accurate online body fat calculators?

mkakids
mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Are there any that are accurate? I know its not the best option, but I would like an estimate without having to go get it measured or buy a new scale.

I have tried 3 different online body fat calculators and got 27.9, 28.6 and 48.3!

Replies

  • j6o4
    j6o4 Posts: 871 Member
    online body fat calculator are not accurate at all and neither are those electronic ones. best to eather use a calliper or looks up bodyfat percentage pictures and judge what you are by comparing yourself in the mirror to the pictures
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    Compairing myself in the mirror doesnt seem accurate, at all. Seems incredibly subjective and not helpful, lol!
  • ehsan517
    ehsan517 Posts: 114
    thats why you take progress pictures consistently at a certain part of the day. on saundays which are my rest days, i wake up, finish my business in the restroom, and before breakfast or any food/drink take my progress picture. that has been the best way for me to tell differences in body fat levels.

    online calculators will give you a very if not extremely bad estimate. youtube tutorials are a better idea but its too much work for me.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    online body fat calculator are not accurate at all and neither are those electronic ones. best to eather use a calliper or looks up bodyfat percentage pictures and judge what you are by comparing yourself in the mirror to the pictures

    ^^^ this

    and even callipers depends on the person using them, operator error is pretty common. used correctly they're reasonably accurate for people who are fairly lean, but they tend to underestimate body fat in very obese people, as they only measure subcutaneous fat and not visceral fat.

    The best thing is to use several different methods and take an average, or if each one is giving wildly different measurements, then take all the measurements with a pinch of salt and assume the truth to be somewhere in the middle.

    For the very obese, it can be harder to get an accurate measure of body fat percentage (most methods, e.g. callipers and circumference methods like the online calculators use, are based on research done on lean people, not very obese people), but when someone has that much to lose, they can just measure the waist, hips and bust and watch those numbers go down along with scale weight, while aiming at the healthy BMI range............ as they get leaner, i.e. close to the healthy BMI range, then there would be a necessity to switch to measuring body fat percentage, and basing goals on that rather than the scale.

    Leigh Peele's blog contains a download on body fat percentage that explains all the different methods, how reliable they are and also includes pictures of men and women at different body fat percentages. It's well worth downloading.
  • CrackedMojo
    CrackedMojo Posts: 15 Member
    You're not likely to find a truly accurate body fat calc anywhere. Scale based are inaccurate (I call mine a weighed random number generator), and I couldn't see how caliper-based would be any better. I suggest using whatever ones you find that are close to true and averaging the results.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,467 Member
    I believe that all the online calculators measure my body fat as lower than it actually is. (I'm judging that compared to how I look visually, and the measurements on two different types of body fat scales).
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    Compairing myself in the mirror doesnt seem accurate, at all. Seems incredibly subjective and not helpful, lol!

    it's not as subjective as you'd think if you use example pictures like the ones on the blog download I suggested. It does require you to be able to look at yourself objectively in the mirror. Not everyone can do this, but if you can, then it's not too subjective, as you're comparing yourself with pictures of other people at different body fat percentages. You're not just looking in the mirror and guessing.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    thats why you take progress pictures consistently at a certain part of the day. on saundays which are my rest days, i wake up, finish my business in the restroom, and before breakfast or any food/drink take my progress picture. that has been the best way for me to tell differences in body fat levels.

    online calculators will give you a very if not extremely bad estimate. youtube tutorials are a better idea but its too much work for me.

    I have taken progress pictures....those tell me my body fat% is going down, but they don't tell me what my body fat% is.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    Compairing myself in the mirror doesnt seem accurate, at all. Seems incredibly subjective and not helpful, lol!
    I
    it's not as subjective as you'd think if you use example pictures like the ones on the blog download I suggested. It does require you to be able to look at yourself objectively in the mirror. Not everyone can do this, but if you can, then it's not too subjective, as you're comparing yourself with pictures of other people at different body fat percentages. You're not just looking in the mirror and guessing.

    I don't think I'm capable of being truley objective. I have a horrid self body image and I don't think I would be remotely accurate. If I post a picture of myself will someone tell me what they think?

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