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The Best Body Fat

Percentage Calculator for
Men & Women
Written by Michael Matthews

✓ EVIDENCE BASED

BLOG CALCULATOR TOOLS

The Legion Body Fat Percentage

Calculator helps you estimate the
percentage of your total weight that’s
body fat.

Enter your preferred unit of measurement

(imperial or metric), gender, weight, and
age. Then, choose the body fat formula
you’d like to use (explained below). Take
the required skinfold caliper or tape
measurements, plug in the numbers, and
the calculator will estimate your body fat
percentage.

This calculator also serves as an “ideal

body fat percentage calculator.” It
provides insights into how your current
body fat percentage impacts your health.
It also offers suggestions on increasing or
reducing body fat to reach an “ideal”
range for optimal well-being.

Unit Gender Weight

Metric Male 72

Age Body fat formula

53 3-site skinfold (Jackson-Pollock)

The 3-site Jackson-Pollock skinfold formula is one of

the most commonly used because it’s easy, quick,
and reliable. That said, it tends to underestimate the
body fat percentage of people who are fairly lean
(men under 15% body fat and women under 25%).
Thus, it’s best used for people with more body fat
than this.

Chest (mm) Abdominal (mm)

107 79

Thigh (mm)

57

Your body fat % is 50.34

35.8 kgs 36.2

Lean Body Mass kgs
(LBM)
Fat Mass
(FM)

Very obese

Your body fat percentage is in the obese

range (31%+), which means your number
one goal should be to lose body fat while
maintaining muscle mass.

This will significantly reduce your risk of

various ailments such as high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease,
and diabetes. What’s more, you’ll look
and feel much better by reducing your
body fat percentage to the fit range (13-
to-15%).

Body Fat Percentage Reference

Points

The American Council on

Exercise Body Fat Ranges

Jackson & Pollock Ideal Body Fat

Percentages

Why Should I Control My Body

Fat Percentage?

Your body fat percentage is a key

indicator of overall health and wellness.

Unlike body mass index (BMI), which

doesn’t differentiate between muscle and
fat, body fat percentage offers a clearer
view of your body composition and,
consequently, your health.

Having too much body fat, particularly

subcutaneous fat, increases your risk of
various health complications. For
instance, carrying excess fat increases
your risk for heart diseases like high
blood pressure and atherosclerosis.

Additionally, a high body fat percentage

contributes to insulin resistance, a major
cause of type 2 diabetes. Effectively
managing your body fat can help prevent
these health issues and guide you toward
a healthier life.

Ways to Measure Body Fat

There are numerous ways to measure

your body fat percentage. Let’s explore
the most popular ones and discuss their
accuracy.

Body Composition Scales &

Handheld Devices

Body composition scales and handheld

devices use bioelectrical impedance
analysis (BIA) to measure body fat
percentage.

They’re highly inaccurate because BIA

passes a light electrical current through
your body, which muscle conducts well
(due to its high water content), and fat
doesn’t. Theoretically, this should
correlate electrical resistance with body
fat levels, but there are major flaws.

First, electricity prefers the path of least

resistance, bypassing fat for more
conductive tissues, causing these devices
to overlook substantial fat areas.

Second, BIA bases its predictions on

equations that often yield imprecise
results.

Lastly, factors like hydration, food intake,

and recent exercise can significantly skew
the readings, rendering BIA inconsistent
and unreliable.

Pictures and The Mirror

Estimating a person’s body composition

based on visual appearance is
challenging due to differences in muscle
mass among individuals with similar body
fat percentages.

For example, an average 160-pound man

with 10% body fat carries 16 pounds of fat.
But a muscular 190-pound man with 10%
body fat, has just 3 pounds more fat but a
remarkable 27 pounds more lean mass,
making him appear significantly different
from the first man.

Dual-Energy X-Ray
Absorptiometry (DXA)

Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, or

DXA, uses a full-body X-ray to determine
total fat and fat-free mass based on the
varied X-ray energy absorption of
different body tissues. Despite what many
believe, DXA isn’t an infallible body fat
measuring method.

Machines may yield varying results, even

those from the same manufacturer. The
algorithms translating raw data into body
composition measurements differ, leading
to inconsistencies. The kind of X-ray used
can also impact the results.

Like BIA, even minor hydration level

changes in lean mass can significantly
skew DXA results, as can gender, body
size, total fat mass, and disease state.

The Bod Pod

The Bod Pod measures the amount of air

your body displaces inside a sealed
chamber and uses equations to translate
this into an analysis of body composition.

However, facial hair, moisture, body

temperature, and the tightness of the
clothing you wear inside the chamber can
affect the Bod Pod’s results, which is why
they can be off by 5-to-15%.

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging

(MRI)

MRI scanners use magnetic fields and

radio waves to generate detailed 2D
images of the body’s insides. Technicians
scrutinize these images to estimate body
fat percentage.

The precision of MRI largely depends on

the number of images taken. Research
shows that estimating body fat based on
too few “slices” yields inaccurate results.

