We know that low-carb is effective at losing weight. The jury is still out on whether low-carb is healthy in the long term.
Similarly, while it is clear that being obese is unhealthy, I don’t think that there is any evidence to show that being very thin (having low body fat %) is healthier than being normal.
Yes, and it does show the expected U-shaped curve.
That was the point. (I also incorrectly remembered that the minimum was shifted a bit to the right of what’s usually called “normal weight”, i.e. 18.5 to 25, but in the case of healthy people who’ve never smoked it looks like that range is about right.)
We know that low-carb is effective at losing weight. The jury is still out on whether low-carb is healthy in the long term.
Similarly, while it is clear that being obese is unhealthy, I don’t think that there is any evidence to show that being very thin (having low body fat %) is healthier than being normal.
Depends on what you mean by normal?
The usual: 10-20% BF for men (you can have less if you’re actually an athlete), 20-30% for women.
Oh you mean healthy not normal? Few men are at 10-20%.
I mean “normal” in the sense of “not broken”, NOT in the sense of “average”.
Having said that, about 20% of US men under 40 have less than 20% body fat. Source
See here, though it uses BMI rather than body fat %.
Yes, and it does show the expected U-shaped curve.
BMI is pretty useless as an individual metric, though.
That was the point. (I also incorrectly remembered that the minimum was shifted a bit to the right of what’s usually called “normal weight”, i.e. 18.5 to 25, but in the case of healthy people who’ve never smoked it looks like that range is about right.)