How to Calculate Your Body Fat Percentage
Calculating body fat percentage is indeed a necessity for those who are trying to shed pounds eagerly. There are different methods of doing so. However, not all methods are fruitful. Once you are on a diet and training regime, it becomes imperative to keep up with the increase and decrease in your body fat percentage. If you are not losing body fat, your training and dieting efforts are going to waste.
Out of the manifold body fat percentage calculating methods, you need to choose the one that suits you the most. It should be noted here that online fat calculators are hardly of any use. Manual calculating methods are a lot more beneficial.
Instructions
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You can use the ‘skin fold’ method of calculating body fat percentage. It is the most traditional method of calculating body fat. You will need a fat calliper to calculate your body fat with this method. Pinch your skin near your tummy area. Now, use the fat calliper to measure the thickness of the pinched skin. Now here is the trick – the calliper will give you readings in millimetres. You need to compare this reading with a chart that has age and gender. This way, you will know your overall body fat and whether it is healthy or not.
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Anthropometric is your second best method of calculating body fat percentage. In this method, you measure the circumference of your body to calculate body fat percentages. This is a good method and it is used by the United States Navy as well. You need to measure your waist and height circumference if you are a male. For females, hips, neck and height are measured to arrive at the body fat percentage.
You can simply get the measurements from the US Navy website and compare your measurements to theirs. The chart will tell you about your body fat percentages.
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The third and one of the most prominent methods of body fat percentage calculation is the hydrostatic weighing method. Please note that this method is considered the ideal one to gauge body fats. You will be submerged in a tank of water. A person with high free body mass will more in water than a person with high level of fat in his body, since the weight of bone and muscles is more than the weight of water.
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