One of the most important tools for those looking to get into or maintain proper fitness and health is knowing your Body Fat Percentage. Body fat percentage is the total weight of the person’s fat divided by the person’s weight and reflects both essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat is that amount necessary for maintenance of life and reproductive functions. Women have a higher need of essential body fat then men, in women it is 10-13% and men it is 2-5%, because of the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions women need more essential fat then men.

For anyone who is exercising by either lifting weights or doing cardiovascular exercise it is important to track your body fat in order to keep track of your progress and help you hit your fitness goals. Also, it can help you determine if the exercise you are doing is getting you the results you want and you can adjust accordingly. Remember, if you start working out and don’t necessarily lose weight it doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress, you could be building more muscle and thus remaining at the same weight, but your body fat would be decreasing and if you were tracking your body fat you would know this and wouldn’t get discouraged just because the number on the scale isn’t going down.

Measuring Techniques
Getting a persons exact body fat percentage can be difficult to determine, but there are many accurate ways to get a good estimate. One of the most common ways is the skin fold method. The skin fold method is when a pinch of skin is precisely measured by calipers at several standardized points on the body to determine the subcutaneous fat layer thickness. These measurements are converted to an estimated body fat percentage by an equation. Some formulas require as few as three measurements, others as many as seven.

The skin fold method may not give a very accurate reading of ones body fat, however it is a great way to measure body composition change over time, provide it is done by the same person with the same technique every time. I recommend the skin fold test because it is easy and most gyms will test there members for free whenever they want.

Another method of testing body fat percentage is Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, this is where two different kind of X-rays scan the body, one will detect all tissues in the body and the other doesn’t detect the fat tissues, then a computer can subtract the second picture from the first one, giving only fat detection.

There are numerous other ways to detect ones body fat, but the easiest, quickest, and least expensive way is the skin fold test and since this can be done in most local gyms it is the test I suggest.

It doesn’t matter if you are just beginning or have been training and working out for years, knowing your body fat percentage is key to tracking your success. Whether your goal is to build more muscle or to lose more weight, or if you are a male or female, either way body fat percentage is a good indicator of if your hard work is decreasing that body fat and getting you in better shape.

Below is a chart with Ideal Body Fat Percentage Levels for both Male and Female