Decrease Your Body Fat Percentage

Are you trying to lose weight? Do you want a way to measure your progress? Most doctors will measure your body fat percentage. Do you need a body fat calculator? This article will give you the information you need to calculate your body fat and how this can help you lose weight.

How Do You Measure Body Fat?

You can calculate your body fat with a body fat calculator. Your doctor or someone at your gym can help in body fat calculation since it usually requires equipment and skills. This is the age of the internet and you can find several of these calculators online. They may not be 100% accurate, but they will be relevant. Some of them are:

• Body fat from circumference - this is used by the U.S. Navy and gives you a measure of body fat based on the dimensions of your body parts
• Body fat and body mass index - your body fat is estimated from your body mass index
• Body fat from skin fold - body fat estimated from skin fold sites
• Female athlete body fat - body fat estimated from skin fold sites, age, and weight for female athletes.

There is an average chart that you refer. It is prepared by the American Council on Exercise. It says that the essential fat in women should be between 10% and 12%, in men it should only be 2% and 4%. If you are athletic it should be 14% and 20% in women and 6% and 13% in men. If you are into fitness, then for women it should be between 21% and 24%. For men it should be between 14% and 17%. A normal amount of body fat in normal women is between 25% and 31%. In men it is between 18% and 25%. If you are obese, then it should be your goal to get your body fat percentage fewer than 31%. If you happen to be a woman and then it should be below 25%.

How does it help to know if you are Obese?

It is important to get your body fat measurement so that you can keep track of where you are and how far you have come in your weight loss program. This will let you know if you should switch up your program or step it up a notch when you hit a fitness plateau. It will help you to design a better diet plan for you if you are obese and as well as to decide how many calories you should take. This will help to lose excess weight and as well as to decide how many calories you burn during the day.

If you need help in designing your diet, you can make an appointment with a registered dietician and let them help you plan it for you. They can design the perfect diet and menu choices for you.

Calculating Calories

Common sense will tell you that you need to burn more calories than you take in. You calculate this amount easily. The first step in this is to keep a food diary. Write down everything you eat, the amount of you ate, and when you ate it. This will also help you see your bad eating patterns. You should keep this for about a week or two. You need to keep track of any exercise you may have done and how long you did it. Then you need to add up the calories of everything. Most products will have caloric amounts on the side of the box, but if it is not there , then there are several sites on the internet that will help you find the caloric content of your food. If you need help in calculating how many calories you burned, there are websites to guide you. If you don't have internet access, then your doctor or nutritionist can help you with them. After you have these numbers you can calculate the difference between how many calories you took and how many you burned. If you are taking more calories than you burn, then you need to reduce your caloric intake. It couldn't hurt your exercise routine and burn more calories.

Since you know the importance of calculating your body fat percentage and your calorie intake, you can design the perfect weight loss program. There is no exact weight loss formula .since everyone is different, you can find what works best for you. Keep track of your body fat percentage and if you need be, revisit those body fat calculator websites.

This will help you to stay on track with your diet program and after you see the results, it will motivate you to stay on track. You must have scientific and quantitative approach in this. If you are following them then you will surely achieve your objective.