Body Fat Percentage: What's Healthy?
Why body fat percentage beats the scale, what a healthy range looks like for men and women, how to measure it at home, and how to lower it sustainably.
The bathroom scale can’t tell the difference between muscle and fat — but your health depends on it. Body fat percentage, the share of your weight that is fat, is a far better indicator of fitness than weight alone. This guide covers what’s healthy, how to measure it without a lab, and how to change it.
Use this converter to convert to the unit accepted by the calculator.
Example
Sample: a 25-year-old man, 70 kg, 178 cm, neck 50 cm, waist 96 cm.
This is a sample result, not your calculation. Enter your own values to replace it.
Enter your measurements, then calculate.
Body Fat
The full report
| Body Fat (U.S. Navy Method) | — |
|---|---|
| Body Fat Category | — |
| Body Fat Mass | — |
| Lean Body Mass | — |
| Ideal Body Fat for Given Age (Jackson & Pollock) | — |
| Body Fat to Lose to Reach Ideal | — |
| Body Fat (BMI method) | — |
Circumference estimates, not a body scan. The Navy method reads where fat sits; the BMI method knows only height, weight and age and cannot tell muscle from fat, which is why the two rarely agree. Useful for tracking a direction over months, not for a diagnosis.
Check your measurements
Enter an age and every measurement. The waist must be larger than the neck for the formula to work.
What counts as healthy
Body fat needs differ by sex, because women carry more essential fat. As rough guides:
- Men: 6–13% is athletic, 14–17% is fit, 18–24% is average, and 25%+ is classed as obese.
- Women: 14–20% is athletic, 21–24% is fit, 25–31% is average, and 32%+ is classed as obese.
A little fat is essential — around 2–5% for men and 10–13% for women — for hormones, insulation and organ protection. Lower is not better.
Measuring at home
The calculator above uses the U.S. Navy circumference method: with just a tape measure and your height, it estimates body fat from neck and waist measurements (plus hips for women). It’s not as precise as a DEXA scan, but it’s free, repeatable, and good for tracking trends over time. Measure first thing in the morning and take each measurement twice.
Body fat vs. BMI
BMI is quicker but blind to composition — a muscular athlete can register as “overweight.” Body fat percentage sees through that. Use them together: BMI for a fast screen, body fat for the real picture.
Lowering body fat sustainably
There’s no shortcut, but the fundamentals work:
- A modest calorie deficit — around 250–500 calories a day — for gradual loss.
- Enough protein to preserve muscle while you lose fat.
- Resistance training to keep (or build) lean mass, which keeps your metabolism higher.
Track your body fat every few weeks rather than daily — it moves slowly, and the trend matters more than any single reading. Start with the body fat calculator.