There are many ways to measure body fat percentage. However, the most accurate measurements aren’t available at home.

While it’s natural to want objective feedback on your progress, body weight shouldn’t be your main focus.

Some “overweight” people are healthy, while others with “normal weight” are unhealthy.

However, your body fat percentage tells you what your weight is comprised of.

Specifically, it tells you the percent of your total body weight that is fat. The lower your body fat percentage, the higher percentage of lean muscle mass you have on your frame.

1. Skinfold Calipers

Skinfold calipers measure the thickness of your subcutaneous fat — the fat underneath the skin — at certain body locations.

Measurements are taken at either 3 or 7 different sites on the body. The specific sites used vary in men and women.

2. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)

BIA devices detect how your body responds to small electrical currents. This is done by placing electrodes on your skin.

Some electrodes send currents into your body, while others receive the signal after it has passed through your body tissues.

Electrical currents move through muscle easier than fat due to the higher water content of muscle.

The BIA device automatically enters your body’s response to the electrical currents into an equation that predicts your body composition.

There are many different BIA devices that vary widely in cost, complexity and accuracy.

3. Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA)

As the name implies, DXA uses X-rays of two different energies to estimate your body fat percentage.

During a DXA scan, you lie on your back for approximately 10 minutes while an X-ray scans over you.

The amount of radiation from a DXA scan is very low. It’s about the same amount you receive during three hours of your normal life.

DXA is also used to assess bone density and provides detailed information about the bone, lean mass and fat in separate body regions (arms, legs and torso).

Singh Snapshot:
Whichever method you use, it’s important to use the same method consistently.

For almost all methods, it’s best to perform your measurements in the morning after an overnight fast, after you go to the bathroom and before you eat anything or begin your daily activities.

Ideally, you should do the test before you have anything to drink, especially for methods that rely on electrical signals like BIA, BIS and EIM.

Assessing yourself the same way each time will reduce error rates and make it easier to tell if you are making progress.

However, you should always interpret your results from any method with caution. Even the best methods are not perfect and only give you an estimate of your true body fat.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Support the show