Best Tools To Measure Bodyfat

Barribomb

I've been reading that digital scales aren't the best to accurately calculate bodyfat, so I'm looking to get calipers.
Any suggestions on makes/models? Are the electric calipers as good as the manual ones? Are calipers hard to use?

(I know the dunk tank/bod pod (forget the name) is most accurate, but I'm on a budget)

Thanks in advance!

Barribomb

*BUMP*

SteveTries

I use a pair of slim guide calipers. I've had them well over ten years and they are still in good shape. They are cheap (£15-£20), easy to use and durable.

If you want your caliper to measure fat loss as part of a weight loss programme then it's not all that important how accurate a caliper is - what you want from your caliper is consistency. So I really would advise against paying 10 times that amount for the super-dooper worlds most accurate caliper when what you are trying to measure is change from one week to the next.

Ease of use - it takes a bit of practice but quickly becomes easy. I do the 3 point measure (chest, abdomen & thigh) and it's easy to perform on myself. Again consistency is important here. 3 different people will measure at slightly different places, skewing your results. The calipers should come with a guide of how and exactly where to measure but will most likely say to do three measures at each site and use the average of the three.

You then take those measures and plug them into an algorithm that estimates your fat percentage.

There are numerous algorithms out there but again it doesn't matter which is more accurate if change is what you are trying to measure. They all contain an element of guesswork as they use Age in the algorithm. It take a couple of minutes to set that up in a spreadsheet the first time, but it's super quick thereafter.

So all in all, yes they are easy to use - the pinch can hurt a little though :-)

Happy to share the algorithms I use etc if that's helpful. Just friend me and leave a comment, or message.

Good luck.