How accurate is the skin caliper measuring for BF%?

stonel94
stonel94 Posts: 550 Member
edited January 30 in Fitness and Exercise
So I bought a skinfold caliper that had really good reviews and stuff, and then I used it (on myself) to do a 7 location bodyfat estimate thing and it said 20.7. My question is how accurate is this if I'm doing it myself because most of them I can easily do and read but a couple like the subscapular inparticular are hard to read because it's behind you but I looked in the mirror to see where it was and then held my finger where the needle was and stuff so I tried to be as accurate as possible.

Replies

  • GetSoda
    GetSoda Posts: 1,267 Member
    Way better than a scale. Not as good as dexa of course.

    But if you are consistent so you can get the same readings every time (ie: you dont read 23, then 30, then 15 on the same site in a row...), it's extremely useful for tracking bodyfat trends.
  • stonel94
    stonel94 Posts: 550 Member
    So it is accurate? or is it easy to measure wrong?
  • GetSoda
    GetSoda Posts: 1,267 Member
    So it is accurate? or is it easy to measure wrong?

    It's fairly accurate if you measure right. :)



    do some practice with it until you get within 1mm. Do each site 3 times. Take the average. If one comes up weird, throw it out and redo.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,384 Member
    As accurate as the measurer.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/830595-body-fat-estimation-methods
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    just track the mm changes. Don't worry about the % it gives you. I found this to be very optimistic compared to dexa.
  • pcastagner
    pcastagner Posts: 1,606 Member
    just track the mm changes. Don't worry about the % it gives you. I found this to be very optimistic compared to dexa.


    THIS
  • sunflowerhippi
    sunflowerhippi Posts: 1,099 Member
    ^^ like above said they can work great when used right. I also found that you can use 3 of the most mesurement point methods and they all come up very diffrent BF%'s though which can also be frustrating.
  • pcastagner
    pcastagner Posts: 1,606 Member
    ^^ like above said they can work great when used right. I also found that you can use 3 of the most mesurement point methods and they all come up very diffrent BF%'s though which can also be frustrating.


    The literal number doesn't matter. The idea is to track change for the purpose of deciding what to do next.
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