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Learn > Lifestyle > Progress Tracking

profile avatar Marc Perry, CSCS, CPT Founder

How Much Does Body Fat Affect Athletic Performance?

By Marc Perry, CSCS, CPT - Updated 7/14/2022
Updated 7/14/2022

how to run faster 1

Have you ever wondered how your body fat affects your athletic performance?

How much faster could you run if you lost 5 pounds of pure fat?

I never knew how important getting lean is to athletic performance until I learned the information in this article. With a lower body fat percentage, your athletic performance can improve significantly.

The Origin: How Body Fat Affects Athletic Performance

This past weekend I attended a lecture by Penn State exercise professor Dr. Todd Miller entitled:

“From Overfed to Thoroughbred: Training and Dietary Strategies
for the In-Season Power Athlete”

As I was waiting for his presentation to begin, I thought Dr. Miller was going to discuss a bunch of training and diet strategies I’ve read about many times.

It turns out I was dead wrong.

Dr. Todd began his presentation describing his quest to learn how athletic performance can be maintained for the in-season power athlete. When he became a Strength Coach at Penn State several years ago, Dr. Todd learned of an untapped treasure trove of information on Penn State athletes that had never been analyzed before. This information, which spanned all Varsity sports teams from men’s football to women’s soccer featured strength stats throughout the year on every athlete.

how to run faster 2

Dr. Todd took it upon himself to analyze the data, which he later published in a research paper. As expected, he noticed that athletic performance tended to decrease throughout the season as players decreased overall training volume and increased sports-specific preparation for competitions.

On further review, Dr. Todd noticed that one team in particular – the women’s soccer team – experienced significantly decreased performance in-season relative to the other teams. He also noticed that while the average weight of the female soccer players stayed roughly the same from pre to post-season (136 pounds vs. 134 pounds respectively), body fat increased 3% translating into 6 pounds of muscle loss and 4 pounds of fat gain.

Immediately after reviewing this information, Dr. Todd formulated a questions that would guide the rest of his presentation – “How do changes in body composition affect athletic performance?”.

The Insight: How Much Weight Slows Down A Horse?

After exhaustive research, Dr. Todd could not find any academic papers that answered his simple and important question of how body composition affects athletic performance.

how to run faster 3

He did learn, however, that the horse racing community understood how adding weight to a horse would affect the horse’s running speed. In fact, horse racers had it down to a science.

A race horse is an amazing physical specimen that typically weighs 1300 pounds at around 5-6% body fat and can run up to 45 mph.

With this in mind, see if you can answer the following question:

How much weight do you need to add to a horse to slow it down?

Yes, a horse is a 1300lb animal, but…

If you guessed 200lb, you would be wrong.

If you guessed 50lb, you would be wrong again.

What about 30lb? Nope, that’s not right either.

The answer is 2-5lb is all the extra weight needed to slow down a horse so that it loses a race. In fact, only 2lb extra will slow down a horse roughly 8 feet, or one horse length.

The Analysis: Testing Body Fat & Performance With A Weighted Vest

After learning this intriguing information about race horses, Dr. Todd reasoned even gaining a few pounds of fat for an athlete could have significant performance implications.

He decided to put his reasoning to the test by loading 170 pound athletes with 3.4 pounds (or 2% body fat) and having them complete power related tests, which he published in a research paper.

how to run faster 4

Here’s a quick snapshot of the results:

For a 170 pound athlete, a fat gain of 3.4 pounds (2%), could result in a vertical jump height loss of 2 inches, and a 40 yard dash time increase of 0.26 seconds. If you are not familiar with the 40 yard dash, 0.26 seconds is an eternity.

This is the same sprint test all NFL football players must do at the NFL Combine, which tests the athletic ability of all the athletes before entering the league. A 0.1 second difference can mean millions of dollars.

Going back to those Penn State female soccer players, recall that there was a 4 pound increase in fat (2.9% of body mass) and a 6 pound loss in muscle (4.4% of body mass). We’re talking MAJOR decrease in performance.

