realistic body fat % goal?

[Alameda]

am going to (try to) ignore my weight and focus on body fat, although I know the things that measure it can vary wildly I'll stick to the gym one and monitor the trend

just wondering what other people think is realistic or attainable, or if anyone finds it a helpful measurement at all given the difficulties of accurate assessment

(disclaimer - am spending far too much time on bodybuilding.com at the moment)

What is it at the moment?

it has just squeaked under 24, it was 18 about this time last year - I am aiming for 16 which means losing 5kg of lard and building just under a kg of muscle

don't think it's as visible to everyone else as it is to me (unless they are all being v polite)

16% is lean, 18% is good target. Hard to measure though, when mine was 19% on scales the callipers in gym said 16% but depends on how many sites they used.

Ok, thanks. Coincidentally I just ordered some calipers, only 'one site' ones so can track trend easily by myself but also for comparison with the gym thing (which have to pay for each time and it's not very private and I hate seeing the variations in my weight even if the body fat is steadily coming down). They are supposed to be the closest possible to flotation method but still massive variations between the individuals in the test so?

Will do a comparison with the gym thing though, hopefully it won't be too discouraging!

I have tanita scales, and one of the personal trainers will do body fat with callipers when i ask but as i don't pay not too often!

by the way how frequently do you monitor? Do you think weekly is enough/too often?

I decided I can't cope with scales, even if the body fat comes down any increase in weight is going to be difficult to overlook

(at 18% I still had too much podge so either the thing measures artificially low or it is not lean enough for my frame?)

Scales every morning. If you weigh once a week weight should come down too.

Only ask in gym when feel the need which hasn't been for ages as weight hasn't really fluctuated for over 6 months. No method is good - scales vary widely between morning and pm reading, and callipers totally different depending on how many sites, eg have v little fat on stomach, upper back, bicep, but have more fat on tricep lower back etc.