What is Body Fat Percentage?

Body fat percentage is the amount of body fat as a proportion of your body weight.

For women, a body fat of 10-12% is essential, 14-20% is considered a healthy range for athletes, 21-24% is healthy for fitness, 25-31% is considered an 'acceptable' range and anything above 32% is considered obese. For men, 2-4% body fat is essential, 6-13% is an athletic body fat range, 14-17% is considered a 'fit' range, and 18-25% is acceptable. Anything above 26% for men is considered obese. So, how do you find out what your body fat is? Below are the most popular methods for testing body composition.

Body Water Percentage

Experts recommend we drink 2.5 litres of water a day, as water is continuously lost from our bodies all day. It is important to check you are replacing lost fluids and maintaining a healthy body water percentage day to day, but even more important after spells of sickness or periods of exercise.

Recommended Body Water Percentage:
Women 45-60%
Men 50-65%

Basal Metabolic Rate
Basal metabolic rate is also measured in addition to weight, body fat percentage and body water percentage. This is a calculation of the number of calories the users body requires according to their physique and lifestyle.
As you get older your basal metabolic rate naturally gets lower, however this is not the only factor that effects your basal metabolic rate. Being more active and having more lean muscle will increase your metabolic rate and so you will need to consume a higher number of calories to maintain your weight.
These clever scales will also calculate the weight of muscle in the body for adults.