Body Fat Calculator
Use the Body Fat Calculator to calculate your body fat percentage.
What is the Body Fat Calculator?
This tool will help you estimate what percentage of your total body weight is fat.
Why is Body Fat Percentage Important?
It is important to understand what body fat percentage means. Finding your total body composition takes into account several factors. This includes your lean muscle mass, body fat percentage, bone mass, and water weight.
What the calculator helps you understand
You will learn the importance of body composition and how to calculate your body fat percentage.
The composition of the human body
98% of the human body is composed of these 6 elements:
- Oxygen
- Carbon
- Hydrogen
- Nitrogen
- Calcium
- Phosphorus
1% of the human body is made up of these molecules:
- Potassium
- Sulfur
- Sodium
- Chlorine
- Magnesium
The most common molecule in the human body is water. Water makes up about 65% of body mass.
What is body fat?
Fat is adipose tissue. Its primary function is to store energy and insulate the body.
Your body has two types of fat storage, essential fat, and storage body fat.
Essential Fat
This fat is necessary to support life and reproductive functions. It is higher for women for childbearing and hormonal functions.
Storage Fat
Storage fat is additional fat in storage. It is necessary to protect your abdomen and internal organs.
How to calculate body fat
You can estimate your body fat percentage using the calculator. The most accurate reading is through a physician or trained professional. Online calculators are just a rough estimate.
To calculate your body fat percentage, you’ll need to know, Age, Gender, Weight, and Height.
Normal Fat Percentage
After calculating your body fat, compare it with the recommended values. The list below comes from the American Council on Exercise. It shows the average percentages in specified groups.
Is there an ideal body fat percentage?
The ideal weight and fat-lean ratio vary considerably for men and women by age.
The average healthy adult body fat range is 15 to 20% for men and 20 to 25% for women.
Women with body fat percentages above 32% have an increased risk for disease. In contrast, men with more than 25% body fat are at increased risk for disease.
Limits with calculators
Think about BMI and body fat measurements as just a tool. This will prevent fixation on the numbers.
Motivate yourself to enhance your health by fueling your body with nourishing foods and taking steps to include some form of exercise in your daily routine.
Having this mindset makes it easier to understand the limitations that come with BMI and body fat percentages.
BMI issues
BMI doesn’t distinguish between lean muscle and fat mass. This often leads to confusion and frustration. This is especially true for people that are fit but happen to weigh more.
One example is a bodybuilder with more lean muscle mass. They may be considered overweight or obese according to BMI.
Whereas someone with a lower weight and a much higher body fat to lean mass ratio could fall under the normal to a healthy range.
Also, BMI doesn’t account for gender, age, or ethnicity, so it may not be an equally valid test.
Body fat percentage limitations
Body fat percentages, also have issues and limitations. If you’re using the skinfold method, without the help of a skilled professional each time, you may see varying results.
