How accurate are online body fat calculators?

rhon456
rhon456 Posts: 15 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Just curious to know my body fat %age. Went on to Google and found this site

http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

which gave me 20%. But then I used the YMCA calculator which gave me 25%. Are either accurate?

Replies

  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
    Not very. Prior to a recent hydrostatic testing I experimented with 20+ online calculators. The results went as low as 14.5% (no way) and as high as 21.5% (possible). My Omron scale showed around 25% (didn't think likely). The hydro results came back at 19% for me.

    FWIW - the US Navy calculator gave me a result of 1% less than the hydro test.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    get some calipers. If you're using measurements for those calculators take at least three...and then take the average...it's difficult to measure in exactly the same place every time which throws off the numbers in the calculator. I use a combination of calipers, measurements, and my mirror...I don't have any reason to know what my exact number is.

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