How can a person be 50% fat when we consist of approximately 60% of water?

Question

How can one person consist of 50% fat and 60% water? What about the rest?

In: Biology

Answer 1

“x% water” is relative to molecules – it means x% of your mass are from water molecules.

“x% fat” is relative to tissues – x% of your mass is in fat tissue.

These two percentages are not mutually exclusive – fat tissue has a large proportion of water molecules too.