Question about health and body fat

[RecoilM8]

Hello everyone,
I've recently discovered about this forum and decided to give it a go.

Anyways, I'm 19 years old and have CF.
I've started going to the gym regulary (5-6 days a week) the past few months with the goal to acheive low body fat and build some muscles.
Now, I'm at around 12% body fat and would like to go down to around 8% body fat to have more defined muscles.
My parents are being parents and are worried about health issues. Question is, does having such low body fat can damage somehow my lung function or overall health?


Thanks.

 

[welshwitch]

Speaking from experience, the CF body needs more calories to fight infections and keep the lungs healthy. The exact science of this I'm not 100% sure about. But if you're going to be putting in serious hours at the gym, just up your calorie intake! When I'm training for half marathons, I sometimes have a bit of trouble keeping my weight up. My cough gets a bit worse when I'm hungry. Hunger increases inflammation for me. Again, not sure why. So I just spend a bit more time on increasing my caloric level. Enjoy! The benefits of working out far outweigh any negatives!

 

[RecoilM8]

I'll try to be more clear. I don't mind keeping my calories in-take high once I reach my goal (way higher than my BMR because lifting does burn calories). I'm just wondering if 8% body fat has any any bad effect on the body when you have CF?

 

[welshwitch]

No idea

 

[RecoilM8]

Alright pal, thanks anyways
I'll just go for it and see if I feel any difference between now and then.

 

[Twistofchaos]

8% bodyfat is really low once you have grown some musclemass. At that point it's also way leaner than people tend to think and should not be underestimated.
Once you have some mass it's rarely neccessary to go that low. Ie. you'll likely have plenty of definition at a higher bodyfat% as well and might look better in the process because without steroids you'll probably look fuller/bigger at say 10%.
But okay each body is different and also you are quite young which too helps in maintaining a low bodyfat%.
As you work out longer you'll find out for yourself how your body responds to cutting down low.

For me, anything at or just above 10% doesn't seem to hurt me, my mass or my strength but once I drop below that I start to lose mass and strength fast. Especially on/in my legs. My energylevels throughout the day start to go down and I start to produce more mucus which is a big sign my body has started to run low on general reserves. With negative effects in the long run.

But honestly, you have been lifting only a very short time and cutting down now would be a waste. You have no mass yet and if I was you I'd try to grow/bulk for a while. Make use of my beginner gains, learn about my body, nutrition and aim for next summer.

 

[Melissa75]

I don't think your post indicated whether you are male or female. If you're female, then 8% is too low and I believe you'd experience health problems--CF or not. I'm guessing you're a man as 8% is right on the line between "Althete" and "Underfat" aka problems. According to these charts:

http://gapsa.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Body-Composition-Fact-Sheet.pdf

I ride that Underfat line as a woman, and a rock climber and dancer with non-CF bronchiectasis. BUT my muscle mass is not inconsiderable, so my BMI is inside the normal range.

So, I think your overall body weight would play into how risky it is to have low body fat. You need to have reserves in the face of weight-loss inducing infections. I honestly don't know the value of muscle reserves vs. fat. Hopefully someone will chime in if they do!

I think the chart below is saying what I'm saying--that if your body fat is low from althletics, you can support numbers on the low end. (I still wouldn't go under 14% as a woman or 8% as a man.)

Chart from this link: http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

P.S. I hope you get some responses from additional CFers here, especially those who lift. (And while I was writing this, you did. Yay!)

P.S.S. I want to add that I urge you to focus on performance and how your body feels, and not the numbers. Pay attention to your energy level, your temperature regulation, your sore (not injured) muscle recovery time. This info and not any number is what you need to use to regulate how hard you work out so you hit the sweet spot of getting stronger.

 

[RecoilM8]

Thank you all for the answers.

@twistofchaos I've been a soccer player for 7 years (quit 2 years ago) and been lifting for a few months now so I've already had some muscles on me. I also always was pretty normal when it comes to body fat (11.5% - 15%). I just recently really got into the gym addiction and would like to have a more defined build with a 6 pack (gotta flex for it to really shows) so once again, not really worried about my health as I know that 8% is healthy, was just wondering if having lower fat mass than normal would effect somehow my lungs.

