Body fat percentage is a useful measurement to help you determine a healthy weight for your gender, age, and fitness level. Body fat calculations need to be interpreted properly to give you a good understanding of where your body fat fits in your overall health situation. Having some body fat is essential to your living. The goal is not to have absolutely any body fat but to rather keep your body fat at a healthy and maintainable level.
Body fat percentage is a variable measurement depending on the person in question. A certain percentage of body fat may be healthy for one type of person but far too high for another. For example, a healthy percentage can be higher for a woman than for a man. The essential body fat percentage for a man is about 3% – 5% but for women it is around 8%-12%. These are not necessarily goals for the average person of either sex as this is the amount of body fat needed for your body to perform properly. For men, an average body fat percent would be between 18% – 24%. For women, the numbers are slightly higher at 25% – 31%. Trying to stay under these levels is a good goal for someone trying to maintain a healthy percentage.
Apart from gender, age and fitness levels are also used to decipher what range is personally healthy for you. Compared to other calculations, your body fat percentage is generally regarded as being a better representation of your fitness level. However, this number can be used along with the BMI calculator located in this section to help gauge your overall fitness level.
It’s important to note that you cannot calculate the fully accurate body fat percentage of a living person but there are several methods and calculators to help give you fairly accurate results. The three major types of body fat calculators are based on either the skinfold method, the height and circumference method, or the from BMI method. Our body fat calculator uses the from BMI method which calculates your BMI first and then uses a formula to adjust this number to estimate your overall body fat percentage.
