Measure your hips at the widest point below your waist while keeping your feet together for an accurate measurement. Accuracy to the nearest half inch or within 1 cm should be sufficient. You can use both centimeters and inches to record the measurement since our body fat calculator supports both units. While bmi cant measure fat it does provide an overall picture of. The skinfold caliper is a device which measures the thickness of a fold of your skin with its underlying layer of fat. Body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fat.
Some experts tout bmi or body mass index as the most accurate way to determine the effect of weight on your health. Body mass index bmi is perhaps a more reliable indicator of your overall health instead of counting on a body fat scale alone. For example if your waist is 30 your hips are. Here are the formula and equations to calculate lean body mass and body fat. In fact most recent medical research uses bmi as an indicator of someones. Lean body mass men weight x 1082 9442 waist x 415.
Use a tape measure to determine your waist wrist hip and forearm circumference. To calculate body fat percentage add your waist and hip measurements and then subtract the neck measurement to determine your circumference value. The body fat percentage bfp of a human or other living being is the total mass of fat divided by total body mass multiplied by 100. The body fat index is not an indicator of fitness level since the calculation is made with no regard to height or weight. By doing this at the key locations can be a quite accurate representative of the total amount of fat that is on your body it is also possible to estimate the total percent of bodyfat on your body. Essential body fat is necessary to maintain life and reproductive functions.
Once you are done with your measurements you are ready to calculate your body fat percent. To get the best results measure to the nearest 14 inch 05 cm. Then input your gender and measurements below to receive a body fat index based on average values. Measurements are taken at either 3 or 7 different sites on the body. The body fat calculator can be used to estimate your total body fat based on specific measurements. The percentage of essential body fat for women is greater than that for men due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions.
Use the metric units tab if you are more comfortable with the international system of units si. Skinfold calipers measure the thickness of your subcutaneous fat the fat underneath the skin at certain body locations.