The Formula for Finding Body Fat Percentage

If you're fat, you know it. So, you ask yourself, of what use is it to know how fat I am? Fat is fat, either you are or you aren't. And what am I supposed to do with the number that tells me what percent of me is fat and what percent is muscle, tendons, veins and bones?

There Is More

• Being overweight can have an effect on joints, your breathing, sleep, mood, overall self-impression and energy. In short, it affects your entire quality of life.

General Breakdown

• There are numerous ways to determine body fat, all varying in degree of accuracy but all will get you in the ballpark of what your fat-to-muscle ratio is. The scientific community has broken the proportions down into gender, age, height and weight. There are body mass index (BMI) calculators all over the Internet and charts in your doctor's office that will tell you the numbers.

  Basic factors determining body fat percentage are height, weight, age, gender, and waist size.

One of Many Methodologies

• One way to determine your body fat is to use calipers. You've heard the marketing slogan, "Can you pinch an inch?" Calipers will tell you just how much you're pinching. The idea behind using calipers is a little primitive but its based on the concept that the fat just below the skin is telling of the total body fat. So basically you grab a part of your body and measure it with the caliper. Do it a number of times on different parts of your body and record the caliper measurement of each. Add them together, divide by the number of measurements and use that number.

  There are thousands of equations based on the caliper reading to determine your body fat ratio. Best advice, let your doctor use the calipers and leave the math up to him. More practically, for those concerned about weight loss is not to use any equations at all, just note the measurements over time to see if they are going down.

Technology

• Hydrodensitometry weighing is a process that weighs you out of water and then dunks you in a tank to weigh you in the water. Because of the difference in density between fat and muscle, each weighs differently in water and the difference is your body fat percentage (after the equations).

Using X-rays

• Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry is the latest development technologically in determining body fat content. It involves a machine that scans the body on the assumption that bone content is directly proportional to the amount of photon energy absorbed by the bone being studied by a low-dose X-ray that reads bones and tissue at the same time.

More Advanced Technology

• Near Infrared Interactance, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Total Body Electrical Conductivity, Computed Tomography, BOD POD (which involves air displacement), and BIA (bioelectrical impedance) are additional ways for determining body fat percentage.

A Body Fat Formula for Women and Men

• Body Fat Formula For Women
  Factor 1 (Total body weight x 0.732) + 8.987
  Factor 2 Wrist measurement (at fullest point) / 3.140
  Factor 3 Waist measurement (at navel) x 0.157
  Factor 4 Hip measurement (at fullest point) x 0.249
  Factor 5 Forearm measurement (at fullest point) x 0.434
  Lean Body Mass Factor 1 + Factor 2 - Factor 3 - Factor 4 + Factor 5
  Body Fat Weight Total bodyweight - Lean Body Mass
  Body Fat Percentage (Body Fat Weight x 100) / total bodyweight

  Body Fat Formula For Men
  Factor 1 (Total body weight x 1.082) + 94.42
  Factor 2 Waist measurement x 4.15
  Lean Body Mass Factor 1 - Factor 2
  Body Fat Weight Total bodyweight - Lean Body Mass
  Body Fat Percentage (Body Fat Weight x 100) / total bodyweight