Body Fat Percentage

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kingofcrunk
kingofcrunk Posts: 372 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What is the most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage?

I have recently tried a couple of methods to measure mine and have come out with wildly different results!

Any help/ personal advice or anecdotes on the subject would be great thanks xx

Edit: If people don't mind I would be interested to know your personal weight/height/bmi/body fat - just so I can get some sort of benchmark as to what to expect. Obviously only if you're comfortable telling people :)

Replies

  • birdieaz
    birdieaz Posts: 448 Member
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    I found calipers to be fairly accurate. Make sure you measuring various points on your body.
  • queenhiphop
    queenhiphop Posts: 286 Member
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    The site I used was http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/ but I am very scepital owing to obvious reasons
  • sarafil
    sarafil Posts: 506 Member
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    I think calipers (used by an experienced person, like a trainer) is the most accurate way (there are scans you can do, etc, which are probably THE most accurate, but are expensive). I am 5'9", 144 lb, and about 21%.
  • queenhiphop
    queenhiphop Posts: 286 Member
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    I think calipers (used by an experienced person, like a trainer) is the most accurate way (there are scans you can do, etc, which are probably THE most accurate, but are expensive). I am 5'9", 144 lb, and about 21%.

    The link I posted above - how accurate is that? Do you know? As it puts me at 27% which I think is way under. I would think I'm at least 35-40%, unfortunately. (just being honest)
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    Online calculators arent the most accurate. Calipers are good, i suggest doing the same site until you get 3 consecutive readings. Water emersion and dexa scans are supports to ge more accurate.
  • ellen_v
    ellen_v Posts: 33
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    I really want to get my body fat measured with callipers but I'm not a member of a gym. Does anyone know how I could go about finding somewhere to get this done?

    EDIT: Online calculators have given me crazy results. I'm fairly sure my BF is quite low because I'm naturally quite muscular and gain muscle pretty easily but I'm not sure because at the moment I definitely have a layer of fat over my abs that were so visible a few months back :(
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    I really want to get my body fat measured with callipers but I'm not a member of a gym. Does anyone know how I could go about finding somewhere to get this done?

    You can buy a set of calipers and leanr how to use them.

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