Finding Your Ideal Body Fat Percentage: Get Lean & Competition Ready!

Knowing where you stand is essential whether you’re kicking off a weight loss journey or a bodybuilding competition prep. And I'm not talking about your current ranking in your gym's powerlifting competition. 

I'm talking about your body fat percentage — the key to achieving your dream physique. 

Most people only track their body weight. But doing this leaves you in the dark about what that weight is actually composed of and whether you’re making progress.

Understanding and tracking your body fat percentage gives you a blueprint to follow. If that weight is muscle, you want to do everything to retain and build more of it. If it’s fat, you obviously want to melt that off.

So let’s dive into the science and strategy of body fat percentage and how a ketogenic diet can empower you to get where you want to be.

🧐 What is Body Fat Percentage + Why Does It Matter?

Body fat, or adipose tissue, is your body’s way of storing excess energy. It comes in two types: subcutaneous fat (under your skin) and visceral fat (around your organs).

Essential fat is crucial for bodily functions like hormone production, insulation/temperature control, and organ protection. Reach ketosis, and your body will start prioritizing dietary fats and those stored fat reserves for fuel.

However, excessive body fat — especially visceral fat — is a threat to your health.[*] And a surplus of subcutaneous fat makes it impossible for your muscles to stand out and get the attention they deserve.

🤩 The Competitive Edge of Lower Body Fat for Bodybuilders

The last thing you want as a competitor is to look flat on stage. You want to maintain fullness and look absolutely shredded. So I always strive to be the most conditioned competitor on stage. And that means getting as lean and dialed in as possible.

If I get on stage with striated glutes, which is typically the last place on your body to lean out, I will stand out. Most competitors won’t have that level of conditioning —  even with the best keto supplements for bodybuilding.

If you’re the only one at this level, the judges’ eyes will automatically focus on you. Competition who?

📏 Finding Your Ideal Body Fat Percentage: Not One-Size-Fits-All

So, how lean should you aim to be? The “perfect” body fat percentage is different for everyone. It depends on factors like your age, gender, fitness goals, and ideal body composition.

For example, women naturally carry more fat due to hormones and reproductive health, so a good body fat percentage for women will always be higher than targets for men.

Generally speaking… A healthy body fat percentage for men averages between 10% and 20%. A healthy body fat percentage for women sits between 20% and 30%.[*]

These ranges support overall health and prevent many chronic disease risks (obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, etc.) while maintaining a decent level of muscle mass.

If you want to look lean… A good body fat percentage for men drops down to 10-15%. For women, it’s more like 20-25%.

If you’re an athlete… Ideal body fat percentages are closer to 8-15% for men and 15-20% for women.

🏋️ What’s a Good Body Fat Percentage for Bodybuilders?

Let’s get one thing straight: none of the judges will care about your actual body fat percentage. No one’s going to be on stage measuring your body fat. 

But to showcase that level of conditioning required to stand out, you have to know what you’re up against. The division you're competing in will dictate the average level of conditioning your competitors will bring to the stage.

For instance, a bikini competitor typically has a higher body fat percentage than an open division bodybuilding competitor, which is the most demanding from a conditioning standpoint. 

✅ Join my Savage System Premium Keto Bodybuilding Course to learn my exact body fat targets for these divisions:

• Men’s Bodybuilding
• Men’s Classic Physique
• Men’s Physique
• Women’s Physique
• Women’s Figure
• Women’s Bikini

Nail down your division, and you’ll have a tangible body fat goal to work toward throughout your prep. Then you’ll take your current baseline measurement and start tracking.

🎯 How To Measure Body Fat Percentage

How do you know if you’re getting closer to hitting your target? There are several methods to measure body fat percentage, each with its pros and cons: 

🏅 The DEXA Scan: The Gold Standard 

DEXA stands for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). It uses low-dose X-ray technology to measure bone density and body fat, providing a detailed breakdown of fat mass, lean muscle mass, and bone mass.[*] 

Pros: It’s the most accurate body fat measurement tool, and it’s particularly useful for tracking changes over time.

Cons: It can be expensive and isn’t always readily available. Some hospitals, medical centers, biohacking clinics, and standalone body fat testing clinics will allow you to use their DEXA for a fee. They can range from as low as $30 a session to over $150.

⚡ Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA): Convenience Meets Innovation

With BIA, a weak electrical current flows through your body. The resistance to the current is used to estimate body fat percentage.[*]

Electrical currents flow through water pretty effortlessly. Since most of our bodies’ water is held in our muscle tissue, the more muscle you have, the more water you have, and the less resistance that current will face.

