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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025

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Abs on women are fairly risky. You need 10-14% body fat for that. Women with <17% body fat risk amenorrhea, and under 11% it's almost certain. Amenorrhea due to low body weight & exercise is associated with depletion of bone density, stress fractures etc.

'Relative Energy Deficiency' used to be called 'Female Athlete Triad'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_energy_deficiency_in_sport#Prognosis

Is body fat percentage really very useful in women given the variable distribution?

I mean, somewhat. I learned about it from my first gf who was a wasn't even that unhealthily thin, 5'6", 115 lbs, exercised a lot and actually didn't have visible abs.

Body fat has a hormonal role and low body fat can be actually fairly harmful. Sure it's individual - she'd probably have been okay if she cut her exercise to half.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-019-0230-6

if TL;DR, wikipedia summary

Previously treated as being hormonally inert, in recent years adipose tissue has been recognized as a major endocrine organ,[3] as it produces hormones such as leptin, estrogen, resistin, and cytokines (especially TNFα).[2] In obesity, adipose tissue is implicated in the chronic release of pro-inflammatory markers known as adipokines, which are responsible for the development of metabolic syndrome—a constellation of diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis.[2][4]