I had an itch to scratch today - I’ve often seen posts on these forums for simple calculations such as “how much weight do I need to lose to get a six pack”, or “how many calories should I be eating daily?”. I decided to start a page with a collection of such utilities.

www.bironology.org/fittools (http://www.bironology.org/fittools)

More utilities to come! Recommendations appreciated.

That's nice. Though im not planning to get to that stage yet.

Nice. I like it. Its useful.

Steve

I tried to select 6% as the target bodyfat % from the dropdown and it said that "Target Bodyfat % must be a number".

Excellent tool!

Woops. Fixed. Figures I'd have the bug on the one target percentage that everyone would want. :)

Now you can model yourself with the ideal bodyfat percentage!

I had an itch to scratch today - I’ve often seen posts on these forums for simple calculations such as “how much weight do I need to lose to get a six pack”, or “how many calories should I be eating daily?”. I decided to start a page with a collection of such utilities.

www.bironology.org/fittools (http://www.bironology.org/fittools)

More utilities to come! Recommendations appreciated.
Interesting calculator, which might work in theory, but usually when you lose weight, it won't all be fat.

I don't know if you were planning to put up any health information to accompany it, or if it's intended to be a rudimentary calculator. I'm worried that the calculator might give a person unhealthy perceptions of what a reasonable target might be. If a person is already within their ideal weight range, he shold be trying to build muscle to reach his target body fat percentage, not lose fat.

I've usually considered 12% for a man quite lean, and 10% to be a good six pack. The average male athlete has a body fat percentage between 14 and 17%. 4% body fat might be the body fat level for competitive body builders, but you might want to make it clear that it's not a healthy place for your body to be for an extended period of time.

Example (http://www.am-i-fat.com/body_fat_percentage.html)

I don't mind that your calculator doesn't mention women.;)

More utilities to come! Recommendations appreciated.
Ask John permission for you to use his photos or link to his photos, and put up side by side comparisons of himself at different body fat percentages.
175 pounds at 12% body fat, 175 pounds at 6% body fat.
200 pounds at 25% body fat, 200 pounds at 12% body fat.

etc.

Thanks for the input guava. You are correct that this is more of a theoretical "modeler" to get an idea of how much fat loss you would need to make to reach a target percentage. It's also very difficult to precisely measure bodyfat percentage without access to underwater weighing, although I have found that calipers and/or tape measurements can at least afford a pretty good sense of relative loss/gain, if not an absolutely precise number.

I do plan on filling out more background information and insights into the targets, and to customize the calculation for men vs. women. Since my wife is my other beta tester, believe me, I did not forget about women! :)

That's a great idea about John's pictures. I'll ask him. I wonder if medical research has any use for John? Hmm... :confused:

I know a lot of people simply don't know what 8% bodyfat looks like and how much it can differ from person to person. You might have a six pack at 12%, you might need to go down to 6%. To have a "ripped" body,like the models & bodybuilders you see, you need to go down to 4% at least and as guava said, do this for a day or two but not weeks on end. Its EXTREMELY unhealthy.

Jeremy Likness has pics of him at various bodyfat percentages on his site and they helped me understand a lot.

I like your calculator JoeBiron. Nice and simple. The problem is, as I find with myself, that measurements such as weight,waist circumference,caliper readings etc, even done at the first thing in the morning on the same day every week vary a bit. Today, I'm 70kg (up from 68.5kg 3 weeks ago) but my waist is smaller and I'm noticeably leaner. Have I added 1.5kg (over 3lbs) of muscle? Doubt it. And since my diet is the same week in,week out, it can't have been affected by anything I consumed.

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/bfb

This site has been the closest to my caliper readings since it tells you where to measure (some sites say "waist circumference" meaning narrowest point, others mean at your naval,others at halfway).

Nice job!:D

Ask John permission for you to use his photos or link to his photos, and put up side by side comparisons of himself at different body fat percentages.
175 pounds at 12% body fat, 175 pounds at 6% body fat.
200 pounds at 25% body fat, 200 pounds at 12% body fat.

etc.


That would be sweeeeeet!!!

or

Set it up like on of those FBI/Crime show tools that you input a current pic and show what you/they would like like at x bodyfat/weight.

Course that might take a litttttttle more effort.

Updated to calculate bodyfat % based on tape measurements.

http://www.bironology.org/fittools/

http://www.bironology.org/fittools/img/fittools.jpg

I think it's great! Good work Joe:tu:

T

Hey thanks for the positive feedback!

This was really fun. Any ideas on another tool? I was thinking about a caloric intake tool, to help you to arrive at a target number of calories for cutting, maintaining, or bulking.

Anyone second this idea?