Is 17kg of fat a magic number?

Between January and August (2015), more than 350 men and 150 women came for a DEXA scan at Bodyscan’s London location.

The aggregated results are available here and show something quite interesting. The median value for fat mass is almost identical – 16.8kg for men and 17.3kg for women.

Of course, women are typically lighter than men so 17kg of fat will equate to a higher body fat percentage for women. Indeed, the median weight and fat percentage for Bodyscan clients turned out to be:

Men: 83kg weight, 21.8% fat*
Women: 63.1kg, 30.1% fat*

It’s important to remember that Bodyscan clients are not a random sample of the UK population; they have elected to have a DEXA scan for whatever reason (fitness or fat loss) and are probably geographically close to London. The data also include a broad range of ages (the median age is 36 (men) and 35 (women)).

However the approximate 17kg for median fat mass for both sexes is, if nothing else, quirky!

*Note: The data points in the data tables should be all read independently of each other – one should not expect to be in the same percentile for all data points. That’s why the median figures above (21.8% of 83kg for men and 30.1% of 63.1kg for women) do not produce the median fat mass figures of 16.8kg and 17.3kg.