let's learn why it could be the most important metric...but also why it shouldn't be your focus.
That’s right baby! TTU red raider here ❤️🖤 I was invited by a friend who received his phD in this department to be part of the study with the dexa scans and never got around to it. I’m so ashamed I missed out on it 🤦🏻♀️
Really appreciate this video! Definitely shows how complicated body fat percentage actually is. Nice reminder that my body fat scale isn’t accurate beyond telling me relative movement.
It's important to note that lower-body fat is healthier than upper-body. So Omar, that means you should be tracking your APOB, insulin resistance and anything else your doctor says. Take care!
Yea that's the one thing with just eyeballing where even some of the more reasonable/seasoned fitness professionals can still be quite off. If you can get within 2% on either end you're really good at it tbh
Body fat percentage for most people is a vanity metric. As mentioned in the video, waist measurements are a great way of tracking change. And most important is just using your eyes and a mirror. If you’re happy with how you’re looking, why care about what percentage that is (especially since it is unlikely to even be accurate).
Well it can go the other way: if you’re kind of skinny/skinny fat and have body dysmorphia, learning that your bf% is like 11 can be the reality check that makes you start focusing on building muscle
This (and the podcast ep on the topic) is fascinating. Myself my gym provides InBody and frankly I’m not tied to the numbers in one reading - but the overall trend over multiple readings over time all tell a story of my body fat reducing and my muscle mass increasing (slowly 😭 but it’s night and day from the first reading!) Ps the Area 51 bit with bug-eyed Alien Omarion truly sent me to mars 😂
You can do any test & it'll give you a number, now it might not be 100% accurate. But I will argue that it's useful to have a starting number as that'll help you see if you're making progress. If you're trying to lean down, it'll show you if the number has dropped & by how much compared to the starting point, & vice versa for bulking. How much weight you've gained relative to how much higher the percentage went up by
I find it's the same with counting calories. As long as you are consistent in your measuring and cooking method, it doesn't matter if your chicken has 1% or 20% fat and how off the total calories of that is, you've made your intake consistent regardless of its true calories and from there you can adjust.
I don't care my actual bf% number. Just what I look like in the mirror. I do track my lifting numbers and those are going up. I don't know my weight or actual bf% but I'm probably around 185/20%
Yeah, I give him respect in the video by pointing out the technician claims he is 5.8% according to the scan...and he is incredulous. He knows it is off.
@@wafercrackerjack880 he literally mentions in the video how alex knows the 5% is off and he can be in the thumbnail as an example situation of how wrong bf% can be
@@pasta1998 Yeah I know, I watched the video. But it's still disingenuous to add the guy in the thumbnail for clicks. I don't even know who Alex is but I just dont like it when holier than thou fitness influencer are just playing the same game but pretend to be better.
I'm lucky to have a wellness center at work (gym + a lot of other stuff). They have a couple of the Inbody 570 systems (BIA measurement). Got my first one about 2 weeks ago. I don't necessarily believe that I'm 12.5%. Maybe I am, but it's not super relevant. We'll see how things look every couple of months while I do a slow bulk. I still heavily gauge my progress on how I'm doing on my lifts and a few size measurements, but this is another tool to see how I'm doing. I've got ~40# of dry lean mass, and I'd like to add 10# to that over the next several years. We'll see! 💪
The thing with BIA analysis is it is heavily influenced by hydration status. It can be used somewhat reliably by replicating the same conditions everyday, i.e a fasted state comparing average weekly values. This can give a decent idea in a trend, but accuracy can also vary massively by brand.
@@jeffbunnell9961 Yeah, time will tell if it's useful. I had pretty specific instructions beforehand. Well hydrated the day before, use the bathroom just prior and no exercise beforehand. 😅
At the end of the day the eyeball method is the best one, simply because it doesn't matter at all what bodyfat % you are, but what bodyfat % YOU LOOK. Dr. Helms looks shredded out of his mind. If he claims 6-7%, well he looks like it. Same with muscle mass. It doesn't much how much you have, but how much you look like you have. Objectively speaking, Phil Heath was nowhere NEAR as muscular as other guys on that stage with him. But due to his insertions he looked like he had more.
