Body composition percentiles
Explore body fat and lean tissue by age and sex.
Body fat across adulthood
Fat mass as a percentage of total body mass.
Shading: middle 50%, 80% and 94% of the reference group. The blue line is the median.
Compare a DXA measurement
Enter DXA body fat percentage.
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Percentile values at this age
| Percentile | 3 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 90 | 97 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | 25.3 | 29.7 | 34.1 | 38.9 | 43.5 | 47.6 | 51.6 |
What these comparisons can tell you
The regional lean definition needs care. Hinton’s paper labels the measurements lean mass but does not identify whether its NHANES field includes bone mineral. We retain the published values without making a bone correction. Measurement ranks are exploratory until the scan’s field convention is matched.
Lean tissue is not a direct muscle measurement. DXA lean soft tissue includes water and other non-fat, non-bone tissue. Arm and leg lean tissue is a useful muscle proxy; it does not measure strength or diagnose sarcopenia.
Height scaling is not matching by height. Lean and fat mass indices divide kilograms by height in meters squared. The kg/lb view multiplies those indices by the height you choose. It does not estimate a distribution conditional on that exact height.
A population snapshot, not an aging forecast. Curves compare different people at different ages, not the same people followed over time. A percentile describes relative position, not an ideal body composition or a treatment target.
Study coverage is limited. The scan protocol excluded people taller than 196 cm or heavier than 136 kg, and pregnant participants. Age 85 includes people aged 85 and older. The height control can illustrate other heights, but cannot supply evidence missing from the study.
Measurements must be comparable. These references come from Hologic DXA with NHANES calibration; other scanners, software and methods can differ. Smart-scale or caliper estimates are not interchangeable. These historical U.S. data exclude some people with very large bodies, and do not represent every ancestry or the present-day population.
Sources & calculation
Kelly et al. · 2009 · Published reference table S2
Whole-body fat references from weighted, multiply imputed NHANES data. Published tables report σ; this dataset converts to S = σ / M.
The published groups are Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, Mexican American. No pooled curve is available in these tables; the selected group is a reference choice, not an inferred personal characteristic. The Mexican American group does not represent all Hispanic populations.
Curves use the published LMS parameters: L describes skewness, M the median, and S relative spread. Parameters are linearly interpolated between published ages; values are not extrapolated beyond ages 20–85. Percentile estimates outside 3–97 are reported as a bound rather than an exact tail rank. Shaded bands show population spread, not confidence intervals.