Accu-measure body fat calipers

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Malloryrae1211
Malloryrae1211 Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Question about body fat! I bought a cheap accu-measure body fat caliper. I used the exact way the directions said to. Has anyone else used these? It only specifies to use it an inch above your right hip bone. Nothing about your arms or legs. I just want to know how accurate this thing might be.

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  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
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    Use the calipers, but not their little paper insert. http://www.linear-software.com/online.html is awesome.

    fyi - the first few times, my husband and I measured using all the methods. We found the Jackson/Pollock 4 Caliper Method was the easiest, most consistent, and in line with all the others using more points.
  • Malloryrae1211
    Malloryrae1211 Posts: 60 Member
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    okay, so according to the chart provided I have 12.5% body fat but according to that website you gave me it's only 1.57% how is that possible?! I can't be that fit!!
  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
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    At 1.57% you'd be dead. Double check all of your readings... preferably get someone else to do them.
  • Malloryrae1211
    Malloryrae1211 Posts: 60 Member
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    I'll have to have my husband do them again tonight, clearly he did something wrong. I thought even 12% seemed awfully low but that was only from the abdominal measurement.
  • JaydeSkye
    JaydeSkye Posts: 282 Member
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    You actually might be close to 12% - I'm somewhere around 17% and you've got a nice stomach, the majority of my extra weight sits in my core. I'm having the doctor do a bodyfat% calculation on me tomorrow so I'll give you my official % .. but from looking at your pictures I would say you're somewhere in that range... just by eyeballing it.
  • Mrs_TrimWaistFatWallet
    Mrs_TrimWaistFatWallet Posts: 486
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    My 'fat' readings according to the caliper is low around my waist but higher when you measure by my shoulder blade..hence the need to try multiple places.

    Here's a picture guide: http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-pictures-and-percentages

    I think it's pretty good to estimate BF % from (visually). 11-15% BF for women is competition level...
  • GalaxyDuck
    GalaxyDuck Posts: 406 Member
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    I thought that the difference between Accu-measure and regular body fat calipers were that with the Accu-measure, you're only supposed to take one measurement as opposed to several. I read about it the other day but can't remember where I read it to link it!

    I don't have either though, so I could be wrong!

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