

Additionally, for those focused on improving fitness and body composition, bodyfat measurements over time serve as a significant measure of the success of your fitness and nutrition program. Body fat is one important way that overall health can be gauged. Not all fat is bad, but too much can impair your body’s efficiency and disturb vital processes. The body requires a certain amount of fat to function well. The body is comprised of primarily water distributed throughout the body – inside fat cells, in blood, in tissues and organs, etc. While DEXA scans are considered the most accurate, they are often too expensive to justify using weekly or biweekly. It does not require calipers to measure skinfolds and, according to numerous sources, is arguably as accurate, if not more so, than the skinfold method. If you can weigh yourself and measure your waist, neck, and hip, you can consistently check your body fat using theNavy Body Fat Calculator.

The US Navy has developed a method that is much more convenient and requires only a tape measure and a scale.
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However, this requires calipers and a trained person who knows how to use the calipers for maximal efficacy. Skinfold measurements are the most common method that personal trainers use to estimate body fat in local gyms. What Kinds of Methods are There and Why Should I Use the US Navy Method? Before choosing a method, consider whether or not the method will be convenient for you at the intervals that you would like to monitor your composition. To gauge results, you should measure your body fat at the start of any fitness or nutrition program and continue to do so weekly or biweekly thereafter. The important thing to remember when selecting a method is that, to accurately gauge changes over time, you need to use the same method every time.

Each method provides you with the estimated percentage of your body weight that is adipose tissue. There are numerous methods for calculating body fat, each with variable accuracy.
