Where can I get info on ideal body fat% and BMI?

[Fishqueen]

Just set up my aria scales and want to know what BMI and fat/lean I should be aiming for..?

[Blade7658 · Accepted solution]

A normal BMI is 25 or less.  25-30 is overweight and over 30 is obese.  These are really populations tools, so you may not fit that exactly, but unless you are a power lifter or exceptionally small framed, it is close.  The BMI is strictly a height and weight driven measure.

Body fat is a bit trickier as it depends on your age (we get a little bit fatter as we get older).  Taken from the livestrong.com website:

The acceptable ranges for classification are between 22 percent and 25 percent for women agess19 to 29, 23 percent and 28 percent for women in their 30s, 26 percent and 31 percent for women in their 40s, and between 31 percent and 34 percent for women ages 50 and older.

[sruthp]

It is on your profile on your fitbit page.

[Dominique]

For body fat %, the old dashboard included the chart below. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the new dashboard. New users don't have access to the old dashboard (which was better IMO and which I'm still using).

[Amelia417]

BMI is a simple ratio of height to weight and show no real evidence of health as all body types are different.  You can be short, muscular and fit, but your BMI is thrown off because of it.  Body fat is age dependent.  Google it and you can discover what is healthy for age/sex, activity level...athletes, etc. 

[Amelia417]

This does not account for age, but pretty accurate!

[shawni]

Hi @Dominique  . I have a tanita scale that measures body fat in %, total body water in %, visceral fat in % and other functions. I do not have the fitbit that measure body fat in %. Can I also use my own tanita scale to measure my body fat and compare to your body fat chart posted? I have about 21% body fat from my tanita scale.

[Dominique]

Hi,  @shawni ! Body fat is body fat, it doesn't really matter what you use to measure it. The main advantage of the Fitbit scale (Aria) is that it integrates seamlessly into your Fitbit account, ie. automatically upload your weight and body fat % to your account. With the Tanita, I assume you will have to manually log the data into your account:

Once you've done that, you're pretty much in the same situation as an Aria owner. Of course, you need to be aware of the shortcomings of the method used by your scale (I assume it's the same as the one used by the Aria, ie. bioelectrical impedance). For instance, the body fat value reported by such scales depends a great deal on your body's hydration level, on what you've eaten previously etc.

There are other more reliable ways to measure body fat, but they are either a lot more expensive, less practical, or both.

Other than that, congrats on your 21% body fat, which is very good for a female!

[Way2Far]

In the UK today the news is full of the population being overwieght and don't know it.  The new normal is overweight.  The National Health Service has a calculator that will take your sex, age and activity levels into account before giving out its advice on how much it thinks you should lose and how many calories to eat. Follow the link below to have a go.  By the way the calculator will also work out a child's BMI which uses different calculations to adults.

http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healthyweightcalculator.aspx