Ok, stupid question.

fivecardstudpts
fivecardstudpts Posts: 38 Member
edited January 12 in Health and Weight Loss
Exactly how do you figure out your body fat percentage? Or is that your BMI?
Thanks
Jessica

Replies

  • RachelBiancaxx
    RachelBiancaxx Posts: 62 Member
    Go here;

    www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

    You'll need a tape measure xx
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    No, it's not your BMI. If you can find someone qualified to use them, calipers are not bad. Unfortunately, many who claim to be skilled with them actually are not. You can get scales or other devices to measure it by bioimpedance, and this is fairly accurate if you are not retaining a lot of water. Some devices will measure water as fat. I don't know how accurate the one's that give a reading for wate and fat are. It is good for giving a good picture of your lean body mass, though.

    The most reliable methods require expensive medical tests such as hydrostatic weighing and DeXA scan (considered by many as the gold standard for measuring BF).

    There are also online calculators that will give you a decent guess if you use several of them and take the average.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    BMI is simply a ratio between weight and height (well, not quite so simple, it's height squared or something). It tells you nothing about body fat %. Body builders, who probably have about 10% body fat, would be in the obese category of BMI … it is very limited in it's usefulness.

    There are a few tools for calculating body fat %. Many scales have sensors that do this via biometric impedence (also sometimes referred to as BMI). I do not trust those, they always put me really high (and my scale says that the 20-ish pounds I've lost have made no change in my body fat % despite all sorts of changes in my body). There are some online calculators that use height, weight, and measurements. Those are also questionable reliability (although for me they all tend to agree, pretty closely).
    You can also have someone do a skin fold measurement. I had this done at the gym a few years ago - they use a caliper and a quick formula including age and such, and give you a number. The reliability of this is better, but depends on who is doing the measurements (how well trained they are).

    You can always go by how your clothes fit - if they're getting looser, you're probably doing it right :wink:
  • GoneKona
    GoneKona Posts: 87
    OMRON makes these simple body fat measuring devices you can pick up on Amazon for $30-$35. They aren't the most accurate things in the world, but they are pretty good as a reference point. The best, most accurate way is to have your fat percentage measured by a professional.
  • fivecardstudpts
    fivecardstudpts Posts: 38 Member
    Ahh, ok. That def. clarifies it.
    Thank you
    Jessica
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    You can always go by how your clothes fit - if they're getting looser, you're probably doing it right :wink:

    This is true for weight loss, but your clothes can get looser without your BF% changing.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    I had a Bod Pod test done at a local university.
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