Testing Body Fat?

N

NewGenSTi

0
Bought one of those stupid scales with body fat% in it realizing there is no way its right after it showed me losing 3% bodyfat a day then jumping up like 15. doing it at the same time every morning.

Anyways average of that said I had about 22.7% BF and now I picked up an Accu-Measure caliper and I followed their instructions on the single pinch and came up with about 13% bodyfat and then I did the multiple area pinch test with teh big long equasion and came out with 13.2%BF.. These numbers just seem a little low to me. I am 6'2 bout 190lb and I def still have this nice little gut on me. I mean its not huge but I would think that I have a higher BF that 13%.. that just seems aweful low to me. I was kinda thinking you start lookin pretty toned out by 12-13%bf

any tips on bodyfat testing?
 
Bodyfat testing is really hard to do by yourself. Doctors trained to use calipers i've heard can only get within 2-3% of your actual bodyfat. Just use whatever numbers you get as a guidline to future numbers.
 
Calipers are the best 'convenient' way to measure bodyfat. Forget that scale. The method it uses is the worst way to measure bf%. For calipers though, one site just doesn't cut it and you should really have someone show you how to use the calipers. Use this method: http://www.exrx.net/Testing/BodyCompSites.html

And plug your numbers in here:
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/BodyComp.html

If you have access to a university or hospital with an dunk tank you can have your bodyfat measured by being dunked in water. But it typcailly costs about $20. This is a more reliable method but the increased accuracy isn't really necessary for general fitness.
 
those Tanita scales can get close, but you have to be very well hydrated for it to give an accurate 'ballpark' body fat percentage. Calipers are better, and the underwater test Prometheus mentions is what pro-athletes use and is really the most accurate.
A properly done caliper test is good enough for people like us.
 
OK...I just bought a body fat caliper. This one here if anyone is interested. It doesn't say so, but the package came with a nice tape measure too.



Anyways...I have been using the body fat monitoring scale method for a while, and although I have seem dramatic differences in my body, the scale always gave me an almost random number from 32-38%.

I tested my body fat with this caliper. It takes three measurements, the chest, stomach, and front thigh (for women it measures the tricep instead of the chest), and gives you an average body fat number. I tested myself 3-4 times at different times yesterday and I kept getting an average 19 percent body fat. Try as I could…I could not get the number beyond 25%...and that was stretching.

I am assuming that the caliper is more accurate, but I was not expecting that drastic of a difference. I suspect my scale is broken, but I could be wrong.



Just thought I would share.


P.S. I changed my sig using new calculated numbers and new targets
 
RoRoCo said:
OK...I just bought a body fat caliper. This one here if anyone is interested. It doesn't say so, but the package came with a nice tape measure too.



Anyways...I have been using the body fat monitoring scale method for a while, and although I have seem dramatic differences in my body, the scale always gave me an almost random number from 32-38%.

I tested my body fat with this caliper. It takes three measurements, the chest, stomach, and front thigh (for women it measures the tricep instead of the chest), and gives you an average body fat number. I tested myself 3-4 times at different times yesterday and I kept getting an average 19 percent body fat. Try as I could…I could not get the number beyond 25%...and that was stretching.

I am assuming that the caliper is more accurate, but I was not expecting that drastic of a difference. I suspect my scale is broken, but I could be wrong.



Just thought I would share.


P.S. I changed my sig using new calculated numbers and new targets
Click to expand...

Same thing here guys. was getting an average reading of 21-25% on my scale and my caliper is reading at 13ish... I am hoping the caliper is more accurate. I like its number alot better!! lol
 
Body impedance test is known to overestimate BF% for lean people. They put a disclaimer for that on the manual(for e.g. Tanita) itself.
 
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