Thread: percent of body fat

Originally Posted by bench

I was wondering if there is any way of working out the percent of body fat on my body

BF% = [fat mass/whole body mass] x 100

Calipers are pretty accurate in the right hands... BIA scales and machines are somewhat accurate, and will give you trends in any changes in your BF if you are consistent in your use (same time, in the morning just after waking, empty stomach, after going to the toilet).

If you want to get really fancy there are things such as water displacement tests and DEXA (dual x-ray tests) which some hospitals and universities will do for you - but they are $$$.

There are some on-line calculators (eg: www.mybodycomp.com ) that take body measurements for calculations - but these can be VERY inaccurate and I would take any results with a BIG grain of salt...

I read Venuto's book, bffm. He really recommends using the accumeasure single location caliper. It takes about a week to get used to them and get consistency in you rmeasurements. These calipers have made it a pretty easy and accurate process.