Quote Originally Posted by Grog
I heard about 12% being a serious health treshold, but I haven't researched this. I'm kind of worried too. Let me know what information you find... and what we should do about it.

Okay, as far as what I have found out is that it varies for everyone. Women have 10-12% essential body fat (breasts, hips, reproductive) and you should definately not go below that. Women who aren't athletes are recommended to be in the 21-33% range. Trained athletes often fall in between the two.

When problems arise as far as losing bone mass, period irregularities, etc, is different for each person (different set points). Losing body fat at a fast rate usually causes problems at a higher body fat percentage, but if you lose at a slower weight you can usually go down to a lower set point. Basically, puting your body under too much stress (emotional of physical) can create problems. There's no clear cut answer.

Some doctors recommend putting women who start having menstrual irregularities on the pill as it has been suggested to counteract some of the problems. However, you don't know if they get really low and would stop having them all toghether, so this is a little contorversial. They also recommend exercising less, eating healthy (ie not restricting your diet at all) for 6 months to correct the problem.

If anybody has any other info, let me know as there are still alot of holes in this.