How to Get Your Body Fat %?

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alishawesomesauce
alishawesomesauce Posts: 20
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay, I feel a little dumb asking this, but I'm going for it, so forgive my ignorance. I keep seeing people post their body fat percentages and I am wondering how you get this? Do you go somewhere or is there something you can buy that would do this? I have always just weighed myself, but I can see how body fat percentages are better to go by. Please help!

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  • retiree2006
    retiree2006 Posts: 951 Member
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    Thanks for posting as I have wondered what the difference is between body fat % and body mass index. Maybe someone can answer both of our questions. Thanks in advance!
  • tammymusic1
    tammymusic1 Posts: 243 Member
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    bumping I would like to know too
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
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    The gym that I go to offer to find your Body Fat Percentage for you with a caliper. Ask at your gym or at your doctor's office if someone can do that for you. That way you know it's being done correctly.

    The caliper basically pinches the fat on your body in certain locations (arm, leg, muffin top, etc) and uses those measurements and your overall weight, your height and gender and age, and using a table of some kind, they can calculate your body fat percentage.

    Anyways if asking at your gym or doctor's office doesn't work, if you search for "body fat caliper" on the intertoobz, I'm sure you can find one, buy it, and read the instructions.

    .........

    And now I'm super tempted to try that.... hm...

    well good luck!! :tongue:
  • tb221
    tb221 Posts: 54 Member
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    fat2fitradio.com

    They have a bunch of calculators on here.

    Good luck!
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
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    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=body+fat+caliper

    whoaaaaaa lots of options! whoaaaaaa :o
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    The body mass index (BMI) is a measure for human body shape based on an individual's weight and height. Body fat is the % of fat compared to lean muscle, bones, organs etc making up your body.

    You can have a low BMI but a high percentage of fat (commonly referred to as skinny fat) or you can have a high BMI but be a large percentage of muscle (think body builders) so BMI is only a good predictor if you are "average".

    The most accurate way to get a BF% is with a dunk tank or BodPod test which is going to cost you if you can find somewhere to get it done. Some gyms have someone actually well enough trained to be able to be fairly accurate with calipers but there's a lot of people who think they know how to use calipers that don't really. You can get a hand held device or scale that uses electrical impulse to measure the fat % but they're easily thrown off. There's also using a measuring tape and plugging your numbers into an online calculator which I find to be way off for me.
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
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    ahhhh I'm not a huge fan of fat2fitradio, honestly... the calculations make me go :huh:

    The scooby calculator for BMR and TDEE is good.... (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/)... But I don't think your body fat percentage is something you're going to be able to find with JUST a calculation... I think it's something you have to measure directly.

    ...

    Oh hey look what I found just now, scooby has a body fat calculator too, but it asks for caliper measurements - so you enter the caliper measurements into this calculator and it gives you your Body Fat Percentage! Okay I'm totally gonna buy a skinfold body caliper now... :happy:

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/body-fat-calculator/
  • retiree2006
    retiree2006 Posts: 951 Member
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    The body mass index (BMI) is a measure for human body shape based on an individual's weight and height. Body fat is the % of fat compared to lean muscle, bones, organs etc making up your body.

    You can have a low BMI but a high percentage of fat (commonly referred to as skinny fat) or you can have a high BMI but be a large percentage of muscle (think body builders) so BMI is only a good predictor if you are "average".

    The most accurate way to get a BF% is with a dunk tank or BodPod test which is going to cost you if you can find somewhere to get it done. Some gyms have someone actually well enough trained to be able to be fairly accurate with calipers but there's a lot of people who think they know how to use calipers that don't really. You can get a hand held device or scale that uses electrical impulse to measure the fat % but they're easily thrown off. There's also using a measuring tape and plugging your numbers into an online calculator which I find to be way off for me.

    I appreciate your response...you explained it very well. Thanks again.
  • BlueInkDot
    BlueInkDot Posts: 702 Member
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    The body mass index (BMI) is a measure for human body shape based on an individual's weight and height. Body fat is the % of fat compared to lean muscle, bones, organs etc making up your body.

    You can have a low BMI but a high percentage of fat (commonly referred to as skinny fat) or you can have a high BMI but be a large percentage of muscle (think body builders) so BMI is only a good predictor if you are "average".

    The most accurate way to get a BF% is with a dunk tank or BodPod test which is going to cost you if you can find somewhere to get it done. Some gyms have someone actually well enough trained to be able to be fairly accurate with calipers but there's a lot of people who think they know how to use calipers that don't really. You can get a hand held device or scale that uses electrical impulse to measure the fat % but they're easily thrown off. There's also using a measuring tape and plugging your numbers into an online calculator which I find to be way off for me.

    Yeah, BMI is definitely something that you find on a chart, but it's also not super helpful. #agreed

    I don't know how one can somehow be trained with calipers to do an accurate job... I'm not sure how detailed it is - but I have faith in the internet to help us figure it out!

    The electrical impulse device isn't that bad. We use them sometimes at the Health Fairs at work... I'll ask the guy who uses them about it - I'll also ask the guy at my gym who does the caliper measurement thing exactly how much training or experience is necessary to use a caliper.

    I haven't heard about being able to plug in measuring tape numbers. In fact, when my Body Fat Percentage decreased, all of my inches actually INCREASED due to muscle gain. SO I don't know how accurate that would be. :ohwell:
  • Clare0116
    Clare0116 Posts: 37 Member
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    I tried this and other body fat calc websites and they give a wrong answer for me at 27.4% fat. I am 4'9", 166 pounds and obese class 2 at 35.92 BMI and yet they say I am midrange for my 'healthy weight of 155 pounds'. Hell, I have trouble fitting the tape measure around my michelin rolls of fat, so I know I have a long way to go to reach a healthy 100 pounds! Maybe they give the right answers for average to tall people?
  • dym123
    dym123 Posts: 1,670 Member
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    I've tried a couple of different online body fat % calculators and have gotten readings between 26% and 31%, which puts me in the normal range, so does my hip to waist ratio, but my BMI says I'm obese
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
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    I use body fat percentage scales. While I know these aren't accurate (which is why I went for a high quality expensive one, I think thebrand is tanita) I uuse them for my own track of progress. As long as I see the percentage going down, then I'm happy, even though I probably have a higher percentage than what the scale says.
  • Clare0116
    Clare0116 Posts: 37 Member
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    Thanks, I was well impressed with Scooby's website, it has a lot of useful info, is honest and free but... they don't seem to understand little people or hypothyroids! It assured me I need 2105 cals a day to maintain my weight and whether I do 1-3 hrs a week walking or sweat it out 6 days a week for an hour each time, I could hope to lose 0.9 pounds a week. ROFLMAO, I can gain weight on 1,000 cals a day and walking 2-3 miles at least 3 times a week and I sometimes go down a pound or up. My daily cal intake is about 800, as even my doctor said I was eating too much on 1,000 to lose weight with my health problems.

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