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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Eur J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jul 6;65(12):1263–1270. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2011.119

Table 1.

Skinfold and Bio-impedance equations used for deriving Body Fat Percentage, including details of methodolgy of equation development.

First Author Equation1 Reference Method n Age (years) Ethnicity
Wickramasinghe FM (boys) = 0.68*A + 0.246*T + 0.383*SS − 1.61 − 3.45
FM (girls) = 0.680*A + 0.246*T + 0.383*SS − 3.45
D2O dilution 188 5-15 South Asian
Shaikh BF% (boys) = 5.304 + 0.269*T + 0.50*SS + 0.685*M − 0.063*A
BF% (girls) = 7.017− 0.053*T + 0.201*SS + 0.765*M + 0.052*A
Bio-impedance (validated with D2O dilution) 184 1-5 South Asian
Slaughter BF% (boys) = 1.21*(T+SS) − 0.008*(T+SS)2 − 1.7
BF% (girls) = 1.33*(T+SS) − 0.013*(T+SS)2 − 2.5
Photon Absorptiometry, D2O dilution & Hydrostatic Weighing 310 8-29 Caucasian
African American
Dezenberg FM (boys) = 0.342*W + 0.256*T − 6.501
FM (girls) = 0.342*W + 0.256*T − 5.664
DXA 202 4-10.9 Caucasian
African American
Bio-impedance Bodystat BF% = [(W − TBW/HF)/W ]*100
Kushner TBW = 0.59*(H2/R) + 0.065*W + 0.004 D2O dilution 59 0-66 Caucasian
Lohman HF (7-8 years) males = 0.768, females = 0.776 D2O dilution 11 7-11y No information
1

BF% = body fat %, T= triceps skinfold (mm), SS = subscapular skinfold (mm), M= mid upper arm circumference (cm), A=age (months), FM= fat mass (kg), W=weight (kg), TBW = total body water (kg), H = height (cm), R = Resistance (Ω).