Group: General Fitness & Exercise

General Fitness & Exercise
Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 382, Messages: 54581

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Body Fat Measurement Question.

maccini
maccini
Posts: 21
Joined: 2008/03/13
United States
2008/04/29, 12:43 AM
I'm trying to measure my body fat with a digital caliper I just bought. I understand the concept of measuring but I'm getting different readings. Is it best to flex then squeeze the skin or not flex at all? I get better readings or should I say more stable readings when I flex then squeeze the skin. If I don't flex my readings fluctuate a lot, see the readings below. When I flex my readings are smaller and only fluctuate 1mm.


The instructions say to check the right side of the body

1. At my chest diagonally. The fold is taken 1/2 the distance from the nipple and anterior auxiliary line.

2. At abdominal vertically. The fold is taken 3/4" to the side of the umbilicus.

3. At the thigh vertically. The fold is taken on anterior aspect of thigh midway between inguinal crease and proximal border of patella.

THANK GOD FOR PICTURES! LOL

readings I get for #1 are as follows... 15, 13, 13, 16, 14 mm (used 14)

reading for # 2 .... 23, 25, 26, 22, 25 mm (used 25)

for #3.... 19, 18, 18, 22, 17 mm (used 18)

Results say I'm 18.2% bf using the readings above. But when I flex and squeeze I get lower readings and it says I'm 13% bf. I'm going with the higher % but I'm wondering if I'm correctly measuring.

Any suggestions?

SFGiantsMVP
SFGiantsMVP
Posts: 1,533
Joined: 2005/12/04
United States
2008/04/29, 12:47 AM
Calipers suck and in your pics you don't look no 18% maybe a 14% or 15%!

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Knock-Um Down & Keep-Um Down!