If you are good with skinfold calipers they can be surprisingly accurate, and of course very accessible. BIA analysis is way too influenced by hydration to be accurate. Most are useless, especially people I see doing them mid-workout when electrolytes have been depleted.
If done by a qualified professional and tracked over time, it can be a useful measurement. Like every method there is a margin of error (in this case practitioner error) so it would be best to observe large trends over time.
DEXA is the most accurate test we have, maybe whole body MRI is comparable but very expensive, and there are also errors and artifacts involved there. I think those that discredit DEXA like coach Greg are not taking into consideration where body fat is stored. Most of us who are experienced know what 5-7% bodyfat looks like, lower end is stage ready Olympia and higher end stage ready natural, all of whom should have deep muscle separation everywhere and have striated glutes. Anything under 5% is likely BS, men need 3-5% just to be alive. It's the 8-15% range where there is the most variability it seems. I store most of my fat in my lower back and glutes but have leaner quads, front torso, and arms. What really skews the perspective is guys who are kind of lean and got measured with calipers for sports, claiming 5% when they're really 12%. Unless you're really into bodybuilding, it's unlikely you have much of a grasp on this topic.
Getting a Dexa in a few weeks and ready to be told a disappointing number like last time hahaha. Glute striations yet tons of bf in the gut. Always makes for a funny number.@@OmarIsuf
What do you do with skewed body fat % test that says you have less fat than you do? At best it just implies that you can drop less "extra" weight than you actually can.
But does your old video of using the US Navy calculator as a 'free and easy' method for tracking trends over time still act as the best non-gym performance indicator?
If there is no way to confirm body fat % for sure and all methods to measure it are estimates, how can you say if someone (or a measurement tool) is accurate or inaccurate? After all, if someone drinks 2kg of water, they've just become leaner because their LBM is higher.
I do the same thing. That way I can plot my weight and waist in the same graph, which lets me know if my weight gain outpaces my waist gain during a bulk, as it should, and vice versa during a cut.
6:47 I don't know, training at lower weight classes with restrictive calories is really difficult, you really can't just focus on the gross lean mass and it's not actually how the muscle works in practice. Real mass expansion is water weight and improving control through the nervous system to provide the energy and force to hold a bigger frame and muscle forms. The volume of the glycogen stores are some of the most important parts for bodybuilding in my opinion.
This is just bullshit. There are a lot of bad things you can say about him but this isn't one of them. If anything, Greg is a guy that has "blackpilled" a lot of people. I remember him telling in his videos stuff about how shitty genetics everyone has, and how they'd be lucky if they gain a minuscule number of pounds per year, even as a beginner
One might differ about framing it as blackpilling. For some bodytypes it *can* indeed be way harder to pack on a lot of lean mass. Can't hurt to have some awareness for it so that you go in with reasonable expectations.
@@KoreanChocoBoy, if he ever does it, he usually has a reason. Like they were already advanced at that point and got 10 pounds in a few weeks or something like that.
no not really. Everyone is different. A man can be totally healthy and optimal at 20% bf. This depends on you and your genetics. This general statements are always false. There are many variables like fat tolerance thats on an individual level and so on.
@@SNIP3INAT0R well women need the extra fat, for their hormones as well as for fertility. 20% is plushie but for men to have fat on their organs, which muscle is an organ, it leads to problems. That's why i said hormone health. Hormones play a big big role in how your body functions.
@@SNIP3INAT0R imho, there is no one fit all solution, as said everybody is different and genetics are so different. I've seen studies claim that being upto 25% is ok. If there is any difference in been at 15% and 20% its negligible, so not worth getting sad/mad over this kind of number. In my case, I've been training for a decade, I've checked my body fat with dexa which has 99% accurracy. I'm about 18%. I look the best in my life, and feel the best in my life. My goal is not being shreded, but more huge without being excesseviley fat. Don't forget, your body stores fat because it wants you to survive, if you have no fat, or lower fat it signals your body that your chances of survival are low, which puts extra stress on your body, lowers T and a ton of other things. I would argue that its better to carry a little bit more fat in terms of health and being optimal that not being in the lower side.
Had the opportunity to go to Texas Tech & get tested at arguably North America's premiere body composition facility.
We did every single test (BIA, BodPod, DEXA) and weirdly enough, it appears most influencers are completely wrong about Body Fat.
Let's learn why it could be the most important metric...but also why it shouldn't be your focus.
