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Body Fat Calculator
Your body fat is ......
How can a body fat calculator help?
This body fat calculator will give you a rough idea of what your body fat could be. This isn’t the most accurate method for calculating body fat, this would be a DEXA scan or skin callipers. The DEXA scan marks where all your fat is located around your body and is ultimately the gold standard.
By having a calculated estimate of your body fat you can make adjustments to your lifestyle to suit your goals. This value can be combined with our other calculators to give you a plan of action to help lower your body fat for the future.
Is having body fat a bad thing?
There is nothing wrong with having body fat. However, where this is placed will have a greater impact on whether it is a good thing for you or not. Different genders have different genetic make-ups, with this different genetic make-up changing where the fat is stored along with the hormonal balance. Males tend to store fat around the abdomen and close to the internal organs. This is due to the testosterone levels. However, women tend to store their fat around their hips, thighs and triceps. This is due to the oestrogen levels. Fat around the abdomen is mostly referred to as visceral fat; this carries a greater risk to health than fat stored elsewhere. This is the largest fat store, with it being the first place fat is laid down.
Why do sports people have varying body fats?
A sports person’s body fat will vary dependent on the sport they are participating in. The longer an event is the athletes will tend to have lower body fat percentages. A male gymnast has on average 3-6% when they’re competing, alternatively, a male shot putter can have anywhere from 12 to 20%. These percentages vary so much due to the athletes having the right body composition for performance. A long distance runner wouldn’t want to be carrying excess weight around as it will make their event harder. Therefore, they cut this down to help them to perform better.
How can I change my body fat level?
One thing you must not do is cut fat out from your diet. This is a key part of your diet, with fat providing many nutrients and vitamins. If your score on the calculator came up as a high reading, the first thing you can do is look at your diet and try to split it into the macronutrients. By breaking your diet up into carbohydrates, protein and fat you can see how much you have on a daily basis and make changes from there.
Following this, you can increase your activity levels, whilst studies have shown working out before you eat can increase the burning of fat for fuel for your exercise. However, it must be said, if you try this be careful and take the exercise easily.
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