Focusing on body fat percentage instead of weight is much more useful to track fat loss progress. Body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fatessential body fat is necessary to maintain life and reproductive functions. The bmi numbers are way too general to be really useful says tammy callahan marketing manager of life measurement inc which. Well talk about the healthy range for men and women and the limitations. The normal body fat for some athletes is typically lower than the ideal fat percentage in a nonathletic person. This type of body fat has a percentage measure of 10 13 of body mass for women and 2 5 of body mass for men.
To find out your body fat percentage you need to assess the weight of your fat and the weight of your total body. Well i dont aways work out for 2 hours but a couple days a week i do. Body fat percentage is a measurement of the total fat mass in your body. One of the required info is athlete or normal. Athlete is defined as working out at least 3 days a week for 2 hours or more. For example professional runners usually have body fat between 4 and 10 percent in men and 7 to 13 percent in women because excess fat may affect the athletes performance.
According to winchester hospital one of the most common assessment methods for measuring body fat percentage uses a device called a caliper. Here are the 10 best ways to measure your body fat percentage. But others feel that body fat percentage is really the way to go. The percentage of essential body fat for women is greater than that for men due to the demands of childbearing and other. Calculating body fat percentage isnt always completely accurate and there are many methods to try. The body fat percentage bfp of a human or other living being is the total mass of fat divided by total body mass multiplied by 100.
In an effort to focus on more than just my number on the scale as i inch closer to my goal weight i just bought a taylor body fat scale. Your body uses essential body fat to function properly this type of fat helps regulate body temperature provides cushion for the internal organs and provides you with energy during illness.