Merrill et al reported equations for predicting the percent body fat in an American adult. One equation is for females and one is for males. The authors are from the University of Pittsburgh.
Patient selection: adult from 21 to 70 years of age with BMI from 18.5 to 40 kg per sq m
Parameters:
(1) age in years
(2) body mass index (BMI) in kg per square meters
(3) waist circumference in cm
(4) hand thickness in cm
(5) vertical abdominal skinfold in cm
(6) thigh skinfold in cm
Parameters
Points
age
-12.42 * (age)
0.14 * ((age)^2)
BMI
-14.43 * (BMI)
0.266 * ((BMI)^2)
age and BMI
0.893 * (age) * (BMI)
-0.0154 * (age) * ((BMI)^2)
- 0.01 * ((age)^2) * (BMI)
0.000174 * ((age)^2) * ((BMI)^2)
waist circumference
0.129 * (circumference)
hand thickness
- 6.44 * (thickness)
vertical abdominal skinfold
- 1.83 * (skinfold)
thigh skinfold
1.61 * (skinfold)
percent body fat =
= SUM(points for all of the parameters) + 225.43
Performance:
• The average error is less than 0.10% body fat
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