Body Fat %, I'm confused!

skinimin

So I just calculated my bodyfat % on http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/metric-body-fat-calculator.php and it said my BF% was 31.03% which is at the very top of the acceptable BF% range, 32% BF is obese. But I am cleaaarrrrllyy no where near obese, so what gives? Maybe I put the measurements in wrong or maybe the site isn't reputable? I'm not going to try and reduce my weight because of this I just want some sort of insight or explanation!

32% as being obese for women by the way! For men it is a lower number.

Oshawott

Do the measurements on your own. Body fat calculators don't take into account muscle vs. fat, so they will always ALWAYS be wrong.

dave4d

Online calculators are not real accurate for reading body fat %. I've used several, and they each vary by around 5%. I bought a set of calipers from GNC. It takes some practice doing it right, but they work a lot better than anything online.

SHBoss1673

online body fat tests are going to be fairly inaccurate. Best to have it done by a professional with lots of experience or have it done with either a bod pod machine or via hydrostatic testing.

pyro13g

Based on your pictures I find it hard to believe you're over 20%.

rileysowner

What exactly does it use to calculate your body fat%

skinimin

Yeah I think I should just stick to professionals if I really wanted to find out. Wow though that was very weird, those sites should be illegal as they are very dangerous! For me to have a BF% of 20 I would have to weigh about 44kg- that would give me a BMI of 15 and make me official anorexic by DSM standards. If teenage girls got their hands on things like this it would be very dangerous and bad for their self esteem!

skinimin

What exactly does it use to calculate your body fat%

they wanted weight, waist, wrist, hips, forearm. I don't think my wrists/arms have changed since I was 13, it's like that for all the women in my family.

yanicka

I have the same probleme. I am in a size 4-6 pants but my BF is 34%. The shorter we are the less sens it does.

taso42_DELETED

Just agreeing with the above.. online calculators have a high margin of error for BF%. You can get a much closer estimate with a pair of inexpensive calipers. But yes, the best way is to get it tested professionally.

jetscreaminagain

I'm glad you're putting this up because today I used a similar calculator, looking for similar measurements and it had a whacky answer as compared with 2 weeks ago. I also have a scale that does body fat percentages and it is sometimes all over the map--probably related to hydration, but often with 3 different numbers when I step on it 3 times in a row. I get that body fat is a better thing to worry about than pounds or BMI for several reasons, it just isn't very easy to use often for tracking progress. Thanks for the info. You're clearly not even close to obese!

4alison4

I posted a similar topic a few weeks ago. The "fancy" scale at my gym supposedly measures body fat and mine was 31.2%. I was appalled! Apparently those things are notoriously inaccurate and the only way to get a good reading is being dunked in the tank? I feel your pain, though, I just want to know the truth!

taso42_DELETED

Scales are way off too. If you're going to test at home, calipers are the only way to go, and they're cheap enough that it's a no-brainer.

pyro13g

In case you get calipers.

http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

jhardenbergh

I tried that website you posted and wanted to see the difference between that and my scale that will measure body fat, the website had me 5% less than my scale. I don't know what's more accurate, I am guessing my scale. The website has me at 35% and I am roughly 100 lbs overweight and by the looks of your pictures I am sure I am more than 5% more body fat than you.

rileysowner

Just agreeing with the above.. online calculators have a high margin of error for BF%. You can get a much closer estimate with a pair of inexpensive calipers. But yes, the best way is to get it tested professionally.

There online ones that use caliper measurements such as this one: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

They are accurate, or at least as accurate as your caliper measurements. It would be much more accurate than using the measurements the original poster was asked for.

Caliper measurements by someone trained would be better.

Bod Pod and the one done under water are probably the best.

I wish I could find a reasonably prices bod pod around London Ontario. The only place I can find wants something like $100 for it, and it is not worth that to me.

Dom_m

What exactly does it use to calculate your body fat%

they wanted weight, waist, wrist, hips, forearm. I don't think my wrists/arms have changed since I was 13, it's like that for all the women in my family.

Could be you're measuring the wrong places.
To measure your waist, you need to get the tape around the narrowest part between your ribs and hips. Measuring this accurately can be quite difficult, so any BF% test based on a waist circumference is likely to contain errors.
Hips are the widest part, generally a bit below your actual hip bones
Forearm is the widest part between elbow and wrist.
Wrist is the between the hand and the nobly bone part of your wrist.

Also, I noticed your also in Aus, so I guess you're using kg and cm. Make sure the site is set to metric. If you're putting in metric measurements and the site is expecting imperial its all gonna come out wack. (and you have to be consistent: you can't use cm and lb for instance.)

Having said that, at the AIS they recommend not measuring BF%. They use Sum of 7 Skinfolds. You can find out about how to measure and interpret the results here: http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/skinfolds.htm
I'm pretty sure the Sum of 7 doesn't include the supraspinal measurement. Of course its really difficult to measure your own tricep and subscap, so best to have someone who can help. Doing your own bicep is hard too since you really need to be able to pinch the spot with one hand and measure with the other. But if you're more interested in progress than comparing yourself to other people you can sort of do it yourself as long as you're careful to be consistent over time. You can probably get a pair of reasonable callipers from a sports store for about $10.

[edit: my bad, its the iliac crest that isn't included in the sum of 7. The details are at the website I linked to above]

golfbrew_matt

I would not use this calculator. I checked it out and got 32% for me even though I've been measured with calipers and I'm more like 18%. Completely inaccurate.