Body Fat

[A. Orstrom]

I have tried electronic measures twice the same day, and the results varied quite markedly.

My first result was 9.3% (electronic scale with metal sensors under the feet), the second was 15% (device where you grip two metal handles and stretch your arms and grip them tightly). The results do seem to vary quite a bit

This was a long time ago, before I started karate but I will try the calculation offered, it looks quite good.

[jarrettmeyer]

What is an acceptable body fat percentage? or is there one?

When I was in the military (sevral yrs ago) they would allow overweight people to measure their body fat percentage and if it was less than some set percentage (forgot the #) the overweight person would be allowed to remain in the military.

http://health.yahoo.com/centers/fitness/10002

That's a link for a body fat calculator. It uses the same equation as the one given by CagedWarrior.

http://www.runnersweb.com/running/bodyfat.html

Check out the above link for a standard for men and women. According to this page, ideal for men is 13% - 17%, and ideal for women is 20% - 27%. I've seen other resources that allow men to go as low as 2% and women as low as 10%, but that was from the US Navy. This particular web page has low limits of 7% and 14%, respectively. I can't find a link, though.

[CagedWarrior]

2% is pretty low. Extremely low in fact, probably not good to have for a long time.