Body Fat Calculator
What is body fat?
Fat is one of the basic components that make up the structure of your body. Your body needs fat to function properly.
Body fat is required as a concentrated energy source for our muscles, it’s a storage substance for the body’s extra calories and it fills fat cells (adipose tissue) that help insulate the body. Fat is stored until your body needs a backup energy source.
Body fat can be divided into two types: essential and storage fat.
Essential fat is necessary for normal, healthy functioning. It’s necessary to maintain life and reproductive functions. Essential body fat for women (12%) is greater than that for men (3%), due to the demands of childbearing.
Storage fat is accumulation of adipose tissue. This is the fat you accumulate beneath your skin and in certain areas inside your body. Men and women have similar amounts of storage fat. Storage fat increases when you gain weight, and is what you want lose when you lose weight. Too much or too little storage fat is unhealthy. Sugar in peoples nutrition
Why your body fat percentage is so important
The body fat percentage is the amount of fat as a proportion of your body weight: your total mass of fat, divided by your total body mass.
How much you weigh is not the key; rather, what you are made up of is the key. Reducing excess levels of body fat has shown to reduce the risk of diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer.
Determining your percent body fat is very important because the amount of fat in your body is related to health as well as fitness and sports performance. Healthy ranges for body fat are:
- Underfat: Below the healthy body fat range, increases risk for health problems.
- Healthy: Within the healthy body fat percentage range for you age and gender.
- Overfat: Above the healthy range. Increased risk for health problems.
- Obese: High above the healthy body fat range. Greatly increased risk of obesity-related health problems.
Having a normal body fat percentage is vital to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
A high percentage of body fat has been linked to many health problems. Because of the prevalence of obesity, many people are concerned about their appearance and body fat percentage. Some wonder if they have a normal or ideal body fat percentage. Knowing the average body fat percentage can give you a good overview of your health.
How to calculate your body fat percentage
Learn how to use a tape measure to determine your waist, hip and neck circumference. Then input your weight and age to calculate your body fat.
Once you have calculated your body fat percentage, we can help you get a better understanding of what that means and how you can lose fat.
Body fat calculations
Are you getting leaner or are you losing muscle along with fat? Body fat percentage is a better measure of diet success than is weight. There are several ways to measure your body fat, some examples:
Navy body fat calculator
Formula developed by the U.S. Navy for body fat percentage calculation.
How to become Dietitian/Nutritionist
Learn here all you need to know about how to become a Dietitian / Nutritionist professional. Dietitian and Nutritionist are a vital, growing professions with many career possibilities.
Calculate your body fat
A number of methods are available for determining your body fat percentage, such as measurement with calipers (skinfold method) or through the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis.
But of course, you can also calculate your body fat percentage using our online calculator: