
Metabolically healthy obesity: Facts and fantasies. Body mass index: Obesity, BMI, and health: A critical review. Body composition data for individuals 8 years of age and older: U.S. Body fat percentage - Are you at a healthy weight? (n.d.).Body composition information and FAQ's sheet. Body Fat Calculator is a tool that estimate the body fat percentage by considering age, height, weight, hip,neck and waist. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition uses the following equations to predict body fat percentages: For women: (1.20 x BMI) + (0.23 x age) 5.4.You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. We link primary sources - including studies, scientific references, and statistics - within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. However, this method does still provide a quick and useful clinical tool to assess health risks. Several methods cant be used in children or pregnant women, due to safety. Having a high body fat percentage or BMI does not always lead to health problems. From Calipers to CAT Scans, Ten Ways to Tell Whether a Body Is Fat or Lean. Also, you can either choose the Imperial (Inches, pounds) or metric (centimeters, millimeters, kilograms) system for your method of measurement. There are many limitations to BMI and measuring body fat. The Body Fat calculator can be used in so many ways depending on how you decide to measure your body Fat (Tools or no tools). For example, fat around the abdomen has higher health risks than fat in other areas. The location of body fat is also relevant to overall health.

For example, the BMI of a person with high bone density and muscle mass may indicate they have high body fat.Īlso, BMI cannot assess where fat is in the body. Select 'Compute BMI' and your BMI will appear below.

Enter your weight and height using standard or metric measures. View the BMI tables or use the tool below to compute yours. These factors are relevant to overall health and assessing body fat. Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. It makes no distinction between lean muscle, body fat percentage, and bone mass. Using BMI to assess body fat or overall health is another issue. This suggests there may be cultural or racial bias with body fat percentage ideals. These differences raise concerns about whether or not ideal body fat percentages are realistic.Īverage body fat percentages also vary across race and ethnicity. Even healthy people can have unusually high body fat. Assessments of body fat consistently show that people have higher body fat percentages than official guidelines recommend.
