Comments on: How to Calculate Body Fat Percentage

By: Brad Campbell

Brad Campbell — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:59:54 +0000

Just go here: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

By: Jogi

Jogi — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:11:43 +0000

How can you find your body mass without any tools? I know there is a way to do it mathematically.

By: Brad Campbell

Brad Campbell — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:52:14 +0000

You have a facebook account? You should add me and I can take a look at any pics you have, for a better assessment.

By: sammy

sammy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:28:06 +0000

OK, I did not shower before, my water intake was normal the day before. I’ve played soccer on and off my whole life but recently only twice a week. About a couple months ago I started doing pushups/situps/pullups, then got really inspired and started a serious routine…. yours actually about a month ago. I am 21 years old. I can pinch ALOT of skin off my belly. Hope this helps.

By: Brad Campbell

Brad Campbell — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:24:10 +0000

With the measurements you gave me, that seems like it’d be correct. I’m 6, maybe 6’1″ and right around 5% body fat…I don’t know how you could be that tall and only weight 146 lbs and STILL be over 10% body fat. Can I ask how old you are and how much experience you’ve had with lifting weights and playing sports before? If you haven’t done much weight training your abs may not be very developed. How much skin can you pinch off your lower stomach area? If the answer is hardly any, I’d say that monitor is right on. I mean, is there any loose skin (fat) around your stomach area at all? Was your water intake normal yesterday and did you shower before measuring?

Lots of questions…but it seems dead on to me. Get back at me and let’s see what’s going on.

-b

By: sammy

sammy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:48:59 +0000

Hey Brad,

I bought the Omron fat loss monitor from amazon like you recommended, I woke up today and did my first measurement which came out to 5.7%, 5.8% and 5.7% again… which I REALLY do not think I’m at. I weighed in at 146 this morning after going to the bathroom, and not eating. I am 6 feet 0, I cannot see my abs at all and I really think I am at about 13 – 14 % Body fat, whats going on??? I tried troubleshooting the monitor with the instructions and nothing seems to work. Is it possible I lost 8% of body fat in 2 or 3 weeks?

By: How Un-Fat Should You Be? A Close Look At Body Fat Percentage

How Un-Fat Should You Be? A Close Look At Body Fat Percentage — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:47:34 +0000

[...] To calculate these body composition numbers, you first need to determine your overall body fat percentage. I talked about the different ways to figure out your body fat percentage and gave pros, cons and recommendations in this post: How to Calculate Body Fat Percentage. [...]

By: Brad Campbell

Brad Campbell — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:46:15 +0000

Hey Jeff – thanks for the awesome feedback…means a lot to me man.

You’re right on with body composition – what happened to you is the exact reason that we shouldn’t worry so much about ‘just’ scale weight. It’s not about how much ‘weight’ you lose, but rather, how much ‘FAT weight’ you lose and how much lean muscle you gain/maintain.

I’ve heard from so many ppl who are tearing it up with the cheat day/fast day method. It’s great to hear b/c there are so many ppl who are scared to death of this method and can’t possibly see how it would work, despite me explaining the mechanisms and research. Like you said, another great benefit is that it’s SO much easier to stay on point the rest of the week…and after a good-sized cheat day, it’s also fairly easy to fast the next day.

Really sets your body up for optimal fat-burning week after week.

Keep training hard and let me know if you have any questions.

-b

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:02:02 +0000

Great information Brad I like the Idea of body composition over weight as a measurement of success. I went from 200 lbs to 165 through running non stop and became flabby skinny. Thats when I realized it wasn’t all about weight on the scale and started toning up.

Also I wanted to say thank you. I Stumbled onto your site while searching the 300 challenge on the web and have been hooked ever since late November. You have lots of good information on HIIT cardio routines that dont involve alot of wind sprints which I like. Also, I have been using a cheat day followed by a fast the next day per your advice to a great degree of success. Its been three weeks and I havent cheated except on the cheat days, it feels excellent and the fast is no where near as hard as it sounds when you actually put it into practice.

By: Brad Campbell

Brad Campbell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:57:43 +0000

Hey James – thanks for the feedback. Yep, you’re right about skinfold measurements – can be a very useful tool even without using the formulas so long as you’re consistent. With your BIA results, only thing I can think is that it was a bunk device or perhaps you were slightly dehydrated, had some caffeine, just got done exercising, etc.

Both traditional supersets and non-competitive supersets can be effective for gaining muscle. I personally like non-competitive supersets better because it allows you to work at a higher intensity for the given muscle, plus because the antagonistic (opposite) muscle is exhausted…this “takes the beaks off” so to speak and allows the working muscle to work without resistance from the “breaking” muscle…if that makes sense (a good analogy of this concept is when you do bicep curls, your tricep muscles are actually “riding the breaks” throughout the movement, just so nothing gets out of control; but if the triceps are fatigued from a working set, you can then attack the biceps with “no breaks.”)

These non-competing supersets can be a very useful muscle building and time-saving (even fat-burning) tool. I hardly ever use supersets with the same muscle group being worked back-to-back.

-b