9
Jul

Have a body like Bruce Lee

Well I was watching the above video of Bruce Lee on YouTube and his physique always amazes me; still do now and when I was also a young boy watching his movies in the 80’s. I got wondering of how low was Bruce Lee body fat was

“Bruce Lee had a very—I mean a very defined physique. He had very little body fat. I mean, he probably had one of the lowest body fat counts of any athlete. And I think that’s why he looked so believable” – by George Lee, his equipment manager

The more I try to find the exact Bruce Lee body fat, well there was conflicting reports, from zero to three, to eight per cent body fat. Well what ever it is, his body fat is indeed low

“Bruce Lee’s diet and exercise regime meant that he had close to zero percent body fat” – by Motley Health who wrote the original Bruce Lee Diet article

Near to his death, it seems Bruce Lee’s bodyfat is so low that it was one of the likely possible factors that he got sick and transpires into his coma. After that we all knew the story from there. There was too much water in his brain from an allergic reaction to aspirin. He asked for some pills for his head and while lying on the couch went into a coma and never woke up. Bruce Lee died like 3-4 days after that in hospital

“On May 10th, 1973 he ate some in the bathroom and then collapsed on the floor at Golden Harvest Studio, regained consciousness and then collasped again, and went into convulsions and seizures and was throwing up, then went comatose. Dr. Langford was very concerned about Bruce having no body fat left, as this will only worsen side effects of drugs in his system. There is no fat to help absorb it, and he also had his sweat glands removed later in 1972″ – via bruceleedivinewind.com

So don’t play with your bodyfat content. Stay on a proper diet and training, and everything should be fine. I think Bruce Lee took his job and training to the extreme. A volatile combination as he wants to be cutting edge in his field, be it martial arts or movies

“At his peak, Bruce’s body fat was 3%. He could do that cause he had a huge metabolism, and was pretty compact but if any normal American or European had that body fat percentage, you would be seriously unhealthy and sick. The ideal body fat percentage for the average male (as calculated by Mens Health) is 11%” – by some forum user

Back to my own bodyfat content, I myself am measuring my bodyfat percentage using the skinfold method. Not the most accurate readings but the only one I could afford. Have you been to those fitness stores. I looked around for a bodyfat measurement machine called the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis and it cost a bomb! Looks fancy but lo-and-behold, similar to skinfold method it has a possible error reading of +-10%. So why buy the more expensive one right. At least the skinfold method is cheaper

Recommended Bodyfat Content

Athletes : 16–20% (Women) 6–13% (Men)
Fitness : 21–24% (Women) 14–17% (Men)
Acceptable : 25–31% (Women) 18–25% (Men)
Obese : 30%+ (Women) and 25%+ (Men)

Now my bodyfat percentage is at 7% using the skinfold method. So it is an acceptable range as indicated from the above table via “The American Council on Exercise”. So the most I could still lose another 1-2% of bodyfat if there’s a possibility of an error readout reading by my measuring device (I use Accu-Measure caliper by the way)

7% bodyfat (above) looks about right you think? Or is my bodyfat measurement is totally wrong