Body fat percent calculator

[ps312]

I recently came across this website (http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html) that calculates your body fat percent. I'm trying to get an idea of my body fat percentage with out buying one of those electrical impedance devices. Anyone have any thoughts on the website or other recommendations? How accurate is it (+/- 1 % would be fine)?

Paul

[mmagoo]

Well, I used one of those electrical impedence machines at the gym a couple of months ago. When I used this method you posted just now it came out 5% higher than what the machine said.

I'm a female with widish hips, so I'm guessing that may have thrown it off a little. I hope so anyway, I sure like to think I am the lower of the two :)

[Sandles2Sidearm]

I entered my info, and it spit out an ideal body weight that was way too high!

So I messed with it a bit and raised my body fat up to 35% and it came back and said that my ideal weight is 50 lbs lower than the original estimate....


I don't know if its me or the program that is screwy.

[Raven231]

I entered in my information and it came back close to what the health trainer at the club I workout at measured me for body fat stated I was. The ideal weight was a bit higher than what I was told but other than that it looked good to me.

Raven231

[Brindle]

Originally posted by ps312
I recently came across this website (http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html) that calculates your body fat percent. I'm trying to get an idea of my body fat percentage with out buying one of those electrical impedance devices. Anyone have any thoughts on the website or other recommendations? How accurate is it (+/- 1 % would be fine)?

Paul
I have serious doubts about the method in the web site above.

I also heard that the electronic scales that also measure body fat % (using mild electronic current) are inaccurate, and the fat calipers are better.

AccuMeasure ($25) has a table for the one-sample (spuralic) test.
http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/

As you can see, electric Tanita body fat % scales are expensive. If you are going to get one, I’d suggest getting the one that considers age, and has an athletic mode (in addition to sex and height). But Gym’s, if they have one, tend to pay more for a higher quality and more accurate models. For these you may want to read the instructions beacuse I think the measurment varies a few %age points if you are even within like two hours of exercising.
http://www.tanita.bz/bodyfatscales.asp

I got the cheapest electric Tanita body fat % scale for like $40. It reads me at 16% while the one-sample AccuMeasure reads me at 9%. At one time both read me at 23%. But the electric Tanita body fat % scale stopped showing decreases in body fat %, and the AccuMeasure kept showing decreases down to even 5%. I think my electric Tanita body fat % scale shows a % that is a too high, and the AccuMeasure shows a % that is a little too low.

I think the AccuMeasure fat caliper is standard and can be used in the one-, three-, and seven-site tests, that are listed in the site below.
http://www.rustyiron.net/bodyfat.htm


I found the web site below helpful in that it will estimate how much calories your burn each day.
http://www.hussman.org/fitness/bmrcalc.htm