That’s right baby! TTU red raider here ❤️🖤 I was invited by a friend who received his phD in this department to be part of the study with the dexa scans and never got around to it. I’m so ashamed I missed out on it 🤦🏻♀️
Boom 💥
@@courtneyderouenYes! Guns up!
Really appreciate this video! Definitely shows how complicated body fat percentage actually is. Nice reminder that my body fat scale isn’t accurate beyond telling me relative movement.
Alex looks phenomenal honestly, and he's grown both intellectually and physically throughout these years
I don't think people realize how huge 4.8 standard deviations is lmao
It's important to note that lower-body fat is healthier than upper-body. So Omar, that means you should be tracking your APOB, insulin resistance and anything else your doctor says. Take care!
Yea that's the one thing with just eyeballing where even some of the more reasonable/seasoned fitness professionals can still be quite off. If you can get within 2% on either end you're really good at it tbh
Body fat percentage for most people is a vanity metric. As mentioned in the video, waist measurements are a great way of tracking change. And most important is just using your eyes and a mirror. If you’re happy with how you’re looking, why care about what percentage that is (especially since it is unlikely to even be accurate).
Well it can go the other way: if you’re kind of skinny/skinny fat and have body dysmorphia, learning that your bf% is like 11 can be the reality check that makes you start focusing on building muscle
All I know is my body fat % is "yes" 😭
Feet blurred? What is this cruel censorship.
Wow I haven't watched the video yet but what a well thought out title
This (and the podcast ep on the topic) is fascinating. Myself my gym provides InBody and frankly I’m not tied to the numbers in one reading - but the overall trend over multiple readings over time all tell a story of my body fat reducing and my muscle mass increasing (slowly 😭 but it’s night and day from the first reading!)
Ps the Area 51 bit with bug-eyed Alien Omarion truly sent me to mars 😂
You can do any test & it'll give you a number, now it might not be 100% accurate. But I will argue that it's useful to have a starting number as that'll help you see if you're making progress. If you're trying to lean down, it'll show you if the number has dropped & by how much compared to the starting point, & vice versa for bulking. How much weight you've gained relative to how much higher the percentage went up by
I find it's the same with counting calories. As long as you are consistent in your measuring and cooking method, it doesn't matter if your chicken has 1% or 20% fat and how off the total calories of that is, you've made your intake consistent regardless of its true calories and from there you can adjust.
That would work if the machine is precise but A lot of these machines can be both inaccurate and imprecise
Bro's made of adamantium
Great video Surfclam!
I don't care my actual bf% number. Just what I look like in the mirror. I do track my lifting numbers and those are going up. I don't know my weight or actual bf% but I'm probably around 185/20%
Poor Alex in the thumbnail, he knows he ain't 5.8% bodyfat 😬
Yeah, I give him respect in the video by pointing out the technician claims he is 5.8% according to the scan...and he is incredulous.
He knows it is off.
@@OmarIsuf Then why put him in the thumbnail? You claim go be above other youtubers but you also play dirty.
@@wafercrackerjack880 You could also ask why Alex posted that video if he knows it is off. Whats the point then?
@@wafercrackerjack880 he literally mentions in the video how alex knows the 5% is off and he can be in the thumbnail as an example situation of how wrong bf% can be
@@pasta1998 Yeah I know, I watched the video. But it's still disingenuous to add the guy in the thumbnail for clicks. I don't even know who Alex is but I just dont like it when holier than thou fitness influencer are just playing the same game but pretend to be better.
Interesting video. Thank you, Omar.
'No feet pics' then shows feet up close. (I have an aversion to them.) Very informative video.
daaaaamn boi, you DENSE
I'm lucky to have a wellness center at work (gym + a lot of other stuff). They have a couple of the Inbody 570 systems (BIA measurement). Got my first one about 2 weeks ago. I don't necessarily believe that I'm 12.5%. Maybe I am, but it's not super relevant. We'll see how things look every couple of months while I do a slow bulk. I still heavily gauge my progress on how I'm doing on my lifts and a few size measurements, but this is another tool to see how I'm doing. I've got ~40# of dry lean mass, and I'd like to add 10# to that over the next several years. We'll see! 💪
The thing with BIA analysis is it is heavily influenced by hydration status. It can be used somewhat reliably by replicating the same conditions everyday, i.e a fasted state comparing average weekly values. This can give a decent idea in a trend, but accuracy can also vary massively by brand.
