Body Fat %

no no no, this site will not tell you what your body fat is, and so not ever trust BMI to give you an accurate guide! So many variables that cannot be calculated such as frame size/bone density, amount of lean body mass etc.

BF scales might give you a rough estimate, but you'll need something like a caliper test to get any sort of decent estimation.

If you don't want to go down this path, I think the best option is to not be focused on a number, and keep working to a point where you are happy with the state of your body. At the end of the day, health, fitness and be happy within yourself are vastly more important than a percentage of body fat.

This ^. I believe that the only real accurate way to get your body fat% is when you are dead!! ... while alive you can only get an estimate so I use it as a benchmark. It's good to have it to see if you are losing any body fat tho!

There are guidelines for acceptable ranges of body fat for both women and men. I think my Tanita scales say its something like 20% to 35% is healthy for women. Which really is a huge range.

Also remember you have subcutaneous fat (under your skin) and Visceral fat (Internal fat usually around your organs etc). Some people can look thin on the outside and have more visceral fat on the inside and vice versa. Try not to obsess too much about it. Just be happy and healthy

Okay question for everyone... how do you know what a healthy body fat % is?? I'm 22 years old and currently at 30.5% after losing 20 pounds so far, and according to a graph I found online I am in the "average" category but I have no idea what the heck that means

It means the % of fat in your body is 30.5%, the rest is lean body mass (bone, muscle, etc...) They say it is best to have a body fat % of 15% to 25%, but I have also read like above 15% to 35%.
The higher the body fat % the more fat you will have in your body and around your organs. This is not the same as the BMI, the BMI is a ratio that does not take in to account the body fat % or lean body mass at all. You could have a healthy person with a 15% body fat with an obese reading on the BMI chart, very typical because muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle weighs more than fat, or another way of looking at is 1 lb of fat takes nearly 10 times the space 1 lb of muscle.
A person with a lower body fat % will wear smaller sizes in clothes than a person who weighs the same and has a higher body fat %.

For instance my good friend and I weigh the same 178 and 180 lbs, I wear a size 8 while she wears a size 16. My body fat % is 24% I am not sure what her's is but she doesn't life weights, I do. Also based on the BMI chart I am borderline obese, but in actuality no I am not. Do not follow the BMI chart it is not reliable.

(my friend is very beautiful and I would never even think any less of her, she is happy with who she is and I love her for it) just wanted to make sure I put that out there :flowerforyou:

females- 20% to 25% is desired
males- 15%-20% is desired

anything over for either is overweight/obese

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

What do you think about those who go 'UNDER' those precentages?

You can actually calculate it on here under tools and then click BMI. It asks for weight and height and it tells you. I found mine out through my scale that calculates it for you

There are a number of factors to determine BF%, everyone's body is different. Some women have natural big hips, chest, muscle ect things that no matter how much weight you loss will remain larger. This is all weight added to your body, so a woman can be told by that BMI that she has 30%BF but that may not be true.

To really get an accurate body fat% there have to be measurements involved. If you are a member of a gym most can do this for you. There are so many factors to determine BF that a scale or the tool here won't be accurate in some cases can be off by a lot.

What do you gotta do to find out what your body fat is?

Hydrostatic underwater weighing is the most accurate weigh to determine body fat %, but it's expensive and you can estimate using other means.

Most gyms and fitness centers offer a fitness assessment where they can do a skin fold test to estimate your BF%; however, a lot of people do it half *kitten* and take only 3 measurements and plug it into an equation to give you a reading. There are several different equations to use based on gender, age, ethnicity, and whether or not you're an athlete, and each takes different skin fold locations into consideration for calculation. This will give you a more accurate reading of BF%, but there is a measure of error based on the skill of the technician performing the test.

While more inaccurate, you can also get a scale that can estimate you BF% by sending a current through your body and testing the resistance of the flow. The reading can vary considerably, though, based on hydration and a number of other day to day fluctuations within our bodies, and again, also by the equation the scale uses to calculate the %. You're not able to customize most store bought ones in our homes to account for ethnicity and whatnot. The main thing to do with these to get an estimate, and use it as a baseline to track whether or not it's going up or down. If you're looking to lower BF% and gain lean body mass, while the number itself may not be accurate, it should be using the same calculations each time so you can still track whether or not your numbers are going up or down.