Covert Bailey Body Fat Calculator

About this calculator

The Covert Bailey tape-measure method, popularized by fitness author Covert Bailey, estimates body fat percentage from just a handful of tape-measure circumferences (primarily waist and wrist, sometimes with hip and forearm added) combined with body weight and height, using regression-based lookup tables rather than skinfold calipers or imaging equipment. It trades some accuracy for accessibility — anyone with a soft tape measure and a scale can use it at home.

The method was widely popularized through Bailey's fitness books and became a common at-home alternative to gym-based skinfold testing or bioelectrical impedance scales, particularly before body-fat scales became inexpensive and widespread. It remains useful today as a quick, no-equipment way to estimate fat mass and lean mass and track relative change over time, though like all circumference-based methods it is less precise than DEXA or hydrostatic weighing for a single absolute reading.

This calculator takes your weight, waist and wrist measurements, then returns your estimated body fat percentage, fat mass, and lean mass using the tape-measure method, so you can track body composition trends without special equipment.