Body Fat Calculator

People are now aware of the fact that most diseases are related to excessive accumulation of fat in the body. Measurement of body fat helps you determine how much weight you need to lose, since losing weight is nothing but burning the excess fat in the body. Obesity has become an universal problem today. Conventional methods are not useful in determining the amount of fat in the body. Body fat calculator, therefore, is the tool that can help you measure excess fat and it can tell you whether you are in the healthy fat range or not.

Fat helps maintain normal body temperature; it acts as cushion and insulates your organs and tissues. The most important thing about fat is that it is the main form of the body's energy storage. So, a certain amount of fat is actually essential for carrying out bodily functions efficiently.

These days, many sites on the Internet provide 'user-friendly' body fat calculators. On these pages, you just have to feed the information about your height and waist, hips and neck measurements, and you get the answer within a fraction of a second. You don't have to remember any formula or you don't have to worry about calculations. The sites also provide separate calculators for females, males, children, etc. If you are not using the Internet, you may use a cloth tape to measure different parts of your body like hips, waist, etc. With the help of the formula given below, you can get the required answer.

Calculate Body Fat

Formula for Women
On an average, essential fat for men is 2-5% and for women it is 10-13%. Why the essential body fat percentage for women is greater than that for men? Because a woman's body has to deal with the demands of childbearing and it undergoes various changes through menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. Body fat calculator for females used by the U.S. navy is considered as the standard calculator.

The total weight of the woman's fat divided by the woman's weight and then multiplied by 100, gives body fat percentage for women. Same is the way to calculate body fat percentage for men. Now, how to calculate total weight of a woman's fat? Here is the method:

Step 1: (Total body weight x 0.732) + 8.987

Step 2: Wrist measurement (at fullest point) / 3.140

Step 3: Waist measurement (at navel) x 0.157

Step 4: Hip measurement (at fullest point) x 0.249

Step 5: Forearm measurement (at fullest point) x 0.434

Lean Body Mass: Step 1 + Step 2 - Step 3 - Step 4 + Step 5

Body Fat Weight: Total body weight - Lean Body Mass

Body Fat Percentage: (Body Fat Weight x 100) / total body weight

Formula For Men
Step 1: (Total body weight x 1.082) + 94.42

Step 2: Waist measurement x 4.15

Lean Body Mass: Step 1 - Step 2

Body Fat Weight: Total body weight - Lean Body Mass

Body Fat Percentage: (Body Fat Weight x 100) / total body weight

This tape measure test is quite accurate for many people. It costs nothing and you can do it as many times as you wish. Actually underwater weighing gives you most accurate answer but you may refer to this measurement as guideline. The following body fat percentage chart can help you determine how much fat is essential for your body.

Body Fat Percentage Categories

Classification	Women (% Fat)	Men (% Fat)
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	32% +	25% +

A fat calculator, available on a website may help you calculate your body fat percentage. You can compare it with the ideal percentage. Unhealthy diet, stress, hormonal imbalance, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, wrong eating or sleeping habits, excessive consumption of junk, processed and oily food, etc., are the main causes of high deposition of fat in various tissues of the body. Balanced diet and fat burning exercises are absolutely essential to lose weight. With realistic weight loss goals, you are expected lose only the fats and not the muscle mass.