Body Fat

DB10

I know little about this sort of stuff so if it comes across as dumb apologies. Anyway, I used this body fat calculator and it says I have 23.7% body fat.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/

Then it has a chart something like this:

Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 2-4%
Athletes 6-13%
Fitness 14-17%
Acceptable 18-25%
Obese 25%

Now I have no clue if that is accurate, it probably is wrong and I filled it out wrong I'd say, I don't know anything about measurements so my hip and waist measurement was the same.

Still I'm quite surprised for a young person, that never considered myself obese how close I am to it. I probably am a stone or more over weight, mainly due to drinking, poor diet and not enough exercise after quitting football.

Also I'm wondering if I managed to lose about a stone over time, would this influence the body fat much. I'm around 5"11 and 12 stone.

Doug Cartel

DB10 wrote: »

I know little about this sort of stuff so if it comes across as dumb apologies. Anyway, I used this body fat calculator and it says I have 23.7% body fat.

Now I have no clue if that is accurate, it probably is wrong and I filled it out wrong I'd say, I don't know anything about measurements so my hip and waist measurement was the same.

Well "accurate" is a relative term, and these calculators are based on statistical estimates instead of direct measurement of your body fat, so they'll never be as accurate as that. Still though they're an OK indication, provided you fill them out properly. Your hip measurement is the measurement around your hip bones. Your waste measurement is around your belly.

EDIT: Actually, that particular calculation method you have linked isn't very good. (Though it wouldn't be a million miles out). It doesn't matter if you put the wrong hip measurement in as it doesn't actually use that for men. Also, make sure you ticked the box for men. Get somebody who knows what they're doing to give you a skinfold measurement test if you want a more accurate score.

Still I'm quite surprised for a young person, that never considered myself obese how close I am to it. I probably am a stone or more over weight, mainly due to drinking, poor diet and not enough exercise after quitting football.

23.7% puts you at the upper end of "acceptable". It's not terrible, but you may want to rethink some aspects of your lifestyle, even if it's nothing major. Drinking a lot and eating rubbish isn't good for you anyway, regardless of what weight you are.

Also I'm wondering if I managed to lose about a stone over time, would this influence the body fat much. I'm around 5"11 and 12 stone.

If you lose a stone of pure fat, off the top of my head I think it would put you at about 15% fat over all.

Lantus

On line calculators for BF% are not accurate at all. Also, only females needed to fill out the waist and hip section on that particular calc (which you may not of needed to.)

When people lose weight they aim for a calorie deficiet and often no exercise (or just cardio exercise.) This has the effect of losing fat but also muscle mass (also referred to as lean muscle tissue.) This can mean that even though your weight may be 'ok' you can still have a high BF% as you have effectively wasted away you muscle tissue.

The way to combat this and get a lower BF% is to do a number of things: -

1/ set goals for BF% reduction over time that are realistic. It can take several years to reduce your BF% steadily over time.

2/ Use fat calipers and measurements including weight to track progress. As stated losing 1kg doesn't mean anything unless you know 1kg of what?

3/ Use resistance training to stimulate and grow muscle tissue. This gives you that healthy strong look and also helps to limit and reduce fat.

4/ Use cardio to assist in fat loss.

5/ Eat really really healthy. You can achieve some fat loss through small eating changes and a bit of exercise but only with really good nutritional knowledge can you get your body fat % really low. This will depend on what you want to achieve of course.

Unless you opt for professional testing in one of those sealed chambers then it's really difficult to get a highly accurate BF% figure. Calipers can offer a 'pretty good' measurement and are fairly cheap. What they give more importantly is a consistent and stable measurement of CHANGE over time. This is far more important. Knowing that your BF% has increased or decreased using the calipers by x amount every 2 weeks or so is more imprtant than knowing it was 14% or 16% to start with. It's tracking this rate of change in conjunction with your weight and muscle mass that allows to get a full picture of what your body is doing in response to your diet and exercise routine. That way you can change what you need to and monitor the results to ensure you get progress in the rght direction.

Ultimatley the mirror tells the true picture.....

rubadub

DB10 wrote: »

Men (% fat)
Essential Fat 2-4%
Athletes 6-13%
Fitness 14-17%
Acceptable 18-25%
Obese 25%

Still I'm quite surprised for a young person, that never considered myself obese how close I am to it. I probably am a stone or more over weight,

Well the chart you picked has no overweight category, it just skips directly to obese. You accept you are overweight but are in the acceptable category.

Many people get upset at this "obese" labelling since in their mind an obese person are guys you see in documentaries unable to get out of bed etc, while those would be classed as super-obese or morbidly obese. Instead of getting upset at being labelled obese you should really be thinking "hmmm that term obese is not as bad as I thought if I qualify".

