Compute the official US Army circumference-based body-fat estimate from AR 600-9 and compare it with the maximum allowed for your age group and sex.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Male, 72 in, neck 16 in, abdomen 36 in, age 24 | 18.6% body fat · AR 600-9 max for age 24 male = 22% · PASS (3.4 points under) |
| Male, 71 in, neck 16 in, abdomen 34 in, age 22 | 15.1% body fat · AR 600-9 max for age 22 male = 22% · PASS (6.9 points under) |
| Female, 64 in, neck 13.5 in, waist 29 in, hip 39 in, age 30 | 28.6% body fat · AR 600-9 max for age 30 female = 34% · PASS (5.4 points under) |
| Male, 70 in, neck 15 in, abdomen 38 in, age 45 | 24.6% body fat · AR 600-9 max for age 45 male = 26% · PASS (1.4 points under) |
The equations above are the ones currently in force. A 2023 proposal to replace them with a single one-site abdominal-circumference measurement was field-tested and then deferred for further validation, so the two-site (men) and three-site (women) circumference method remains the standard. Several competitor calculators have not caught up with that timeline.
Men: 17–20 = 20%, 21–27 = 22%, 28–39 = 24%, 40+ = 26%. Women: 17–20 = 30%, 21–27 = 32%, 28–39 = 34%, 40+ = 36%. Exceeding the maximum leads to enrolment in the Army Body Composition Program rather than to immediate penalty.
No. A soldier is only measured if their weight exceeds the screening weight for their height and age in the AR 600-9 tables. Anyone at or below screening weight passes without being taped at all.
A lot. Each site is measured several times and averaged by trained graders, and the abdominal reading is taken at the end of a normal exhale. Measuring in the wrong place, or while holding your breath, can shift the result by several percentage points, which is why this tool cannot substitute for a recorded test.
Yes, recorded results are rounded to the nearest whole percent. This page shows one decimal so you can see how close you are to a boundary, but do not treat the decimal as an official figure.
Most often because that implementation rounds the intermediate logarithms. These are log₁₀ equations, so rounding log(abdomen − neck) to two or three decimals before multiplying by 86.010 moves the answer noticeably, we have seen the same inputs return anything from 15% to 19.8%. This calculator carries full precision through every step and rounds only the final percentage, so at a boundary it is worth double-checking against your unit's own worksheet.
It is a circumference-based estimate, not a direct measurement. It typically differs from DEXA or hydrostatic weighing by three to five percentage points and tends to penalise very muscular people, because tape cannot tell muscle from fat. It is still the legal Army standard.