How to Tell If You're Fat or Not

Obesity, a medical condition capable of causing heart disease and diabetes, poses a serious risk for both adults and children. Caused by a lack of physical exercise and excessive food intake, obesity affects almost 60 million Americans, according to the website, WebMD. To determine if you are overweight and need to establish a diet and exercise plan, configure your body fat percentage. Use one of several methods to find the amount of fat in your body. Although some are more accurate than others, each method is used by professionals in the medical field.

Things You'll Need

• Bathroom scale
• Tape measure
• Calculator

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Instructions

• 1

  Calculate your Body Max Index, or BMI, by determining your height in inches and weight in pounds. Square your height by multiplying it by itself. For example, 67 inches squared is 67 multiplied by 67, which equals 4,489 inches.

• 2

  Divide your weight by your height after squaring. If you weigh 140 pounds, divide that by 4,489 (the number from the previous step). The result is .031.

• 3

  Multiply the decimal you received in the previous step by 703. For example, 703 multiplied by .031 equals 21.793, which you can round to 21.80. This new number is your BMI. Use the BMI table provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to determine if you are overweight or obese.

• 4

  Visit a trained professional to receive a skinfold measurement test, which will determine your body fat percentage. The test involves using a skinfold caliper to measure the thickness of your skin at specific sites on your body.

• 5

  Determine a more accurate reading of your body fat percentage by using hydrostatic underwater weighing. During hydrostatic weighing, you expel all the air from your lungs before being submerged in water and weighed to determine body density. A formula is then used to determine the percentage of body fat.