Confused about body fat

jomiley23

Why is there such a discrepancy between the Military calculator, the Covert Bailey calculator, and the Fat2Fit original BF calculator?
Between the three of them I am either

1. CB - Lean body mass of 161 and BF of 32%
2. F2F - Lean body mass of 170 and BF of 27%
3. MC - Lean body mass of 127 and BF of 43%

Those are HUGE differences. By number 1 and number 2 - I'm almost at an acceptable range of BF for a 35yo female. But that would assume that I am built like some of those small guys who play for the NFL. Not the case. I'm very muscular for someone who hardly works out. It's almost not fair. But I'm not fit, and I am not healthy at my current weight.

So here are the real deal digits, and some of you guys who do this for a living tell me what I should shoot for because this all affects my future self BMR that sets my goal calorie target and ultimate goal weight.

Weight 236.9
Height - 67.5"
Neck - 15"
Wrist - 7"
Forearm - 9.5"
Bicep flexed - 14.25"
Bust - 48"
Waist - 42" ...see what I mean about not being healthy
Hip - 46"
Thigh - 26"
Calf -16.25"

I have based everything off of the most conservative calculation - the military bf% - so I'm shooting for a goal weight of 168 and 22%bf. My calorie count is set to BMR of 1630. That's my min. I eat that, usually more, then create deficit (usually) with exercise. I try not to net any less than 1200. Not seeing great results right now in weight loss, but I've been working on running endurance and getting fitter in that way.

Any tips?

kathleennf

Wish I knew too! I come out different on different ones as well.
This is the one that I have been using:
http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html
I picked it because it came out closest to the little impedance meter they used in my former gym, and because it uses more measurements than the military one but of course IDK if it is really more accurate or not.

jadedone

I posted these pics in another thread:




It of course doesn't have all the options, but you can guesstimate to see what you are closer too. There is some debate on the accuracy for shorter or bigger people. Now I am getting a range of about 6-7% on the online calculators. I think I am somewhere between the extremes.

irisheyez718

I'm confused about this too. I was measured and used the Tanita body composition analyzer, and it told me my BF% was 47.8%, but when I used the Military Calculator on Fat2Fit it gave me a BF % of 56.4 (ouch!) That's a big difference!

gp79

Are you using the army regulation AR 600-9 to do your measurements? It will specify the actual testing sites, and how to do them. If not, this number will be skewed. Being in the military, I find the military test to be the most accurate body fat test when compared to my bod pod test. Bod Pod test had me at 17.6 and military method had me at 16.5. 1.2% difference, is close enough for an estimate.

I'm sure you can find the regulation online.

Papillon22

I've found the same. I took note of both numbers and will keep checking with the same calculators as I lose weight.

Now, if you want to know for sure, then you could have one of these:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfit/bodycomp.html

I'd like to do the underwater one, btw.