The Conclusion: Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle To Boost Athletic Performance

What happens if you are a triathlete, or competitive runner with 20% body fat and a good 10-20 pounds of fat to lose?

Well you are essentially carrying the equivalent of a 10-20 pound dumbbell with you at all times, which is going to have a massive impact on your athletic performance, let alone your joints. One could make the argument that losing the excess fat (without losing muscle of course) would help performance more than logging extra miles.

What about increasing weight by adding muscle mass. Does that hurt performance?

how to run faster 5

The short answer is no, adding muscle typically helps athletic performance. The power/weight ratio, which is meticulously measured by the cycling community is improved when muscle is gained. The power derived from 2 pounds of muscle will more than offset the detriment of adding the 2 pounds of weight.

In some cases, because of aerodynamics, losing overall body mass (muscle mass and fat) can sometimes help a cyclist go faster, but this has not been proven with sprinters and other power related athletes.

What are the key takeaways about increasing athletic performance so you can run faster, jump higher, improve quickness, and also power in a relatively short period of time? The first and most important is:

=> Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle! <=

Here’s the last slide of Dr. Millers’ presentation with his key takeaways:

  • Small increases in body fat lead to profound decrements in anaerobic performance
  • Untracked changes in body composition can mislead one into believing that his/her program is responsible for changes in performance. Therefore, body composition must be taken into consideration for optimal program design.
  • Keep lifting/training volume high during the competitive season
  • Monitor athletes’ body composition over the course of the season
  • Educate athletes about dietary behaviors

    I hope this was an enlightening article for you, because learning this information was a real shocker to me. I always wondered about the athletic performance implications of increases in body fat, but never saw the affect quantified.

    Be sure to share this article with your athlete, triathlete, and marathon running friends!

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  • 9 Comments

    1. profile avatar
      Christian Mar 07, 2012 - 22:30 #

      Very Insightful Article! Knew that excess body fat affected performance but never realized that little amount of body fat can make that much of a difference. Thanks

    2. profile avatar
      mj Mar 07, 2012 - 22:46 #

      This was shocking, but very informative. I am working hard to lose fat without losing muscle. At my age (51) and with my current body composition (very high fat %age), it has not been easy. This gives me encouragement.

    3. profile avatar
      Brandon Mar 09, 2012 - 14:33 #

      Excellent article Marc. And definitely thanks for sharing this. I’ve noticed my sprinting speed and power drastically increase with each bit of fat I lose. I feel lighter on my feet and can push myself harder every bit I lose.

    4. profile avatar
      dave stein Mar 09, 2012 - 16:33 #

      I will try to incorporate this way of thinking as I coach my high school softball team starting next week.

      As usual, a very helpful article.

      Thank you, Dave

    5. profile avatar
      Hank Mar 10, 2012 - 13:20 #

      Wow what great research! It makes great sense and points out, unfortunately for me, how important nutrition is in getting to the next step.

    6. profile avatar
      yash Mar 26, 2012 - 07:23 #

      wow thanks bro very informative 🙂

      1. profile avatar
        Marc Perry, CSCS, CPT Mar 26, 2012 - 09:43 #

        Happy you enjoyed the article!

    7. profile avatar
      Dimitris Jun 24, 2012 - 04:11 #

      Hi, Marc! Nice article indeed.
      Could you offer any insight on the ideal body fat % for boxers-MMA fighters?
      Does “the lower, the better” apply there too, or a bf around 12-14% would provide some kind of valuable antishock layer against punches,kicks?

      Thank you!

      1. profile avatar
        Marc Perry, CSCS, CPT Jun 28, 2012 - 11:20 #

        @Dimitris – That’s a really tough call Dimitris, because overall body weight is a factor in the fighting equation. Some fighters use their body weight as an advantage more than others, so my answer would be it depends on how much you use your body weight to your advantage. If you don’t, then yes, getting as lean as possible is ideal, so you can be as quick and strong as possible at a given body weight. This question is similar to let’s say a football player, because some positions need to be very lean and other positions like a linemen need a lot of bodyweight with some fat.

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