Range of Percent Body Fat in Different People
(Percent body fat found through the method of underwater immersion testing)
Men Women
Fattest Covert has tested 55% 68%
Average American 22% 32%
Healthy normal*:
African-American 12% 19%
Asian 18% 25%
Caucasian 15% 22%
Top Athletes 3-12% 10-18%
Leanest Covert has tested 1% 6%
*The bones of African-Americans tend to be dense and so they sink easily in water. On the other hand, the bones of Asians are
light and porous so they tend to float. To allow for these differences, healthy African-Americans should have a lower percent
body fat than Asians and Caucasians, while Asians should have a higher percent body fat than African-Americans and
Caucasians.
That bit at the bottom got me because I remember discussing innate racials (to borrow a term from you nerds) with the channel the other day and someone threw out "black people can't swim!" which sounded nuts to me. I guess if you sink like a rock every time you get in the water though, yeah, you'll have some trouble learning to swim. Then again I've never known any Asians to be particularly good swimmers? Maybe floating too easily is just as much a disadvantage. God knows Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps are both the whitest motherfuckers on the planet, so I guess it's just a delicate balance thing.
