Bodybuilders need to do nothing but walk around for a minute when competing, they require no energy whatsoever. They're even dehydrated to look leaner. It's not like they train in those conditions. Plus, a bodybuilders massive lean body mass would only mean that 5% for him is a much bigger amount of fat than 5% would be for an NBA guard. Said guard, on the other hand, does need "inhuman" energy to play at the NBA level for stretches of multiple minutes at a time, let a lone over the course of an 82 game season. I'd hazard a guess most NBA athletes measure in between 7-10% and that's not their sustained bf% throughout the season. tldr: Stop making things up in topics you have no idea about and stating them as facts. ps: Both Melo and LeBron lost incredible amounts of bulk in the short month after the NBA made David Lee pee in a cup. Just saying.
there are no nba players around 5% bodyfat. when you start to get that low in bodyfat if sustained it becomes very unhealthy. The vigors of NBA basketball, travelling and 82 games, training, if any was at 4-5% bodyfat for a season they would drop dead.
If any NBA player is even less than 8% BF I'd be impressed. For Body Builders to drop below 5% they need to pretty much stop eating and drinking water for 2-3 days before competition. Most of those guys talk about how they're physically exhausted from simply not eating when competition rolls around. Show me an NBA player that looks like that.. and he's probably not even below 5% this thread just got weird because I had to post that picture... no homo.
ya people are throwing out bodyfat percentages like it's exact science. first off...what is the accepted gold standard for measuring body fat? underwater? dexa scan? there's soo much variations among those methods. 2nd..two people can look drastically different at the same bodyfat %. My 10% is not going look all that great compared to the guy posted above..he has a crap ton more muscle. Most nba players are ~8-10%.
Is that even physical beneficial... to stop eating for 2-3 days...? Wouldn't there be loss of muscle mass, as well..? Lastly, 3 days without drinking water can is too much... you risk death by dehydration...
"The average American male's percentage of body fat is 15-20%. The average professional athlete's is 7-8%. [Michael] Jordan's body fat was measured at 4%." https://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00242495.html
Like i said before, percentages are going to be rounded down to look more impressive AND they're usually done with calipers. Even those with experience using them can get results that are lower than what is actually there. Unless they're getting scans, those numbers are probably 3-4% lower than reality. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=7059241 I also had a DEXA scan done years ago in college. IIRC, it read 16% and my caliper results were usually around 12-13%.
No chance that is correct. Also taking your source from 17 years ago seems a little ridiculous in itself, since then there have been advancements in measuring. This imo is a much better guide (pictures are included): http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=143204903 I'd say MOST FIT NBA players are ~10%, with a few around 7-9%
Most of the guys at high level ride a very fine line of exhaustion for contest prep. 3 days may be extreme but most will stop drinking water at least 2 days beforehand and drink wine to dehydrate themselves. They'll also cut carbs complete for the last 4-5 days and then load them the morning before contest for fullness. All you have to do is Google contest prep dehydration and there's a million articles and first hand accounts of these guys literally killing themselves for 3 days to look perfect. But that's literally my point, for elite bodybuilders who's whole job is looking good to reach anything below 5% they literally have to starve themselves and not drink water. Physically no way an NBA player can maintain anything below 8-10%