@Melissa75 Hahaha probably should've mentioned that I'm a male Thanks however for the reply. As I've said above, I'll just go for it and see if there's any difference in my PFT.

 

[Twistofchaos]

Thank you all for the answers.

@twistofchaos I've been a soccer player for 7 years (quit 2 years ago) and been lifting for a few months now so I've already had some muscles on me. I also always was pretty normal when it comes to body fat (11.5% - 15%). I just recently really got into the gym addiction and would like to have a more defined build with a 6 pack (gotta flex for it to really shows) so once again, not really worried about my health as I know that 8% is healthy, was just wondering if having lower fat mass than normal would effect somehow my lungs.

@Melissa75 Hahaha probably should've mentioned that I'm a male Thanks however for the reply. As I've said above, I'll just go for it and see if there's any difference in my PFT.

How are you so sure 8% bodyfat is healthy? Because your immune system is significantly less effective at 8% than it is at 12% making you more susceptible to virusses and infection and infact even a lot of very healthy athletes are struggling with that at the lower bodyfat %'s.
When you do come down with something your body does not have many reserves to fight stuff with. If you get a serious flu or whatever at 6% you might as well drive to the hospital right away and enjoy your stay.
Too low a bodyfat effects your hormones negatively (as does too high a bodyfat, so you want to be around your body's setpoint.) and at 19 can negatively effect the last possible bit of your growth.

Not here to argue ofcourse and also some experimentation is quite fine. But you have to be extra careful because from a CF perspective once your PFT's start to drop you're already too late.

PS. I read "soccer already gave me muscles" and "6 pack" in a single post. Brotip: Don't do that.

 

[LittleLab4CF]

At age 18 I was 115 pounds hung on a 5'11' frame. I was swimming one mile a day before my first class. The pool was cool for racing and the idea was to gain some insulation in the form of fat. Wrong. I lost what little fat I had keeping warm. A mile swim is a calorie burner and you'll look like wirey cowboy with the very strings of your muscles showing if you wish. I needed fat and you are converting body fat to muscle. I suggest patience, we fill out at an older age. This is a generalisation but here's my body weight pattern. By age 20 I was a very strong 125 pounds and doing extreme sports. I was just at 135 pounds at age 30 and ballooned out to 170 in my late thirties into my forties with the extreme sport of non stop international business travel. All my excesses came crashing down when I was essentially spent somewhere around age fifty. Since then I try to keep at 140 pounds. I subscribe to reasonable body fat proportions. It is vital insurance in keeping illnesses from taking hold but an exchange of fat for muscle mass gives you a reserve that partially replaces body fat.

I have the impression that CFers in general have similar statistics. The only other CFer I've met was a 27 year old woman who more or less told me her life story in ten minutes. I was a little amused by this cherubic and charming young lady because I easily could have talked HER leg off instead. The added stress infections and pain CF presents puts most of us in a constant fight or flight state. To this day a portion of my aches and pains are my kidneys, just from the unintended adrenaline washing through a common arterial path. Depending on how taxed a CFer is by chronic conditions or diminishing functions we need a load of calories.

If you are trading fat for muscle somewhere in the equation is a dietary choice to reduce or tailor your intake to achieve a desired fat percentage. You're the one making that decision. Rather than worrying your folks I suggest you see a sports medicine specialist and calm every fear or doubt.

LL

 

[Melissa75]

This subject stayed on my mind and I wanted to check if I had correctly represented myself as almost at the underfat cutoff line, but not underweight, and thus healthy.

Background is that I'd had my bodyfat % done as part of a fitness eval six yrs ago when I weighed the same as I weigh now BUT was out of shape (hard to walk 20 min). It was 14%, which for women is the lowest you can go before being unhealthy, and this was a PT guy at the gym using the calipers method.

So, now six yrs later, I'm very dedicated to exercise, and I figured the % might be even lowersince I weigh the same. Well, I used one of those machines today and pinged 15.8. So, my conclusions are 1) the first measurement was probably wrong and 2) I have no interest in going near the underfat cut-off line if this is how cut I am 2% points above it.