Body Fat Confusion

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MelanieAG05
MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I hope you folks can help me shed some light on this!
I have done my body fat calculations using fat2fit radio website. There are three calculators on there so I did all three and the results were as follows:

Original Body Fat Calculator = 26.7%
Military Body Fat Calculator = 39.5%
Covert Bailey Calculator = 24.5%

I have previously only ever used the Military one and had set myself the target of 25% which is acceptable for my age (39) and fitness level (I workout 5 days a week, strength and cardio) so you can imagine my surprise when the other two calculations were so much lower!!

Does anyone know why this would be and which is the most accurate? Or any other thoughts on the topic would be helpful!

Thanks x
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Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,397 MFP Moderator
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    Its an online calculator, dont look too much into. Either a mumber was transposed or you missed something. Go out and buy body fat calipers, they are like $10 on amazon.
  • sathor
    sathor Posts: 202 Member
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    also, are you sure you had the female / male setting thing marked correctly? Females for one of the things needs like 6 different measurements, whereas male uses like 2.
  • Silverkittycat
    Silverkittycat Posts: 1,997 Member
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    No need to measure unless you'd like a DEXA for health. Really, most numbers are usually not accurate, use your mirror. Take photos. :)
  • kristy6ward
    kristy6ward Posts: 332 Member
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    My results were very similar to yours. I guess I'll have to resort to a bodpod test.

    Or... if anyone has taken a bodpod test, which formula brought you closest to your true result?
  • Swissmiss
    Swissmiss Posts: 8,754 Member
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    also, are you sure you had the female / male setting thing marked correctly? Females for one of the things needs like 6 different measurements, whereas male uses like 2.


    Now, this has me wondering.
  • MelanieAG05
    MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
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    also, are you sure you had the female / male setting thing marked correctly? Females for one of the things needs like 6 different measurements, whereas male uses like 2.

    yeah I did - I went back and checked all the numbers were correct.
  • MelanieAG05
    MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
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    No need to measure unless you'd like a DEXA for health. Really, most numbers are usually not accurate, use your mirror. Take photos. :)

    Thanks - I do take photos and look in mirror all the time so I know it is reducing.
  • MelanieAG05
    MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
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    Its an online calculator, dont look too much into. Either a mumber was transposed or you missed something. Go out and buy body fat calipers, they are like $10 on amazon.

    Thanks, I'll look into that!
  • kalynn06
    kalynn06 Posts: 368 Member
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    Did you use your natural waist for the calculations? Some of the other calculators seem to want a measurement around the navel. The military one wants women to use the natural waist (Minimal abdominal circumference).
  • Tann19
    Tann19 Posts: 94 Member
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    as you can see with the 3 different results, online calculations are not accurate. The most accurate is water immersion, but most universities and gyms use electrical body fat analyzers (usually handheld) or calipers.

    I use a scale that includes body-fat analysis. But I take the results with a grain of salt, it's not exact and should be used as a guide and not the end all.

    :flowerforyou:
  • jppd47
    jppd47 Posts: 737 Member
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    Each one is accurate to its own guild lines. At one time I tried every one I could find, to include caliper (11%) and an electric device (9.8%), the online ones ranged from 9-15%

    I like this one:
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/

    It takes a bunch of different measurements and age. Maybe its just me, but it seems that the more info the better to try to figure out an average.
  • Spanaval
    Spanaval Posts: 1,200 Member
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    I get similar results as well. I don't think the military BF calculator is particularly accurate for me - At 5'1" and 112 lbs, it's hard to have close to 40% body fat.

    BTW, it's fun to play around with the numbers and see which #s make the most difference to the calculators. With some of these things, I know that it will be nearly impossible to get it to give me the #s I want, without going dangerously low on weight.
  • McLifterPants
    McLifterPants Posts: 457 Member
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    This is the one that I used that gave me the closest measurement to my BFP scale (which seems to be pretty accurate)

    http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/library/blbodyfatcalculator.htm

    This version of the army one gave me essentially the same number:

    http://www.calculator.net/army-body-fat-calculator.html?ctype=standard&csex=f&cage=27&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=7&cneckfeet=1&cneckinch=0.5&cwaistfeet=3&cwaistinch=0&cwaistfeetf=2&cwaistinchf=2.5&chipfeet=3&chipinch=1.5&x=45&y=8

    There are so many versions online that give such different numbers that it's a real pain. But these are worth a try anyways!

    (Scale gives me 22.2, first calc gives me 22.4, 2nd gives me 23)
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    It's best not to put any stock into those online measurement-based BF calculators. You'd honestly be better off doing the comparison visually against the pics here: http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-pictures-and-percentages
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
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    The military one puts me at just over 50%, the other ones have me at 29% and 32%. If you really need to know what yours is, get the calipers, or pay someone to do a bf% analysis.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
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    Each one is accurate to its own guild lines. At one time I tried every one I could find, to include caliper (11%) and an electric device (9.8%), the online ones ranged from 9-15%

    I like this one:
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/

    It takes a bunch of different measurements and age. Maybe its just me, but it seems that the more info the better to try to figure out an average.

    This one gives me 20%. I don't really believe that is right either.
  • McLifterPants
    McLifterPants Posts: 457 Member
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    Each one is accurate to its own guild lines. At one time I tried every one I could find, to include caliper (11%) and an electric device (9.8%), the online ones ranged from 9-15%

    I like this one:
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/

    It takes a bunch of different measurements and age. Maybe its just me, but it seems that the more info the better to try to figure out an average.

    This one gives me 20%. I don't really believe that is right either.

    Yeah that one gave me 18%... LMFAO... take a look at my stomach and you'll KNOW that's off! I lift weights a ton and have pretty strong abs, but they are hidden under a good inch of pudge still :-P
  • kalynn06
    kalynn06 Posts: 368 Member
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    Each one is accurate to its own guild lines. At one time I tried every one I could find, to include caliper (11%) and an electric device (9.8%), the online ones ranged from 9-15%

    I like this one:
    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/cbbf/

    It takes a bunch of different measurements and age. Maybe its just me, but it seems that the more info the better to try to figure out an average.

    This one gives me 20%. I don't really believe that is right either.

    Yeah that one gave me 18%... LMFAO... take a look at my stomach and you'll KNOW that's off! I lift weights a ton and have pretty strong abs, but they are hidden under a good inch of pudge still :-P

    It's funny, because, for me, that one is closest to what I get with calipers and visual estimation. The military one, for me, is ridiculously low, because I have a small waist relative to my other measurements. Body shape seems to play a pretty role in which one works best.

    I usually average my calipers plus 2 online formulas and track that. Usually the numbers are pretty close and I'm really just looking for progression.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Original Body Fat Calculator = 26.7%
    Military Body Fat Calculator = 39.5%
    Covert Bailey Calculator = 24.5%

    Did you try the Military one more than once to make sure you didn't enter something incorrectly? That's a pretty big difference. But they do all give differing results. For me they were not THAT different, but I just use the average, which seems pretty correct based on the way I feel and look and previous measurements I've had with calipers or those electro-thingys you hold in your hands.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    DEXA scans are considered the gold standard but can be expensive ($150 on up). Hydrostatic weighing is a cheaper option ($50) and has a standard deviation a little greater than DEXA.

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