how can you measure what percentage of body fat you have?

I mean at home, using nothing else than what you would find in a normal home. What is a normal level of body fat?

Public Comments

1. get a bathroom scale and stand on it
2. Obesity is the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue to an extent that health is impaired.(1) Check your BMI Body Mass Index (BMI) is the standard measurement of choice for many health professionals. BMI is based on a weight-to-height ratio. Overweight is defined as a BMI>=25 and <30 kg/m². Obesity is defined as a BMI >=30 kg/m². Obesity correlates strongly with obesity related co-morbid conditions and mortality. To check your BMI see the chart on this page Waist Circumference Waist circumference is another widely used measurement to determine abdominal fat content. An excess of abdominal fat, when out of proportion to total body fat, is considered a predictor of risk factors related to obesity. Men with a waist measurement exceeding 40 inches are considered at risk. Women are at risk with a waist measurement of 35 inches or greater. Several Health Risks and Conditions Associated with Obesity Include: Diabetes Heart Disease Stroke Hypertension Some types of Cancer Sleep Apnea Osteoarthritis Gallbladder Disease Obesity - an Epidemic Overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, as well as worldwide.(3) Data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that the prevalence of obesity, defined as a body mass index >30 kg/m² has increased from 12.8% in 1976-1980 to 22.5% in 1988-1994 and 30% in 1999-2000. 4) Roughly 31% of American adults meet the criterion for obesity - about 59 million American adults. More than 64% of the US adult population have a BMI >=25 kg/m².(4) In an effort to increase public awareness of the epidemic proportion of obesity, the Surgeon General has issued a call to action to prevent and treat overweight and obesity and their associated health complications.(5) you can also see the BMI height x weight chart here: http://best-natural-cures-health-guide.com/natural-cures-burn-calories-lifetime-fitness-health-articles-body-ideal-weight-BMI.html
3. You measure your weight, height and your waist measurement and then you read it off a chart. You can get these charts off the internet.
4. There is a mathematical formula that you can use to find this out at home... now where did I put my calculator?... lolz... I forgot the formula though... I think it's between 8 and 12%...
5. There are several ways in which you can measure body fat but most of them require equipment not at home. You can find out about all the methods and also the normal levels from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage The most effective way to get the results from home is to buy some weighing scales that measure body fat using the bioelectrical impedence method. These weighing scales are readily available in somewhere like Argos.
6. I bought a handheld body fat percentage calculator from somewhere like shopko, kmart, walmart..etc it was about $15.00. You enter information like your height, weight, and gender and then apply two thumbs to it. It will blink three times and then a number appears. It is done by sending electrical pulses through your body. It always reads about 30% for me, which seems high to me because I workout about 5 times a week and have been doing so for at least a year. It seems to go down wiht time as I workout more, and back up when I lay off a few days. So it seems to be accurately measuring it up and down, but I didn't think i was that fat!
7. Best method professionally is 'skinfold'. Uses equipment and databases, but actually measures the fat that lies under your skin, instead of working it out from electrical effects. (tiredness, coffee, dehydration, etc can affect the electronic methods) Easy version: 'pinch an inch', as featured in a recent commercial (cereal I think). It won't give you an exact %age, but it can indicate how you're doing. Pinch up a fold of skin on the side of your waist, between pelvis & ribs (about where your elbow hangs when you stand relaxed). Less than an inch is just fine (=less than about 20%), but don't panic if you get a handful. The targets are set artificially low, so as to generate more funding (by making more folk seem fat) or sell more 'slimming' products. A couple of inches (about 30-35%) should make you worry a little, and more is pretty chubby, BUT the healthy level actually varies according to your ethnic background and your age. It's best if you can compare with friends, and get to know your body by seeing how much fat you store in different places. A good chance to chat about which bits you most want to lose some fat from! (Don't overdo the pinching... some people bruise easily !)
8. There are some online body calculators, if you just google 'body fat percentage', although I'm not sure they are that accurate. You will need a tape measure for this. The best thing would be to purchase some Accumeasure body fat callipers from ebay or body fat percentage scales. HTH : ) A normal percentage of body fat for a male is between 5% and 25% and for a woman, between 12% and 32%. HTH : )