Body Fat %

samb

What is the most affordable (less than $200) and effective body fat percent calculator? I know there are many that are outrageously priced.... I have a scale that supposedly measures it but it is highly inaccurate. Thanks

Lyadeia

Honestly, the closest calculation that I have ever gotten came from a pair of $20 calipers. You can enter your values into online calculators after taking your readings.

It's the closest thing that I have gotten to what my personal trainer and my doctor have both measured me at. My scale with BF% capabilities tells me I'm freakin' obese...no way in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks am I obese. :flowerforyou:

spaboleo

what do you mean by "highly inaccurate"?

Those electrical meassurements are actually more accurate as the calliper-method. Because it is hard to do properly...and that requires a lot of practicing. (Professional fitness trainers and sport doctors might have the skill to do it, but most of the amateurs don't.)

So use the the scale built-in feature to measure you body's impedance.
It applys a low voltage through your feet and measures the resistance of your body. Less fat, less resistance for the electricity.

The trick is that it only works well if you meassure your bodyfat in the morning after going to the toilet. Because then your blatter is emptied and most of the liquids in your stomache and so on are processed. (Liquids...mostly water will have a bad influence on the meassuring result!)

This should be done on "regular" days only...by regular I mean days that follow a usual normal work-day.
E.g. a party on the day before meassuring would have a bad influence on the result. Lazy sundays, aswell as a very active outdoor-sports day, too.

Make the situations you are meassuring be the same as far as possible.
Then a scale with a price around 60$ should work pretty accurate and the results won't fluctuate that much!

TrainingWithTonya

My best recommendation is to go to your local hospital or university and see if they offer body fat testing. Some universities may even have some fitness research going on that you can participate in and get the body fat tested free.

Also, I just posted this somewhere else, but here it is again so you can see the differences between the various types of body fat estimation:

A primer on Body Fat Calculations:

Least Accurate--Formulas based on measurements and calipers. They basically look at the topical body fat (body fat directly under the skin) and not the visceral body fat (body fat around the organs). No matter how many times you do them they still can't "see" the fat deep in the body. They will also vary depending on the skill level of the person administering them. Someone who has practiced for a while and has been properly trained in using calipers will be more accurate then someone who just buys a pair of calipers at GNC with no training in how to properly pinch with them, but even with proper training, there is a 10% window of variability.

Moderately Accurate--Bioelectrical Impedance (BEI). There are several ways that bioelectrical impedance can be done. The cheapest and least accurate are the scales and handheld devices that use an electrical current through half the body. The scales go through the lower half of the body and the handhelds go through the upper half of the body. Because they don't look at the whole body, they can over or under estimate body fat percentage. The scales are more accurate then the handhelds because they measure through the midsection where most people carry their visceral fat, but they tend to overestimate because they don't account for there being less fat then that in the upper body. The handhelds are the least accurate BEI because they don't measure through the midsection where most of the visceral fat around the organs is located. To be more accurate with bioelectrical impedance, you should use a professional device that hooks electrodes up at the hands and feet to scan the whole body. These are typically only available in clinical settings or high end gyms. The drawbacks to any BEI are that water levels will influence the reading. The more hydrated you are, the lower the reading of body fat %. Also, some scales don't do BEI, but give you a reading for BMI. BMI is body mass index and has nothing to do with body fat %. It is merely a height to weight ratio that is used for population classification because it is easier to acquire the numbers for large populations because you just have to ask them their height and weight instead of actually scanning their body for accurate body fat percentages. .

Most Accurate--Bod Pod, Hydrostatic Weighing, DEXA Scan. These are much more accurate but are extremely expensive so they are usually only offered at universities, hospitals, etc. Bod Pod is a way of measuring air displacement while you sit in this thing that looks like a giant egg, in basically only your underwear. Hydrostatic Weighing is similar in that you are in as few clothes as possible. You then have to blow out all your air (or as much as possible) so that you can be weighed underwater because fat floats and muscle, bones, organs, etc. sink. DEXA Scan is kind of like an x-ray or MRI. It scans the whole body and literally sees the fat and muscles. It would be the most accurate but also the most expensive.

chrisdavey

Even if calipers are the least accurate, you don't really need to convert it to a %. And the mm don't lie. I don't believe the BF% it gives me at 6% at all but at the end of the day if the skinfold readings are getting smaller then that's a good thing

accumeasure is the brand. Check ebay.