Does Lowering Body Fat Percentage Improve Performance?
So the question that needs to be answered is this – does lower percent body fat improve performance? It really depends on what the athlete’s body fat percentage is to begin with. If an athlete is already at 15% body fat, reducing more body fat will most likely not result in an improvement of performance especially if her skill level is already high. However, if a female athlete has a body fat percentage of 30, losing body fat may improve performance in a number of ways. Reducing overall body fat can improve the body’s ability to perform because a reduction of fat reduces the strain on the cardiovascular system. Less body fat also means less weight for the muscles to have to carry and move during activities. Last, a percentage of body fat that is too high (greater than 30%) increases the loads on the weight-bearing bones which may make the athlete at risk for bone, joint, and tendon injuries (i.e., stress fractures in tibia, patellar pain). Another consideration is that reducing weight
