If youre outside of the healthy range consider seeing a dietician who can help you make changes to your lifestyle to reduce or increase your body fat levels. For example the us army uses a body fat calculation that simply requires an individuals age height.
Bmi Vs Body Fat Percentages What You Need To Know And How
Body fat measurement methods. Hydrostatic weighing and other high tech machines are expensive and almost impossible for a layperson to access. A number of methods are available for determining body fat percentage such as measurement with calipers or through the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis. Perhaps the most accessible method for measuring body composition technicians perform a skin fold assessment using either three four or seven sites meaning parts of the body. Another method is waist to hip ratio which gets determined by the use of a measuring tape. After measuring yourself use the us navy method to calculate your body fat percentage. Once you figure out your percentage talk to your doctor to make sure youre in a healthy range.
However they are not very accurate. A basic way to measure body fat percentage is by using a soft tape measure like the kind youd use for sewing to record measurements of different parts of the body. There are many different methods for measuring body fat but some are more accurate than others. The method for measuring the relevant body parts as well as the specific equations used are provided. The calculator above uses a method involving equations developed at the naval health research center by hodgdon and beckett in 1984. Measuring body fat percentage.
There are also hand held devices and scales which measure body fat but these are often inaccurate. There are various ways to measure the percentage of body fat and some are more high tech than others. In this article we describe the range of methods include those that a person can try at home. There are many specific techniques used for measuring body fat. Its one of the oldest methods in the books because its a simple calculation. Body fat scales provide a rough estimate of a persons bfp.
Body mass index is away of measuring body fat thats based on height and weight. Measuring the circumference of certain body parts is a simple method of body fat estimation. The body fat percentage is a measure of fitness level since it is the only body measurement which directly calculates a persons relative body composition without regard to height or. Patricks day but get ready to be pinched. It might not be st. A 2016 study found that the bia method of measuring body composition is accurate when using.