The percentage of your body that's made up of fat is one indicator of your current and future health, and knowing your numbers helps you plan to gain or lose fat to become healthier. Tools for measuring the percentage of fat in your body vary from simple calipers to highly technical diagnostic equipment. The accuracy and cost of these methods vary.
Scales
Scales designed to monitor weight and body fat composition use a process called bioelectrical impedance analysis to calculate the amount of fat, water and muscle in your body. However, Dr. Edward Laskowski, a medicine and rehabilitation specialist for Mayo Clinic, says that portable body fat analyzers vary in dependability. The device's quality and your degree of hydration affect the readings on these portable machines. BIA is a process that sends low-voltage electrical current up one leg and down the other leg. Fat, a poor electrical conductor, slows the down current and the machine calculates body fat percentage.
Skinfold Calipers
Another measuring tool, which can be used at home or in a gym or doctor's office, is the skinfold caliper. The calipers pinch the skin in strategic locations and measure the amount of fat present. The results, measured in millimeters, are placed into a chart that calculates body fat. Accuracy varies by plus or minus 3 percent, according to Georgia State University, and calipers are not reliable for people who are on the extreme ends of lean or obese.
Higher-End Tools
Underwater weighing requires you to be completely underwater as a machine calculates the displaced water and resulting body fat percentage. This method's accuracy varies by about 1.5 percent on the high or low side, says Georgia State University. Air displacement, or Bod Pod, has a plus or minus 3 percent error margin. This method uses air displacement instead of water displacement, making it an easier tool for those afraid of being submerged. However, the machines are expensive and available in only a few locations.
DEXA, says New Fitness, is quite accurate. This tool uses low-dose X-rays to read the mass of both soft tissue and bone, offering body fat percentage results in about 10 to 20 minutes. An advantage to DEXA is its ability to show where in the body fat is distributed.
NIR uses a fiber optic probe to measure the fat and water composition at specific sites on the body. The probe's light bounces off bones and is reflected back to the detector, producing data that is plugged into an equation to estimate body fat percentage.
Online Tools
The websites BMI Calculator and Linear Software, among others, offer online body fat tools. You input your weight, and then waist, wrist, hips and forearm measurements in inches. The sites calculate and display an estimation your body fat percentage.
Results Analysis
Whether you calculate your own body fat percentage or visit a clinic or gym, consider your results carefully, allowing for some variation due to the accuracy of the measuring tool. BMI Calculator lists the following categories based on body fat percentages. Men with between 2 and 4 percent and women with between 10 and 12 percent body fat are considered to have essential fat only, a condition which means the individual is underweight. A body fat percentage between 6 and 13 percent in men and 14 and 20 percent in women indicates that the person is an athlete. A "fitness" classification categorizes men with between 14 and 17 percent and women with between 21 and 24 percent body fat. An acceptable range for men is 18 to 25 percent and, for women, 25 to 31 percent. Finally, a body fat percentage 25 percent or over for a man or 32 percent or over for a woman means the person is classified as obese.
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