The Body Fat Calculator

The Body Fat Calculator helps you determine your whole body fat percentage.

The Body Fat Calculator is a free app to estimate your whole body fat percentage and your visceral adipose tissue measurement to give you a quick impression of your basic health using your weight, height and some other simple measurements of your body.

The Body Fat Calculator can be used to measure your BMI, Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR) also Body Fat Percentage and Weight Loss Percentage.

How to use:

Follow the intuitive instructions and enter the required measurements to calculate your body fat percentage and get an answer according to the method used. The Body Fat Calculator will give you a statistical display of the calculated information and answer.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is one method to calculate body fat percentage, and is a useful and widely used tool to give a quick impression of your health. You can calculate your BMI easily by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared.

WAIST-TO-HEIGHT (WHtR) ratio is another method that can be used to determine percentage of whole body fat and visceral adipose tissue. You can calculate your ratio by dividing your waist by your height (make sure to use the same units of measurement for each).

BMI is well-known for it's limitations, because it doesn't take into account whether your weight comes from fat, a baby you may be carrying or muscle. Nor does BMI indicate where fat is stored on your body.

A far more precise way to measure body fat is via a DXA (or DEXA) scan — but though it's considered a lot less practical and affordable than a simple calculation like BMI.

(WHtR) is gaining popularity amongst the medical community as recent new studies have demonstrated that it can be a more reliable indicator of obesity than the traditional Body Mass Index (BMI).

Recent research has done studies on the best way to try and estimate body fat percentages. Studies have compared the four common metrics against one another:

- BMI,

- waist circumference,

- waist-to-hip ratio,

- waist-to-height ratio and waist/height0.5

- and compared them to a DXA scan.

Ultimately, waist-to-height ratio proved best at predicting both whole body fat percentage and visceral adipose tissue.

Example Waist-to-Height Ratio

Marilyn Monroe - 0.3359

Female college swimmer - 0.4240

Male college swimmer - 0.4280

Bodybuilder - 0.4580

Female at increased risk - 0.4920

General healthy cutoff - 0.5000

Risk equivalent to BMI of 25 - 0.5100

Males at increased risk - 0.5360

Risk equivalent to BMI of 30 - 0.5700

Obese - 0.5770

Substantial risk increase - 0.5820

According to recent studies, the cut-points for predicting whole body obesity were 0.53 in men and 0.54 in women. The cut-point for predicting abdominal obesity was 0.59 in both sexes.

It is recommended that adults and children should generally try to keep their waist circumference to less than half their height for the ideal body fat percentage.

Waist-to-height is a better marker because it predicts not only total body fat but also abdominal fat.

Disclaimer: The app uses the general formula to calculate your BMI & (WHtR). To get a more accurate assessment of your physical state and health please consult with your doctor.