What is body fat percentage?

Body fat percentage tells you how much of your body is made up of fat.

Why track it?

When most of us say that we want to ‘lose weight’, what we mean is that we want to ‘lose fat’. Tracking your body fat percentage is a great way to monitor your progress, it’s worth keeping in mind that the most accessible ways to measure body fat come with some margin of error, so it’s better to focus on taking consistent measurements so you can spot trends, rather than getting hung up on the actual figure itself. Read a more in-depth explanation of body fat percentage here.

How is it measured?

There are a number of ways to measure your body fat percentage. The US Navy Method is a popular one, and online calculators like this one will do it for you. You can also measure with skinfold calipers and check your millimetre reading against a body fat percentage chart. You can also purchase a smart scale that will measure it for you, and this article outlines more about measuring your body fat percentage and what is considered a healthy range.

Our Opinion

We’d recommend you DO track body fat percentage if you can. Over time it’s a better indicator of your health than weight.