Body Mass index measures your mass over height and notes trends in health and development of disease. body fat percentage measures your ACTUAL fat (ussualy sub dermal/ under the skin) and can give estimates on overfatness. Both give you a goal to shoot for. Which wwould or do you preffer to use? I preffer BF% ffor people who have the time to be measured regularly, other wise I think BMI is the quick and dirty method.
BF% all the way. BMI may be a rough guide for your average person, but ultimately it means nothing. for example 6'2 200 pound guy with 25% bf 6'2 200 pound guy with 12% bf. both have the same bmi, yet they look NOTHING a like. One is considered athletic and the other is overweight. BF is just more of a pain to measure.
BMI Becomes more useless for traained individuals. George Hackenshmit would have had a BMI of 31 and he was a world class athlete. Eugene Sandow wwould be a simmilar case. The funny thing is I used to thing BMI was moderatly accurate, however after finding out I'm shorter my BMI looks far worse, yet my BF% hasn't changed. Funny.
I prefer body fat percentage, because i weigh 200 lbs and have like 17% body fat so Im not like fat or anything....but if i do my BMI it says like 31 or something i forget...
BMI is lame! mine says i'm anorexic (17.5 is anoexic and i'm 16.5)when really i have no muscle and small bones!
I go by bf% as well because I too weigh quite a bit, but I'm pretty solid. As a matter of fact this reminds me that I have to get mine measured again because it has been some time now.
I just had my BF% calculated for the first time today, just shy of 19%... I really don't know where that puts me in terms of average or ideal BF% ?
well, ideal depends on what you want. For bodybuilding/athletics..19% is pretty hgih(most are probably sub 12%). 19% is on the high side of average, i believe.
the healthy % for a male is 11-15% Lean is 8-11% average is 15-18% I don't have the essential amount of body fat needed to remain healthy.
