Body Fat Percentage Calculator

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BF is short for body fat. Body fat is your extra weight in addition to your lean body mass. Lean body mass is your mass without any fat.

Use our tool to calculate your body fat percentage and make sure you check below our body fat percentage chart.

Please note – body fat percentage calculator and body fat percentage chart show / calculate mere approximate values.

Skip to tool.

Navigation:
What is body fat?
Calculate your body fat percentage
Calculate your BMI
Body fat percentage chart

Keywords: body fat, body fat percentage, calculate your body fat, body mass index, body fat percentage chart, body fat percentage chart men and women

Calculate your body fat percentage

Using the tool provided below you can calculate your own body fat percentage. Keep in mind that this tool is not very accurate, but more of a mere approximation of your body fat percentage based on your age, weight and height (BMI). Body fat percentage calculator cannot provide accurate results as it does not take into consideration your body composition. Use this tool just to get an overview of your BF percentage. For more accurate results consult your personal doctor or a trained professional.

How to calculate your body fat percentage

This tool uses your body age and body mass index as input. It calculates your body fat percentage based on assumption that you are of average constitution (meaning you’re not a top-level athlete or very obese). It also takes into account the fact that with age, most people will lose some muscle mass and at the same time gain some body fat (natural process of aging).

Note: this tool will only give you an estimation value. Real percentage may vary!

Body Fat Percentage Calculator / body fat percentage chart

Your sex:
Your age:
in years. Example “35”.
Your BMI*:
value. Example “20”.
*You can calculate your BMI using: BMI calculator (opens in new tab)
Press to calculate your body fat percentage:
Your body fat percentage is about:
%.




What is body fat?

If you want to assess your health it is important to know the composition of your body. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the quality (not the quantity) of your body weight.

Your body weight is divided in two main components:
– Lean body mass: weight of your bones, muscles, water, etc..
– Body fat: weight of extra fat.

Body fat is then divided into two categories. Essential fat, which is needed for different processes in your body, and the extra fat that is stored in your body as a result of excessive calorie intake.

If you want to lose weight in a healthy way you should get rid of that extra fat that your body stored.

Body fat percentage chart

Body fat percentage is divided into several categories. Body fat percentage chart is displayed below.

BF chart
Description Women Men
essential fat 10-13% 2-5%
athlete 14-20% 6-13%
fitness 21-24% 14-17%
average 25-31% 18-24%
obese more than 31% more than 24%

Source: American Council on Exercise Guidelines

For men, anything between 5 percent and 20 percent is healthy whereas for women anything between 15 percent and 30 percent is healthy.

Having a very low body fat percentage is as dangerous as having a high body fat percentage.

Women tend to have more body fat than men. This is natural. For visible abs, men should aim for 15 percent of body fat (or lower), women should aim for 20 percent (or lower).

Below image represents different body fat percentages. You can see how different percentages would look like on you in real life.
body fat percentage chart
On this image: body fat percentage chart. See how different body fat percentage would look on you in real life; source: healthiack.com

body fat percentage chart
Body fat percentage chart and Body Mass Index chart (BMI); image source: healthiack.com

Keywords: body fat percentage, calculate your body fat, body fat percentage chart, body fat percentage chart men and women

16 COMMENTS

  1. Most people don\’t know their actual weight and even if they knew, they don\’t know what is their ideal weight for their body. This is also happened to me. So I am very thankful for this post because it will give you a hint on what to do next. I will help you plan what to do in the future to have a good health.

  2. this is REALLY REALLY inaccurate, so don\’t freak out. lol. I know for a fact (like had it tested by real pros in a water tank) that my body fat is 23% (which is \”fitness\” level, for women). This says I\’m 34% which is overweight. lmao. I\’m 5\’7\” and 130 lbs.

  3. this is telling me I am 3.9% body fat, yes im underweight, but come on I\’m a female.. this can\’t be right for a teen girl.. tho before I used a calculator that I had to measure everything (when I was wayy underweight)so ya, and it told me I was like 2% ,it was less than this time, but still, whhaat, like if i was actually that thin I\’m sure i couldn\’t function..

  4. Hey there healthiack. I would challenge your Body Fat Percentage Calculator / body fat percentage chart. How is it calculating your body fat % from your BMI? What\’s the equation or formula this tool is using? I have never heard about this before.

  5. Thanks for the body fat percentage chart. Although this can\’t be accurate it is still a good approximation. I think I am at around 20% body fat (male).
    Matt

  6. Umm. I am a 60 year old female, weigh 121lbs, have a bmi of 19, and your calculator sez I am in the obese catagory? LOL I have to show my doctor this one! Crazy!

    • Hello. While your BMI appears to be normal, if not ideal, you must realize that with age men and women will lose muscle mass and bone density, resulting in lower body weight. If weight stays the same over the years this usually means that body fat percentage increased whereas bone density and muscle mass decreased.
      A person with 120lbs and 5’6 height at age 20 does not have the same body fat percentage than a person of 120lbs and 5’6 at the age of 60. This might not be a case with you, but it is something to consider.
      And of course – a simple body fat percentage calculate such as this one cannot be 100% accurate. We’ve mentioned that in the article above.

  7. Hello. Is this body fat percentage chart accurate? I\’ve seen many body fat percentage charts, but this one seems pretty accurate – at least for most of the people (excluding professional sportsmen and really really obese people). What is the source of this chart?
    Tony

  8. this calculation is totally off the older you are the more body fat you have put in the figures ajust the age BMI increases the older a person is how is this correct?

    • Thank you for your comment.
      Please keep in mind that this calculator is not (and cannot be) 100% accurate for every person.
      This calculator takes into account the following assumptions – when a person ages muscle mass will decrease, bone density will decrease, body fat percentage will increase.

  9. Hello, could you please tell me if the image of the body fat percentage chart for men and women is Copyrighted, i would like to use it on my blog. Thank you.

    • Hello. Image is not ours, however we have edited and enhanced it. If you plan on using it as it is found on our site please cite the source as healthiack.com.

      Regards.

  10. Converting BMI to an assumed body fat percentage really defeats the purpose of calculating body fat percentage; you might as well just take your BMI result and go with that interpretation. I also find it ironic that the article says you should assess your health by determining the quality, not quantity of your weight, and then the calculator just compares your age and gender to a number based solely on the quantity of your weight for your height and returns an assumed “body fat percentage” (I put this in quotes because the assumption is very far-fetched when it comes to those of us who are most likely to want to calculate our body fat percentage — that is — those of us who have muscle; especially in large quantities). It is also ironic how there are pictures of supposed physiques for various body fat ranges and I have never seen someone with a sub-14 BMI (those who would get a calculation of around 3-4% by this calculator) who looked like a professional bodybuilder. I have a friend who has a BMI of 12.8 and his body fat percentage would come out in the 2% range by this calculator, but he is a twig, not a professional bodybuilder (yes, he’s human; he is not a literal twig, just an ectomorph).

    However, I have a BMI of 28.0; so apparently 21.5% body fat. So I apparently should have a sagging waist as the picture indicates. But I don’t. In fact, my actual body fat percentage is actually closer to the 14-15% range. Four circumference methods that I know of and the calculation of my body fat percentage based on those methods are Covert Bailey Method, 14.250%; U.S. Military Method, 13.903%; YMCA Method, 14.800%; and Modified YMCA Method, 16.765%. My skinfolds come closest to the YMCA Method. These equations can be found at http://hubpages.com/hub/Five-Methods-to-Calculate-your-Body-Fat-Percentage-by-Using-a-Tape-Measure .

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