How to Calculate Body Fat by Measuring Skinfolds

There are many different methods of assessing body composition, or the percent of fat and lean mass of an individual.

The skinfold measurement test estimates the percentage of body fat by measuring skinfold thickness at specific locations on the body. The thickness of these folds is a measure of the fat under the skin, also called subcutaneous adipose tissue. Skinfold thickness results rely on formulas that convert these numbers into an estimate of a person's percentage of body fat according to a person's age and gender. Read more about skinfold measurement.

Two other ways to measure body composition include:

• Underwater weighing, which is considered one of the most direct measurements of body composition, while
• BMI, or Body Mass Index, is probably the most indirect method of estimating body composition.

All methods offer pros and cons and provide limited results. For anyone interested in having a body composition test, it's important to understand exactly what your results mean.