@@jeffbunnell9961 Yeah, time will tell if it's useful. I had pretty specific instructions beforehand. Well hydrated the day before, use the bathroom just prior and no exercise beforehand. 😅
> why you should not care about body fat?
As +30 body fat, you definitely peaked my interest
Hydration radically impacts these test.
At the end of the day the eyeball method is the best one, simply because it doesn't matter at all what bodyfat % you are, but what bodyfat % YOU LOOK. Dr. Helms looks shredded out of his mind. If he claims 6-7%, well he looks like it. Same with muscle mass. It doesn't much how much you have, but how much you look like you have. Objectively speaking, Phil Heath was nowhere NEAR as muscular as other guys on that stage with him. But due to his insertions he looked like he had more.
If you are good with skinfold calipers they can be surprisingly accurate, and of course very accessible. BIA analysis is way too influenced by hydration to be accurate. Most are useless, especially people I see doing them mid-workout when electrolytes have been depleted.
Calipers are amazing for tracking progress but all the formulas using caliper measurements for body fat are wildly off
@@fox20rps94at least it's consistently wrong by the same amounts. A downward trend via this method would result in less overall body fat.
Thought this video would help me figure out what my Bf% is... now I have even less of an idea lol
Good video, what are your opinions on skinfold measurements?
If done by a qualified professional and tracked over time, it can be a useful measurement.
Like every method there is a margin of error (in this case practitioner error) so it would be best to observe large trends over time.
Video was a total miss. It must presumed dexa was accurate because it gave a specific result per area.
Omar
I think the cheaper home scales that do bf percent are not accurate at all
DEXA is the most accurate test we have, maybe whole body MRI is comparable but very expensive, and there are also errors and artifacts involved there.
I think those that discredit DEXA like coach Greg are not taking into consideration where body fat is stored. Most of us who are experienced know what 5-7% bodyfat looks like, lower end is stage ready Olympia and higher end stage ready natural, all of whom should have deep muscle separation everywhere and have striated glutes. Anything under 5% is likely BS, men need 3-5% just to be alive. It's the 8-15% range where there is the most variability it seems. I store most of my fat in my lower back and glutes but have leaner quads, front torso, and arms.
What really skews the perspective is guys who are kind of lean and got measured with calipers for sports, claiming 5% when they're really 12%. Unless you're really into bodybuilding, it's unlikely you have much of a grasp on this topic.
Cool video!!!! Great information!!!!
Waiting for a certain parrot to make a video about Omars BF to sell a cook book. 😂
I only care about seeing my abs in the summer when it's beach time😁😏
Bro got examined by Johnny Sins
😂😂
How in-depth? 🤔
I look nothing like Dr helms, but my renpho scale says I'm 17% 🤷♀️
i need to know why feet were blurred 🤔
hi omar.
Mehar what is up my man, nice to see you around here.
Getting a Dexa in a few weeks and ready to be told a disappointing number like last time hahaha. Glute striations yet tons of bf in the gut. Always makes for a funny number.@@OmarIsuf
What do you do with skewed body fat % test that says you have less fat than you do? At best it just implies that you can drop less "extra" weight than you actually can.
Whyd you blur out his feet? Lmao
Savin the goods for feetfinder subs or what? 💀🤣🤣🤣
Are those the goods shown on the scales (approx. 3:03 mark)?
Omar, why are your feet blurred?
I’m built like you Omar. I will have veins in my quads and upper arms with flabs.
Forever bulking. I take my shirt off 1 week a year. Just tryna be huge
But does your old video of using the US Navy calculator as a 'free and easy' method for tracking trends over time still act as the best non-gym performance indicator?
Just what I was looking for
The blurred feet 😂😂
If there is no way to confirm body fat % for sure and all methods to measure it are estimates, how can you say if someone (or a measurement tool) is accurate or inaccurate? After all, if someone drinks 2kg of water, they've just become leaner because their LBM is higher.
Bodybuilder/more shredded or not, obviously Omar is more “jacked” than Eric. Eric’s not much bigger than me.
Next time a normy self assesses their body fat, imma send em this video. Thanks, Omar!
