okay, like a twit, i have been going right along with these two terms (body fat percentage and body mass index) entangled in my brain. reading on nat's homepage today and realized i had the two muddled. i have been posting my BMI in my BF percentage in my profile. (i confess, in '95, i had RAM and ROM confused, and now i smirk when computer neophytes call my office wanting to upgrade their ROM so the internet will run faster... smugness and humiliation are strange bedfellows.)

there are tons of available BMI calculators online.

but is the only way to calculate your BF to see a doc and have yourself floated in some futuristic tank with sensors strapped all over your body?

(sorry to have to post this, im sure its been addressed a hundred times, but the search engine wouldn't accept the term BF due to too few letters, and trying to sort through every thread ever containing BMI was killing me- i am a busy mommy of two toddlers, after all!)

TIA!

Hi Paradox,

As with BMI calculators, there are also many body fat percentage calculators on the net.

Here's one to start with. They are not going to be as accurate as the body immersion method, but if you use the same method, at least your results will be consistent. You can also use calipers, either at a gym or buy your own, but again, I believe the results may not be super accurate.

Cheers.

Rosebud

Rosebud- I really don't like that particular calculator. It lists me at being 14.5% body fat. There is no way that is true, and I have the pooch to prove it I'm not sure why that one reads me at being so low. Possibly because I am a smallish medium frame so my wrist measurement is small? Or that I carry alot of my weight around my waist and my thighs are really toning down? (darn kids)

I like the one at www.zoneperfect.com click on the resources link. Protien Power also has a good formula in the back of the book.

BF% is much more accurate then BMI. With BMI they basicaly take your height and age, then announce you should weigh so much. Your body fat % is the actual amount of fat you have compaired to how many pounds of lean mass (muscle, bone, organs).

Most people who have high lean weights due to exercising, being heavy for years (it takes muscle to tote that weight around) or other reasons, often read as extreamly obese on the BMI tables, even though they have very little body fat. Unfortunetly to many go by those BMI tables and don't relize they have to lose muscle and bone density to get down to what is labled "healthy"

whoa, rosebud's calc has me at 20.3% (i think WAAAY too low) and zoneperfect puts me at 33.22% (i think too high!)

i am pretty short but not remarkably (5'3"), with VERY short legs, and am pretty muscular even in my deteriorated state (at my best I weighed 135 with a 24" waist but still had lara croft thighs- sigh...) but here's my stats if you're still interested...
weight: 170.5
height: 63"
waist: 34"
hips: 40" (new low!)
calf: 17" (little fat there, mostly muscle)
thigh: blubblub 26" (or so, the tape keeps sliding down)
wrist: 6.5"
ankle: 9.75"
neck: 14"

I've tried to calculate my BF% twice now at ZonePerfect. First time I was rejected because my weight was too high; this time, because my abdomen is too big. Geeze--if I didn't weigh too much and have a big belly, I wouldn't be as concerned about my BF%!

Jude

I've never actually tried the site myself - there are some things I just don't want to know!

There are a couple more here, if you want to try some more.

As I said before, none of these is going to be super accurate, but if you keep using the same site, you'll at least get a trend that will help.

Cheers.

Rosebud

thanks rosebud! i like these ones. but they all vary pretty widely, it seems. are the calipers generally more accurate than formulae in your educated opinion? i mean, should i look into purchasing one, or maybe pay the local gym to "read me" periodically? do you think its important, to prevent me from trying to shoot too low, or is it in your opinion somewhat optional? if i need to save up for a caliper i can, but i would like your professional opinion. thanks again!

Um, my professional opinion ain't worth the paper it isn't written on when it comes to measuring body fat.

All I can tell you is what I've seen posted here. I suspect from what I've seen that the calipers may be more accurate, but I've also seen people post that they are not necessarily accurate either. Just to confuse you totally.

What I have seen people do is try several fat % websites, and take maybe the one in the middle. Then keep using the one site only to at least get an idea of how you are changing.

Then again, you may prefer the calipers. If you already belong to a gym, that's probably a good idea. If not, I guess you could always join one. Otherwise you could phone a few gyms and see how much they would charge you.

I know there have been threads about this in the Exercise Forums. It may be worth checking "body fat" and/or "body fat calipers" on our search engine.

HTH

Roz

geez. what a buncha heartache... *sigh* well, its not a biggy i guess. i remember when i low-carbed before what i was like at a lithe, shapely, muscular thin- never less than 135 (but then, i was 17...) . so i guess hoping for no more than ten permanent pounds from two babies in two years isnt too far off, no matter what the insurance charts say, as long as its a healthy, LC 145 and not a skinny fat 145, right?



thanks a bunch!