Since fat doesn’t conduct electricity as well as muscle, the BIA can estimate body fat percentage based on the level of resistance the current encounters. /end science lesson.

Pros: You can buy BIA scanners to measure body fat percentage at home. You can also sometimes find them at supplement stores like GNC or gyms and pay a small fee to use them (around $10). 

Personal devices typically sync with an app to track your data over time; if you get your BIA done at a store or gym, you’ll usually get a print-off to track your data.

Cons: Results can be influenced by factors like hydration levels. Buying one for personal use can be pricey.

🤏 Skinfold Caliper Test: A Classic Approach

Skinfold calipers pinch and measure the thickness of skinfolds and underlying fat tissue at various points across your body. You then plug those measurements into a formula to estimate your body fat percentage.

Psst! Wanna know which formula I personally use and recommend? Become a Savage to find out!

Pros: Skin calipers are affordable and easy to find. You can get a basic one on Amazon or splurge on fancy medical-grade ones.

Cons: They’re less accurate than DEXA or BIA. They’re also tricky to use solo. You’ll need to find someone to take these measurements for you and make sure it’s the same person every time (to prevent fluctuations in your results).

⚖️ Bathroom Scales: The Bare Minimum 

Many new digital bathroom scales now provide an estimated body fat percentage. Some of these use BIA. Others use a generic body fat calculator where you need to input your age, weight, and sex.

Pros: It’s super easy to track your weight during every phase of keto bodybuilding.

Cons: They don’t really measure body fat accurately.

Unless your bathroom scale advertising BIA comes with a handheld feature, it’s just going to measure your lower body and estimate your upper body measurements based on those results. Not super accurate.

However, you can still compare this data on a daily basis to the results you get from your less frequent DEXA or BIA scans. Some data is better than zero data.

🤔 What do I use and recommend? All of these options — with a few rules and caveats you’ll discover in my Savage System.

📅 How Often Should You Test?

There may be times throughout your weight loss journey or competition prep when the scale doesn’t budge. You’ll feel discouraged and unmotivated — even if you’re actually torching body fat and building muscle!

Consistently measuring your body fat and body composition tells you how your body’s evolving. You’ll feel confident that things are moving in the right direction. Or you’ll make informed decisions to tweak your process and drive progress.

Time spent tracking is never time wasted. So here’s what I recommend:

Weigh yourself daily. Again, not to deflate or gas up the ego, but just to get some hard data to work with.

Get a measuring tape. Use one of those flexible, seamstress-style measuring tapes to take circumference measurements of your neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, thighs, calves, and biceps every two weeks.

Take your caliper measurements and get a BIA scan every two weeks. Compare these against each other.

This holistic data should provide a clearer picture of how your body’s progressing independent of your scale weight alone. 

🔥 Using Keto To Reduce Body Fat Percentage

Now that you’ve got the basics, let’s talk strategy. The ketogenic diet is a powerful tool for optimizing body composition. It’s one of the best ways to reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass — especially when combined with strength training.[*][*]

Research proves it can:

• Ignite fat burning. Follow the right keto bodybuilding macros, and you’ll blaze through fat reserves for the energy you need to dominate your workouts and slash your body fat percentage.[*][*]

• Suppress your appetite. Banishing hunger pangs during your calorie deficit makes it easier to achieve more with less.[*][*] And my keto meal prep tips help you maximize your results while minimizing your effort.

• Build and preserve lean muscle mass. Fat loss doesn’t mean compromising muscle mass or performance — ketogenic diets support muscle gains and strength while promoting strict fat loss.[*][*]

• Maintain weight loss. Beat the post-show crash with a keto reverse diet and keep your hard-earned physique.

👉 Bypass the bro science and explore everything you need to know about using a keto diet for bodybuilding victory.

💪 Stop Letting Body Fat Hold You Back; Get Results!

Accomplishing your ideal body fat percentage isn’t just about hitting a number; it’s about aligning that number with your personal goals, whether that's looking lean, crushing a bodybuilding competition, or optimizing your performance. 

If you’re serious about sculpting the physique of a champion, join my Savage System Premium Course. You’ll score LIFETIME access to our ENTIRE COURSE LIBRARY of bodybuilding competition prep tips (150+ videos), plus exclusive downloads, discounts, and perks!

You’re ready to get shredded and strong. I’ll take you on a deep dive to fine-tune your keto bodybuilding strategy and put you on the path to success. Let’s make it happen! 💥