Scientific fitness | what happened to people who kept low body fat rate for many years?

Date:2022-07-11  Hits:622  Belong to:Motor function assessment and scientific fitness

Recently, a sad news has exploded in the fitness circles at home and abroad. Scott Murray, an Irish Internet celebrity fitness blogger, died suddenly of heart disease and his life was forever fixed at the age of 27. He was extremely disciplined during his lifetime. In order to maintain perfect muscle lines, his body fat rate was maintained at about 5% all year round. The low body fat rate seriously damaged his health.

What is body fat ratio?

Body fat ratio refers to the proportion of body fat weight in the total body weight, also known as body fat percentage, which reflects the amount of fat in the body. The normal range of body fat rate of adults is 20% - 25% for women and 15% - 18% for men. The body fat rate of athletes generally depends on the sports events, which is 7% - 15% for male athletes and 12% - 25% for female athletes.

The body fat rate can be accurately measured by a professional body composition analyzer.

What is the harm of low body fat rate?


Fat, protein and carbohydrate are three essential nutrients for human body. Fat has the functions of storing and supplying energy, promoting glucose metabolism, and promoting the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. In addition, fat is of great significance for children in the growth and development period; For women in childbearing period, fat is also a necessary condition for maintaining normal ovarian function.


Usually, people only care about the high body fat rate (such as obesity and the resulting "three highs"), and ignore the harm caused by the low body fat rate. In fact, low body fat ratio is more harmful in some aspects, such as malnutrition, hormone level disorders, immune decline and other problems, and induce other diseases; Women will also cause amenorrhea, ovarian atrophy, infertility and other serious consequences.


A study in the United States also found that low body fat ratio will affect the normal operation of the cardiovascular system. According to an article published in the International Journal of exercise physiology and performance, when bodybuilders reduce body fat in preparation for competition, their heart rate drops to 27 beats per minute. Low heart rate will lead to dizziness, syncope and cardiac arrest; At the same time, low body fat rate will also lead to electrolyte disorders, even arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

How to avoid tragedy happening again?

According to news reports, Scott Murray, a fitness blogger who died young, burned an amazing 5000 calories a day in training in order to maintain a body fat rate of 5%, which is 2-3 times that of normal men. Low body fat rate and overloaded training induce acute heart disease. Painful facts tell us that fitness must not be blind, but scientific. Especially for people who love long-distance running and large amount of bodybuilding training, deliberately pursuing a low body fat rate is a very dangerous behavior.

Fitness must be scientific in order to avoid the tragedy happening again. Scientific fitness, first of all, we must carry out exercise function uation, eliminate the risk of heart disease like Scott, and the risk of other sports injuries, and comprehensively understand our physical foundation. Secondly, the training program must be scientifically formulated according to the physical condition and sports ability, and it is best to be customized by professionals, not to follow suit. In addition, it is necessary to cooperate with individualized and targeted full nutrition diet plan and psychological prescription. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of safe fitness, effective fitness and happy fitness.

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