Calculators?

Aeriesified
Aeriesified Posts: 206 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Can anyone point me in the direction of some accurate calculators for body fat, lean body mass, etc? I just used http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/lbm_calculator.htm and http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/ and I'm seriously doubting the results. It's saying that based on my measurements, my body fat percentage is only 27%. Those results sound really good to me, since they're in the 'acceptable' range, but I really doubt those numbers. That's way too good to be true. There's no way my body fat percentage is acceptable with the tummy I have.

Replies

  • jasonp_ritzert
    jasonp_ritzert Posts: 357 Member
    Honestly, from what I've seen, 27% body fat is acceptable on a woman. Women typically carry more body fat than men. I've used those same calculators you reference and compared their results to other online calculators I found through google, and they are all pretty close. However, to get an accurate body fat index, you need calipers or another fat measuring devicein your hand as opposed to an online calculator.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    In principle, no body composition assessment tool is going to be entirely accurate - most will have deviations between 2-10%. I find the online calculators can be quite off due to human error with tape measurements. Regardless of which method you use, assessments should only be done every three months since the rate of fat loss is significantly less than the deviation error within body composition assessment tools. You can read more here:

    http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=218
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    It may be using the body fat percentage calculation from the 1991 British Journal of Nutrition study, which uses only BMI and age. It's claimed to be as accurate as calipers, but I ran the calculation for myself, and it seems very low. By the US Navy body fat calculation, my BF% is about 26%. By the BJN calculation, it's 22%. Comparing myself to example male BF% pictures, I believe that the 26% figure is more accurate.

    Try the US Navy body fat calculator here - http://goo.gl/tIjnK

    Also compare your body to the following pictures to get a feel -

    body-fat-percentage-women.jpg

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