Body fat is something that most people at the very least consider when thinking about their health and or getting into fitness, yet one YouTube video shows the shocking reality of what each percentage looks like, and how that can affect your day-to-day life.
Millions of people across the globe are actively trying to lose weight every single day, and while the advent of weight loss drugs like Ozempic have made that easier in some cases, it can still remain an incredibly challenge for many.
It's certainly not something that you can do quickly and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to stick it out long term, and generally people consider one of the biggest signs that you've improved your health to be the lowering of your body fat percentage.
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This represents the proportion of your total body weight to the amount of fat that you have inside of you, and it's useful because unlike the simple number you get from the scales, it distinguishes things like bones, organs, and most importantly muscle from the fat.
Generally the higher your body fat percentage is the greater risk you have of things like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and a number of other weight-related conditions, but one new YouTube video shows that it's not necessarily as simple as you might expect.
In showing what every single body fat percentage looks like across a wide variety of different people, bodybuilder and biochemistry expert Jeff Nippard breaks down some of the myths that you might currently have surrounding body fat.
Looking at the higher body fat percentages, those towards 50% and 40% did sometimes report issues with sleeping and activities like putting on and tying their shoes, whereas others felt generally good on a day-to-day basis, even regularly going to the gym.
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One of the biggest initial shocks that you might see is the typical disparity between men and women, as the latter appear to be noticeably 'leaner' while at the same body fat percentages.
This is due to a number of reasons, as not only do women store a higher percentage of 'natural fats', making their effective body fat percentage around 10% lower than their male counterparts in practice, but that fat also tends to store itself lower down on the body due to higher estrogen levels, which is arguably less 'noticeable', especially in this experiment.
Another incredibly surprising result shown in the video is that leaner body types aren't necessarily healthier, and both ends of the scale can actually suffer from some of the same issues.
One individual who measured in at just 5.5% body fat, which Jeff called "an extreme and dangerous level of leanness that only makes sense in the context of bodybuilding contest prep."
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He added that "it's interesting because the fitness industry praises leanness so much, a lot of people think the leaner you get, the healthier you get. But that isn't true."
The person with the lowest body fat percentage revealed that the little tasks in life "become the most challenging," like simply motivating yourself to get up out of your car and walk to your work.
While the 'optimal' body fat percentage differs for each person due to the contrasting genetic makeup we all posses, Jeff recommends that it's around the 20% to 32% mark for women, and roughly 10% to 22% for men.
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Many of the comments underneath the video responded incredibly positively to what was shown, with one writing: "As a woman that goes to the gym constantly and can't get out of the 25-27% body fat threshold, thanks for this video!!
"I always though I was close to being overweight but now I see my body as healthy. Thank you."
Another noted that "showing your body to millions of people is brave as f***, especially if it's not where you want it to be. I applaud every one of them."