A way to calculate your body fat percentage from your BMI!!

First calculate BMI at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ for me it was 23.3.

Then from http://www.halls.md/bmi/fat.htm use the following formula for an adult.

gender coefficient (males = 1, females = 0)

Adult Body Fat % = (1.20 x BMI) + (0.23 x Age) - (10.8 x gender) - 5.4

SO for me Fat % = (1.20 x 23.3) + (0.23 x 29) - (10.8 x 0 ) - 5.4

       &nb sp;          Fat % = 29.23%

Which is approximately right I am about 30% fat.

Thought this would be useful tool to chart progress and wanted to share.

Does it work out for those who know their body fat percentage?

Found another site that uses body visuals to help you figure out your body fat percentages and lean/fat mass. http://askthetrainer.com/fat-loss.html Just click on the image that you resemble and follow the calculations.

I also love the image of the fruits "Five pounds of muscle takes up about as much space as 3 tangerines.  Five pounds of fat takes about as much space as 3 grapefruits." A good visual analogy. And so true body composition is more critical than body weight.

Hope this helps people figure out their body fat.

according to these calculations on the web site above - I'm  "Ideal"!  but my hubby told me that already........

This formula cannot work as BMI is only dependent on weight and height, so someone who's very muscular with little bodyfat (low %bf) and someone who has minimal muscle and lots of bodyfat (high %bf) will have exactly the same BMI if they are the same height and weight.

It certainly doesn't work for me, giving me 32% bodyfat when it's actually about 25%.

My scale tells me my bf is 28.2% and this formula gives me 27.9%, so it was pretty accurate for me.

Not quite accurate for me either. Unless I calculated wrong (and from math class I know to do the equations in the () first), I came up with 7.44%.

Oh dear, guess this calculation will be as wrong if BMI is wrong for you. But suppose it could work as a general estimate for the some that BMI works for. Thought i was sharing something useful 

Strongercore,

Thanks for your post, I find it quite useful!. If people look at the page of your first link (nhlbisupport), they will see a link to "BMI Limitations", which states in which cases the BMI is not  a good reference (athletes, etc...). BMI is a good tool for most people. !

Susiecue,

If you read the nhlbmisupport page (first link), you will find a link "BMI LIMITATIONS".