Hydrostatic Weighing

Hydrostatic weighing measures body

density by comparing your weight on land
to your weight underwater. The difference
allows for an estimation of body fat
percentage, as fat is less dense than
water, and lean tissue is denser.

However, this method isn’t foolproof.

Factors like ethnicity, body weight, and
hydration status can skew results, causing
potential inaccuracies of up to 6%.

Body Fat Calipers and Skinfold

Testing

Calipers measure the thickness of your

skin at specific body points during
skinfold testing. These measurements
feed into equations that estimate your
body’s lean and fat mass. There are a few
ways this can go wrong.

Grabbing too little or too much skin and

fat will give falsely low or high readings.
The equations that convert skin thickness
into a body fat percentage can also
generate inaccurate results, though this
typically only affects individuals with low
body fat levels (less than 15% or 25% for
men and women, respectively).

Given the practicality and relative

cheapness of body fat calipers, using
skinfold measurements is one of the
primary ways I recommend tracking your
body composition.

Here’s how to do it accurately:

1. Pinch your skin by placing the

thumb and forefinger on your body
about two inches apart (or further if
there’s a lot of fat in this area), firmly
pushing them into your flesh:

2. Push your fingers together, then

gently pull the skinfold away from
your body:

3. Measure a pinched skinfold by

placing the tips of the caliper in the
middle of the skinfold about an inch
from your fingers. For example, the
illustration below shows someone
taking a suprailiac skinfold
measurement:

4. Compress the caliper until it clicks

(and no more), and note the
measurement:

When taking your measurements, bear

the following in mind:

Take all measurements on the right

side of your body, standing with your
muscles relaxed.

Ensure your skin is dry and lotion-

free.

Avoid taking measurements after

anything physically demanding or
when you’re hot, as this can
temporarily increase the amount of
fluid beneath your skin, inflating
your skinfold thickness.

Take body fat caliper measurements

at the same time of day each time.

If you’re a woman, avoid taking body

fat caliper measurements during
your menstrual cycle when you gain
noticeable weight.

Finally, here are the various skinfold sites

and how to measure them:

Abdominals: Pinch a vertical fold of

skin one inch to the right of your
belly button.

Biceps: Pinch the skin vertically

halfway between the elbow and
shoulder on the front of your arm.

Calf: Pinch the skin vertically on the

inside of the largest part of the right
calf.

Lower back: Pinch the skin

horizontally about 6 inches above
the waist and 2 inches to the right of
the spine.

Midaxillary: Pinch the skin vertically

below the armpit at the same height
as the base of your breastbone.

Pectoral: For men, pinch a diagonal

skinfold halfway between the front
edge of your armpit and your right
nipple. For women, pinch a diagonal
skinfold about two-thirds of the way
from your right nipple to the front
edge of your right armpit (i.e., closer
to your armpit than your nipple).

Subscapular: Pinch the skin

diagonally an inch beneath the
middle of your shoulder blade (about
three inches to the right of your
spine and six inches above your
waist).

Suprailiac: Pinch the skin diagonally

above the bony protrusion on the
front of the right hip (the iliac crest).

Thigh: Pinch the skin vertically,

halfway between the top of the
kneecap and the top of the front of
your thigh.

Triceps: Pinch the skin vertically

halfway between the elbow and
shoulder on the back of your arm.

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Measuring Tape

Your waist circumference (measured at

the belly button) is a reliable indicator of
fatness: if your waist is shrinking over
time, you’re losing fat, and if it’s growing,
you’re gaining fat.

The Navy tape measure method is

another technique you can use with a
measuring tape. This method estimates
body fat percentage based on neck and
waist circumference for men and neck,
waist, and hip circumference for women.

This method is simple, fast, and

trustworthy. However, it’s not without
limitations. It tends to overestimate body
fat in lean individuals, specifically in men
below 15% body fat and women below
25%.

Here’s how to do the Navy tape measure

method:

For men, measure the circumference

of the waist horizontally around the
navel. For women, measure at the
narrowest point of the waist. The
individual should maintain a natural
posture without sucking in their
stomach.

Wrap the tape measure around the

relaxed neck with the tape angled
slightly downward in front.

For women, measure the hip

circumference at its widest point.

Return to the body fat calculator above

and change the “Body fat formula” to the
“Navy tape measure method. Then, input
your measurements.

+ Scientific References

F T E
a wi m
Legion Featured Author

Mike Matthews

Mike Matthews is the founder of

Legion as well as the author of several
award-winning fitness books,
including Bigger Leaner Stronger,
Muscle for Life, and The Shredded
Chef.

His simple and science-based

approach to building muscle, losing
fat, and getting healthy has sold over a
million books and helped thousands of
people build their best bodies ever,
and his work has been featured in
many popular outlets including
Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s
Health, Muscle & Strength, and more,
as well as on FOX and ABC.

You can find Mike on Twitter,

Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

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