High body fat percentage

[joben]

I'm a fairly slim (9st 2, 5'6), 44 year old, with low BMI (20), who exercises daily and apart from glass (or 2) of red wine a few nights a week, eats pretty healthily. So why (according to the body fat machine at the gym) is my body fat percentage calculated at 37% ie in the dangerous category! It has been measured as this on two separate occasions on same machine. Having watched Horizon programme on Fat/thin people in India recently (who have high risk of heart disease and diabetes due to high body fat percentage despite low weight, low fat diets and slim frames), I'm wondering how I can reduce my fat percentage, or is this just genetic?

Maybe you have large breasts and it zoned in on them....

I have this too www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1316332-Anyone-else-normal-weight-but-very-high-body-fat-percentage although not as thin as you.

how toned are you - do you have much muscle strength - maybe a weight programme to build up muscle levels would help? Does seem very odd but I did see a programme where people have a lot of far around their internal organs rather than on their ass (as my 37% is distributed!) so maybe it is just one of those things you can not alter?

thanks for feedback, do not have large breasts (quite the opposite) am fairly well-toned (from the daily cycle to work), so it must be genetic. Am genuinely interested in this fat/thin person idea. My dad/Grandad both had very sudden heart attacks at v. young age (although neither had history of heart disease), so bit concerned that there's a link, will look at link rookie and get some more insight! Thanks

I'm fit and toned but big norked with gentle layer of fat over tummy - apparently I'm 40 percent fat! So I don't think those machines take huge tits into account!

I'm fit and toned but big norked with gentle layer of fat over tummy - apparently I'm 40 percent fat! So I don't think those machines take huge tits into account!

(I was only joking about the tits... should have done a ). Still, I really don't think those machines can be relied on to give you hugely accurate information - for a start, I think they are significantly affected by how well hydrated you are (or not) and how hot you are. I doubt very much whether they are regularly calibrated or tested in any way, either. Just because something gives the same reading on two occasions, this doesn't mean it isn't consistently measuring people as having more body fat than they actually do - just as a blood pressure monitor that is not regularly tested could be under or over measuring everyone's blood pressure consistently.

As for heart attack risk, I think checking the ratio of hip to waist is supposed to be considered a fair assessment, as it is WHERE you store your fat that is the most revealing in terms of risk. Maybe you should do that, instead, if you're worried.

Me too; obese apparently tho I run 4 miles several times a week, am tall and a size 14 so not really that huge. I was told by a personal trainer that those machines do tend to be biased against women because of a number of factors - boobs, female weight distribution patterns generally, water retention, ...think I would take with a pinch of salt and try to look at the over all picture.