Body fat %- how do you find yours?

visual estimation

Calipers are notoriously bad. Scales can be a few percentage points off, but most are consistent, and that's enough to tell by how much you're improving. For me, I can deal with not being sure whether I have 22%, 23%, 24%, 25%, 26%, 27%, or 28% body fat. I'm far enough from my goal, it's more important to know whether I'm trending in the right direction and by how much. When it says I went from 25% body fat to 23% body fat, I know I've actually lost 2% body fat! Scales can do that for you.

I also use a measuring tape. A smaller tummy's usually good!

DEXA and BodPod are the gold standards, if you have $75 to spend and really want to know.

Body fat percentage is one way to determin if you are losing fat and gaining mucle. The scales that you stand on with bare feet uses bioelectrical impedence, that is a current running up one leg down to the other. The faster it travels the less body fat you have and the lower the number the sclae will read. However, a couple of aspect play a role in its accuracy, if you are constipated and retaining water such as during that time of month ladies!! But it is uslly pretty accurate.

The caipers are the most reliable because it is not affected by water rentetion, constipation etc...BUT you need to have someone well trained to pinch you, plus unfortunately if you are too heave there is too much to pinch and threfore this method is not ideal for you.

BM! is one way to determin if you are in healthy weight zone however it does not take into account lean muscle mass, and as we know muscle weighs more than fat you can be fit, and full of lean muscle but weigh at the top end of your BMI zone and be called 'obese' YIKES!!!

Using the measuring tape is a good way to determin if you are losing inches, hopefully it is usually fat you are losing. so in combination with a basic scale to weigh yourslef along with measure yuour waist hips thighs and upper arms is a good indication of success.

Dont forget how you feel in your clothes. it is always the best measuring tool.

If you wanted to you can always go into a gym or a clinic who has a TANITA body composition scale and ask if you can be evalauted. You can try this and if they say yes then you can do this every 3 months or so.

I really like TANITA sclaes but they can be costly.

There is a website called www.bizcals.com that is pretty interesting.

I have a scale that measures BMI, Bone density, and % of water....got it at Wally World for under $50.00...it's a Health-O-Meter! Works great and I've had it for 2 years.

You wont be able to argue with the figure a DEXA gives you.

The only accurate way to determine your body fat% is hydrostatic testing.

Also most expensive way.

The only accurate way to determine your body fat% is hydrostatic testing.

Also most expensive way.

DEXA. Equally expensive, though.

Here's what I did. I volunteered (twice) at a local university for their physiological protocols regarding environmental exposure. That's a fancy way of saying " we're going to make you really hot or really cold and see what your body responds". Both cases included a VO2 max test, useful to determine fitness and workout ranges. And a body mass analysis. For "free", if you discount the cost of two half-days of testing. I've never been as cold as the two-hour cold water exposure test. I wasn't allowed to shiver during the test "avoid it if possible". No problem, I shivered for about 4 hours afterward. But hey, at least there were no muscle biopsies involved.

I got my body assessed, then compared it to a body-fat scale, and fiddled with the data. Now I know how much the scale is off by.

dexa

or just take measurements and see if they are increasing or decreasing. caliper %'s are BS. Bioimpedance devices will vary greatly depending on hydration.

take pics and estimate.

The number doesn't matter. What matters is that you are progressing to your goals.