CONTENT
- Introduction
- Measurement Techniques
- Formulas
- References
INTRODUCTION
My body fat calculator can be used to estimate your total body fat based on certain metrics that being your age, Body Mass Index (BMI) and gender. Body Fat Percentage is a measure of fitness level, since it is the only body measurement which directly calculates a person's relative body composition without regard to height or weight. It is the total mass of fat divided by total body mass; body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fat. Essential body fat is necessary to maintain life and reproductive functions. The percentage of body fat for women is greater than for men, due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions. Whether you want to learn about your fitness levels, or are just curios on how much body fat you have this calculator assists with that.
MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
One thing to note is that there are various different methods of estimating one's body fat. They include: Underwater weighing, Whole-body air displacement plethysmography, Near-infrared interactance, Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, Expansions, Body average density measurement, Bioelectrical impedance analysis, Anthropometric methods, Skinfold methods, Ultrasound, Height and circumference methods and from BMI. If you have already realized we will be using the BMI method.
FORMULAS
As mentioned before we will be using the BMI method for calculating Body fat percentage. In order to do so we will use the following formulas below.
where:
`BMI` = body mass index
`AGE` = age
`SEX` = Male is equal to 1 and Female is equal to 0
The following table shows average percentages for men and women.
| Description | Women | Men |
| Essential fat | 10-13% | 2-5% |
| Athletes | 14-20% | 6-13% |
| Fitness | 21-24% | 14-17% |
| Average | 25-31% | 18-24% |
| Obese | 32%+ | 25%+ |
| Age | Women | Men |
| 20 | 17.7% | 8.5% |
| 25 | 18.4% | 10.5% |
| 30 | 19.3% | 12.7% |
| 35 | 21.5% | 13.7% |
| 40 | 22.2% | 15.3% |
| 45 | 22.9% | 16.4% |
| 50 | 25.2% | 18.9% |
| 55 | 26.3% | 20.9% |
Additional Resources -
Check out the Body Mass Index Calculator to get more information on BMI.
REFERENCES
Body Fat Percentage. (2022). Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage#Near-infrared_interactance
Body Fat Calculator. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.calculator.net/body-fat-calculator.html?ctype=metric&csex=f&cage=25&cweightlbs=152&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10.5&cneckfeet=1&cneckinch=7.5&cwaistfeet=3&cwaistinch=1.5&chipfeet=2&chipinch=10.5&cweightkgs=70&cheightmeter=178&cneckmeter=50&cwaistmeter=96&chipmeter=92
Bodyfat Percentage Visual Method. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/bodyfat-visual.htm