Tom Wade MD

Today, I review, link to, and excerpt from healthline‘s The 10 Best Ways to Measure Your Body Fat Percentage. Written by Grant Tinsley, Ph.D., CSCS,*D, CISSN — Updated on May 18, 2023.

All that follows is from the above resource.

There are many ways to measure body fat percentage. However, the most accurate measurements aren’t available at home.

It can be frustrating to step on the scale and see no change.

While it’s natural to want objective feedback on your progress, body weight shouldn’t be your main focus.

Some “overweight” people are healthy, while others with “normal weight” are unhealthy.

However, your body fat percentage tells you what your weight is comprised of.

Specifically, it tells you the percent of your total body weight that is fat. The lower your body fat percentage, the higher percentage of lean muscle mass you have on your frame.

Here are the 10 best ways to measure your body fat percentage.

1. Skinfold Calipers
   1. Summary
      Estimating body fat percentage with skinfold calipers is affordable and relatively simple once you know how to do it. However, the accuracy depends on the skill of the person performing the assessment.
   2. Instructional video: Here is an example of a 7-site skinfold assessment.
   3. For details, please review this section of the article.
2. 2. Body Circumference Measurements

   Measuring the circumference of certain body parts is a simple method of body fat estimation.

   For example, the US Army uses a body fat calculation that simply requires an individual’s age, height and a few circumference measurements.

   For men, the circumferences of the neck and waist are used in this equation. For women, the circumference of the hips is also included (5).

   1. Advantages: This method is easy and affordable. A flexible measuring tape and calculator are all you need. These tools can be used at home and are portable.
   2. Disadvantages: Body circumference equations may not be accurate for all people due to differences in body shape and fat distribution
   3. Instructional video: Here is a video showing examples of girth measurements.
   4. Summary
      Using body circumferences to estimate body fat is quick and easy. However, the accuracy of this method can vary widely and is not considered an ideal method of measuring body fat percentage.
3.  Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA)
   1. Summary
      DXA is more accurate than many other methods of assessing body fat percentage. However, it’s often unavailable to the general population, fairly expensive and not feasible for regular testing.
   2. Instructional video: Here is a video showing how DXA works.
   3. For details please see this section of the article.
4.  Hydrostatic Weighing
   1. Instructional video: Here is an example of how hydrostatic weighing is performed.
   2. Summary
      Hydrostatic weighing is an accurate way to assess your body fat. However, it’s only available at certain facilities and involves holding your breath while being completely submerged in water.
   3. For details please see this section of the article.
5.  Air Displacement Plethysmography (Bod Pod)
   1. Accuracy: The accuracy is very good, with an error rate of 2–4% body fat (3).
   2. Instructional video: This video shows a Bod Pod assessment.
   3. Summary
      The Bod Pod is the main ADP device currently used. It predicts your body fat with air rather than water. It has good accuracy, but it’s typically only available at certain medical, research or fitness facilities.
   4. For details please see this section of the article.
6. Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)
   1. Summary
      BIA devices work by sending small electrical currents through your body to see how easily they travel through your tissues. Many different devices are available, although advanced devices produce more accurate results.
   2. Availability: While many units are available to consumers, these are often less accurate than the expensive devices used in medical or research settings.
   3. Accuracy: Accuracy varies, with an error rate that ranges from 3.8–5% body fat but may be higher or lower depending on the device used (3, 13Trusted Source).
   4. Instructional videos: Here are examples of inexpensive BIA devices with hand electrodes, foot electrodes and hand and foot electrodes. Here is an example of a more advanced BIA device.
   5. For details please see this section of the article.
7. Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS)
   1. Summary
      Similar to BIA, BIS measures your body’s response to small electrical currents. However, BIS uses more electrical currents and processes the information differently. It’s fairly accurate but mostly used in medical and research settings.
   2. Accuracy: BIS is more accurate than consumer-grade BIA devices but has a similar error rate to more advanced BIA models (3–5% fat) (3, 16Trusted Source).
   3. Instructional video: Here is a video that describes the differences between BIA and BIS.
   4. For details please see this section of the article.
8. Electrical Impedance Myography (EIM)
   1. Summary
      EIM injects electrical currents into small body regions. Portable devices are placed directly on different body parts to estimate the body fat percentage at those locations. More research is needed to establish the accuracy of this method.
   2. Accuracy: Limited information is available, although one study reported 2.5–3% error relative to DXA (17Trusted Source).
   3. Instructional video: Here is a video showing how to use an inexpensive, portable EIM device.
   4. For details please see this section of the article.
9. 3-D Body Scanners
   1. Summary
      3-D scanners are a relatively new method of assessing body fat percentage. The method uses information about your body shape to predict your body fat percentage. More information is needed about the accuracy of these methods.
   2. Accuracy: Limited information is available, but some 3-D scanners may be fairly accurate with errors of around 4% body fat (18Trusted Source).
   3. Instructional video: Here is a video showing how a 3-D body scanner works.
   4. For details please see this section of the article.
10. Multi-Compartment Models (the Gold Standard)
    1. Summary
       Multi-compartment models are very accurate and considered the “gold standard” for body fat assessment. However, they involve multiple tests and are not typically available to the general public.
    2. Accuracy: This is the best method in terms of accuracy. Error rates can be under 1% body fat. These models are the true “gold standard” that other methods should be compared to (3).
    3. For details please see this section of the article.