People can pick and choose where to draw the line

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_obesity

Some modifications to the WHO definitions have been made by particular bodies. The surgical literature breaks down "class III" obesity into further categories who's exact values are still disputed.[14]

* Any BMI ≥ 35 or 40 is severe obesity
* A BMI of ≥ 35 or 40–44.9 or 49.9 is morbid obesity
* A BMI of ≥ 45 or 50 is super obese

As Asian populations develop negative health consequences at a lower BMI than Caucasians, some nations have redefined obesity. The Japanese have defined obesity as any BMI greater than 25[15] while China uses a BMI of greater than 28.

This is the WHO classifications

BMI Classification
< 18.5 underweight
18.5–24.9 normal weight
25.0–29.9 overweight
30.0–34.9 class I obesity
35.0–39.9 class II obesity
≥ 40.0 class III obesity

So you are in normal weight, and close to the overweight category -but you already considered yourself overweight.

You can check out hip to waist ratios too

DB10

Cheers for the info guys, I know if I kept going the way I was I probably would have been gaining even more weight. Sometimes its hard though, I quit football and it's hard to change into just normal running and lifting weights etc.

I was going to start my own programme of training, and it seems like dieting well, running and doing weights/exercises would be the way to reduce some of that body fat from what I've read on this forum.

I think I'm getting on okay so far anyway, it helps when each day you notice it getting slightly easier then at the beginning. Also I started to get motivated when my younger brother started using my weights and getting alot fitter, and benching more than me....:pac:

The Shtig

I've also a question about BMI.

I've been recently using those weighing machines in chemists to measure my BMI. How accurate are these? Should I purchase a pair of calipers instead?

On the machine it asks what age you are but 20 is the youngest, I'm 17, will it make any difference?

rubadub

In my previous post I was mixing up BMI with body fat%, but my point still stands that the chart you have skipped right past "acceptable" and then to obese

The Shtig wrote: »

I've been recently using those weighing machines in chemists to measure my BMI. How accurate are these? Should I purchase a pair of calipers instead?

On the machine it asks what age you are but 20 is the youngest, I'm 17, will it make any difference?

BMI is a ratio of bodyweight to your height, so there is no difference for age.

It is possible that the various ranges of BMI might change with age, i.e. they would expect an eldery man to naturally have less muscle mass.

The calipers are for estimating body fat %, but your results can vary depending on what formula you use, I think mine varied between 12 and 18% with the same figures using 2 different formulas. You can simply measure the various sites and just note the mm readings and if they are going down you are losing fat.

DB10 wrote: »

Also I'm wondering if I managed to lose about a stone over time, would this influence the body fat much. I'm around 5"11 and 12 stone.

Remember that if you are lifting weights, esp. as a beginner you can put on muscle and be losing fat. I am also 5'11'' and remained almost a constant 12stone for a year or so, while getting thinner all the time. So my BMI would have been the same but BF% would have dropped.

The Shtig

rubadub wrote: »

In my previous post I was mixing up BMI with body fat%,.

Sorry I mixed it up as well I meant body fat%

Mellor

Then they measure it with electrical impedance testing (the metal handles)
Not very accurate compared to other methods. Hydration plays a huge part.
you'll see a lot of variations
At the same time, if you were to do it regularly, and over the course of 6 months the average was coming down (allowing for the swings) thne its safe to say your own levels were reducing.

But paying for that in the chemist would be expensive and a waste of time. just get a calipers test donw every 6 months

Lantus

The Shtig wrote: »

I've also a question about BMI.

I've been recently using those weighing machines in chemists to measure my BMI. How accurate are these? Should I purchase a pair of calipers instead?

On the machine it asks what age you are but 20 is the youngest, I'm 17, will it make any difference?

BMI is just height and weight (see any on line calc to get it in a few seconds) based. So unless the chemist machine gives a horoscope as well I wouldn't bother.

If your going to engage in exercise on a serious basis including resistance training then BMI bcomes less of an issue and BF% a better measure of progress. I for example have a BMI of 28.5 (dangerously approaching obesity it seems! eek!) but have a 31" waist (for a male) and a BF% of about 15% give or take. I dont even bother looking at BMI anymore. It's a great measure for the average joe off the street but after that not so...

Mellor

Lantus wrote: »

BMI is just height and weight (see any on line calc to get it in a few seconds) based. So unless the chemist machine gives a horoscope as well I wouldn't bother.

If your going to engage in exercise on a serious basis including resistance training then BMI bcomes less of an issue and BF% a better measure of progress. I for example have a BMI of 28.5 (dangerously approaching obesity it seems! eek!) but have a 31" waist (for a male) and a BF% of about 15% give or take. I dont even bother looking at BMI anymore. It's a great measure for the average joe off the street but after that not so...

Lantus, see his follow up post

The Shtig wrote: »

Sorry I mixed it up as well I meant body fat%