General

Okay so my boyfriend said he has a higher body fat percentage than he would like. He said he wants to be at 15% body fat or below. Right now I guess he is at 20%. I’m so confused by this because first off he looks way more muscular and built. Second he’s not fat at all or even more whatever. Third is that he has clearly put on more muscle. It was fucking annoying to hear. He said that his concern over the percentage has to do with longevity and setting himself up for success in his later 30s and 40s and so on. He said the muscle now will make it so his body will have a tendency towards that. I understand that just I am really digging how he looks. I’m worried he will get all scrawny or something. Idk I’m also just dealing with a lot of stress right now in general because a lot of my work got very inconsistent so I’m on edge already. But yeah I mean I told him all of this. But yeah idk I’m so confused. I never think about that stuff cause I have a tendency to straight up forget to eat even if I’m hungry. To the point where I’ll have a meltdown and not realize it’s from forgetting to eat. I’ve been in shape and strong and healthy all my life. Most of it probably underweight not on purpose though. A lot of food just did not agree with me. Apparently I can’t handle things with corn syrup in them or dairy and just a lot of processed stuff messes with me. So I tend to only want to eat useful food. And I won’t eat the food if it doesn’t count as useful. Just I often would rather not eat than eat stuff that will make me sick. I honestly was not aware that he would get crappy food on the days that I’m not with him. I also am not as affected by food in terms of body composition. I either have more layers of muscle or I just have less on me. As in I lose the fat first and I guess would gain the fat last. It’s strange. It sounds like a good thing but it can be bad if I get sick or am unable to get the food I need. That’s why I’m so confused by his whole percentage thing. Idk sry this is so random.

If he wants to get muscular, but drop his body fat, he isn't getting scrawny. He's getting lean. I am begging all of you to get out of the fat-thin binary. All of y'all should have learned this in school.

See an immunologist about what foods you can and cannot eat. Meal prep ahead of time so there is less work for you, and have a snack stash. Healthy snacks are the best, but anything will do.

How is he measuring his bodyfat? There are a lot of ways to measure and most of them aren't very accurate.
Basically, if you look fat, you're fat. If you have visible muscle definition, you're not. Maybe suggest he try a different type of measurement.
Also, a lot of people obsess over percentage numbers. Just like they do over weight. Only thing is weight is objectively much easier to measure.

There are a lot of various tests. That said, if you want to go from 20% body fat to 15%, it's not an issue of being fat. It's more about improving your body definition.

Here are some examples of what men might look like with various body fat percentages.



As you can see, 20% body fat isn't fat, but 15% body fat isn't necessarily thin either.