Did Omar used to have a speech impediment?
What is your height?
176cm, got it measured at the facility.
Omar "Horseneck" Isuf
For 100% accuracy I subject myself to the "whogivesashit" test.
It's great because it's such an easy test. It literally takes more effort to fail than to succeed
Its time to get on the juice this man still doesn’t look like he lift after all these years
I keep it simple. I eat more protein? I lift more weight. I want more muscle? I eat more. I’m getting fat? I eat less and eat more protein.
what yall think spongebobs bodyfat is
Im the King of Bodyfat
Interesting video. I personally use the measuring tape around the navel + the scale as my guide.
I do the same thing. That way I can plot my weight and waist in the same graph, which lets me know if my weight gain outpaces my waist gain during a bulk, as it should, and vice versa during a cut.
How old are you these days Omar?
46
Yeah mate
At the end of the day, who cares, it's what you look like, not what the numbers say.
By watching this video your body fat % automatically increases by 5%. Now roll your d20
Makes me wonder what is the bodyfat of the people at my gym who claim to be 5% body fat.
As a general rule, any body fat a gym bro tells you, add at least 3%, if not 5%.
Sadly sometimes, even more lol.
@@OmarIsuf For my own body fat percentage, I just estimate, and then subtract 5%.
@@OmarIsuf Among the members of our gym, I add 7-8%. 😁
@@OmarIsuf -3% bodyfat baybee
Too much error to take it really seriously, but it's a cool measurement at least.
6:47 I don't know, training at lower weight classes with restrictive calories is really difficult, you really can't just focus on the gross lean mass and it's not actually how the muscle works in practice. Real mass expansion is water weight and improving control through the nervous system to provide the energy and force to hold a bigger frame and muscle forms. The volume of the glycogen stores are some of the most important parts for bodybuilding in my opinion.
bro made a whole video and told me nothing
According to Greg Doucette you can easily gain 40lbs of muscle if you're willing to put a bit of effort in it Omar 😅
This is just bullshit. There are a lot of bad things you can say about him but this isn't one of them.
If anything, Greg is a guy that has "blackpilled" a lot of people. I remember him telling in his videos stuff about how shitty genetics everyone has, and how they'd be lucky if they gain a minuscule number of pounds per year, even as a beginner
@@viktyeah was gonna say that is definitely not something Greg would say
One might differ about framing it as blackpilling.
For some bodytypes it *can* indeed be way harder to pack on a lot of lean mass.
Can't hurt to have some awareness for it so that you go in with reasonable expectations.
He accuses people who gain like 10 lbs of muscle to be on steroids.
@@KoreanChocoBoy, if he ever does it, he usually has a reason.
Like they were already advanced at that point and got 10 pounds in a few weeks or something like that.
Eric Helms creepy smile replay buttons: 2:39 5:31 7:38 10:52
Your nightmares, are welcome.
First
Men should be 10-13%
Women 15-20%, for optimal hormone health
no not really. Everyone is different. A man can be totally healthy and optimal at 20% bf. This depends on you and your genetics. This general statements are always false. There are many variables like fat tolerance thats on an individual level and so on.
@@jordixboy I'd say 12-15% is optimal for most men. 20% isn't terrible but it's almost never optimal.
@@SNIP3INAT0RWhy not?
@@SNIP3INAT0R well women need the extra fat, for their hormones as well as for fertility. 20% is plushie but for men to have fat on their organs, which muscle is an organ, it leads to problems. That's why i said hormone health. Hormones play a big big role in how your body functions.
@@SNIP3INAT0R imho, there is no one fit all solution, as said everybody is different and genetics are so different. I've seen studies claim that being upto 25% is ok.
If there is any difference in been at 15% and 20% its negligible, so not worth getting sad/mad over this kind of number.
In my case, I've been training for a decade, I've checked my body fat with dexa which has 99% accurracy. I'm about 18%. I look the best in my life, and feel the best in my life. My goal is not being shreded, but more huge without being excesseviley fat.
Don't forget, your body stores fat because it wants you to survive, if you have no fat, or lower fat it signals your body that your chances of survival are low, which puts extra stress on your body, lowers T and a ton of other things. I would argue that its better to carry a little bit more fat in terms of health and being optimal that not being in the lower side.