Which Body Fat Percentage formula to use?

mjutan

Hey MFP Friends,

I just testing my body fat percentage with the 3 formulas on Fat2Fit.com and got pretty wildly varying results. Which one do you suggest? I am 29 years old, 185 lbs (from 211!) But still planning to lose another 15-20 lbs.

"Original" Formula: 23.8%
Military Formula: 22.4%
Covert Bailey Formula: 17.5%.

Which one is close to correct?

NotGoddess

Covert-Bailey was touted as more accurate but from the anecdotal evidence I've seen with my own checks and posts here and about the web it seems to regularly give a lower number than the others.

My advice? If you really want to be accurate, get a DEXA or similar test. If you are just wanting to track progress, pick one, or pick all three and check back. Any check will show progress.

I use all three periodically and they've shown corresponding losses/gains, but I'm either 24% at the CB end (do not believe) or 34% at the high end. But all show I've lost about 3%.