Body Fat Percentage

[pegkerr]

If weight loss is one of your New Year's Resolutions, you might be interested in learning your body fat percentage with this quick and easy questionnaire.

My weight is definitely up, and mine turned out to be 27.8%. I'll work on that. Average American woman is 32%; they recommend 22% for a Caucasian woman.

Comments

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this link! Mine came out to be 22% exactly :)

[katakanadian.livejournal.com]

I studied this a bunch in university. The most important thing is to have some measurement and stick with the same measurement to see if you are changing in the right direction. It can be be misleading to focus on achieving a particular body fat percentage if changing the method of measuring. e.g. in one of our lab units we measured ourselves by several different methods. On the same day I had results ranging from 14% to 30%. Repeated measures over the years since have shown consistent results. If I started a program with a result from bio-electrical impedance (30%) and then measured a month later with a certain skinfold equation (16%) it would appear that I had been excessively successful when in fact it is possible that I could have gained fat.

The closer one is to the 'ideal' the less useful these measurements become partly because there is no ideal. Some people are healthier at 24%, some at 20%. The former should not be made to feel they have to lose extra weight (many healthy slim women on diets), the latter should not feel scrutinized for eating disorders (e.g. Kiera Knightley).

[anghara.livejournal.com]

I just did it - but fudged a little bit since I am wearing multiple layers of clothes and didn't feel like stripping down for the measurements - it's still January out here, and cold - so I did it as best I could by pulling up layers where possible or over them (and making an adjustment for that) and so I fully realise that the margin of error here is pretty humongous - but I came out at 25% body fat which isn't too bad. I might try it again at some point where I am actually closer to the core body shape in terms of clothes layers and see if I can't narrow it down...

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, I heard the healthy range was between 21% and 32%. Also, um, I've seen myself, and at a body fat percentage of 22, I would be unhealthy. So I wouldn't believe their 'recommendation' too strongly.

[dragonpaws.livejournal.com]

I simply find it perturbing to be asked to poke, prod and measure myself like a piece of meat. I started on the website, got to the part where I was supposed to give calf and thigh circumferences, and started feeling WAY too much like a farm animal for my liking.

I can't imagine that would be healthy, no matter what numbers a person ended up getting.