Yup, the *best* way to do it is with those funny fat caliper thingys (your doctor could probably do this too if you don't go to a personal trainer), but failing that you can do it pretty accurately with a measuring tape - make sure you can measure up to .25" and don't do it over clothes. For a basic measurement you measure your stomach, hips and neck. There are lots of sites out there that will calculate this for you but BodyTracker is the best one I've found - plus it gives you a nice chart telling you what's a good range for you to be in (and cute little graphics - lol you'll see!)
It's a really good plan for everyone to get an idea of what their body fat percentage is like - the higher your percentage the fewer calories you should be getting (or need) each day, so if you have a high percentage you may be overestimating your calorie needs. Same goes if you have a particularly low percentage - you may be underestimating. (Note: unless you're in the "overfat" - around 35% - or "lean" - around less than 20% - categories, it's not going to make a very significant difference, but still worth checking out)
That calculator will tell you how many pounds of fat you have on you (lol) and how many pounds of lean mass. Once you get those numbers, swing back here and do this calculation to find out your ideal number of calories:
(using my #s as examples - 122 lbs / 21% body fat)
divide your lean muscle mass by 2.2 to get the figure in kg
96.38lbs / 2.2 = 43.81kg
multiply by 21.6
43.81 x 21.6 = 946.28
add 370
946.28 + 370 = 1316.28 = your BMR!
multipy by activity multiplier!
sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) - 1.2
Lightly Active (light exercise 1-3 days a week) - 1.375
Moderately Active (moderate exercise 3-5 days a week) - 1.55
Very Active - (hard exercise 6-7 days a week) - 1.725
Extra Active - (very hard exercise/training or physically demanding job) - 1.9
So for me, moderately active 946.28 x 1.55 = 2040
This is the number of calories to MAINTAIN your weight
If trying to lose, take off 15-20% of that
If trying to gain, add an additional 15-20%
So if I was trying to lose weight but in no big rush...
2040 x 0.15 = 306
So calorie budget would be everyday (despite exercise as that was included in activity multiplier above) = 1734 calories
And voila!
lol that was probably WAY more than you were asking for... oh well!
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Body fat percentage calculator...
