Ffmi

Totentanz

Super Moderator
Staff member
I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are about Fat Free Mass Index? I was checking it out the other day and found it somewhat depressing. According to the page I was reading, a natural individual cannot expect to exceed a FFMI of 25.
I think it is a given that adding on extra fat mass would allow one to carry more fat free mass. Thoughts about that?

For what it's worth, based on my current weight and overestimating by bodyfat as 20% gave me a result of 25.5 (pretty sure I'm around 18% max since my abs are still slightly visible, though perhaps I simply have a lot of visceral fat...) which is pretty disappointing because I'm nowhere near as big as I would like to be.

I'm curious where some of the rest of the users here sit at FFMI. You can use this page: Fat Free Mass Index to find out. Obviously if you way underestimate or way overestimate bodyfat percentage then your FFMI wil be skewed. Also, I did some reading of an article by Lyle about it as well: Fat-Free Mass Index in Users and NonUsers of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids – Research Review

Basically the gist of it from what I got was that I, personally, cannot diet down naturally or I will lose probably a pretty significant amount of my lean mass, and that I won't get much more muscular than I am now unless I accept even more fat gain. This does jive with my experience this last year. I've frequently hit a ceiling of how much I could gain when I get around the 230 lb mark, and once I let myself become fatter, I suddenly started gaining more muscle and more strength. Probably, I was at or very near my natural limit of lean mass I could carry at a relatively decent bodyfat (read <15%)

Anyone else coming upon this issue?
 
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I am not coming up on this issue but it interests me because my goal right now it just to get as big and strong as I can w/o getting to ridiculously fat. However, using the calculator here on this site it says my weight at 8% BF will be 169 with a LBM of 148. So I’ve been curious what I could expect if I let my BF go up to around 15% or even a little higher. I seldom go w/o a shirt so I don’t care if I can see my abs or not.

I ran my numbers and came up with this:

Weight: 156 lbs
Bodyfat: 13.0%
Height: 5’6”
=
Lean: 136 lbs
FFMI 22
Adjusted FFMI: 21.3

I also have a feeling based on how my body weight is increasing vs how I look that much of my fat is also visceral. I mean I can definitely see my face is fuller but I still have a lot of definition and it seems the various body locations for measuring with calipers just aren’t fattening up as much as my weight increase would seem to indicate.

Very interesting stuff. I’ll be reading about it so if you find more info please post it.
 
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