Navy Body Fat Calculator
Where to measure
I’ve used 3 different methods to estimate body fat percentage at home: bioelectric impedance, callipers and the Navy method. By far, the Navy method is the cheapest and easiest to use.
If you’re a man, you need 3 different measurements, and a woman needs 4. You plug these measurements into the calculator, and there’s your approximate body fat percentage.
Both men and women need to have their height, waist and neck measurements in inches. Women also need to have their hip measurement.
The neck is measured below the Adam’s apple and above the traps.
Men measure their relaxed waist circumference at the belly button, and women use the narrowest part of their waist and the widest point of the hips.
Then, plug this information into the Calculator below.
Why Use The Navy Calculator
The Calculator uses one of the best measurements for tracking fat loss: the waist. This measurement alone will let you know if you are losing body fat. If you’re losing inches around your waist, you’re losing fat.
When you resistance train, you can improve your body composition by adding new muscle while losing fat, and this is something the scale can’t detect. Tracking your body fat percentage will reveal this progress.
There are more accurate ways to find your fat percentage, like a DEXA scan, but the Navy method is inexpensive and straightforward.