Body fat percentage

Jack Bauer999

Hi

This may be a silly question but how do you measure
your body fat percentage?

Thanks

cowzerp

There is 2 common ways-calipers where they take a number of sites on your body and take a pinch and measure the skinfolds of fat, when its all calculated you have your body fat%, i dont trust this method as its quite hard to do on overweight people and real easy to lie to clients with also, most people are hopeless at caliper testing and that includes trained instructors.
The other way is hand held body fat tester-if used correct they can be quite accurate, but if used wrong they can be useless, the details need to be correct and the device held in the proper position and done before exercise and well after food! again some trainers are not aware of these simple facts!

Jack Bauer999

cowzerp wrote:

There is 2 common ways-calipers where they take a number of sites on your body and take a pinch and measure the skinfolds of fat, when its all calculated you have your body fat%, i dont trust this method as its quite hard to do on overweight people and real easy to lie to clients with also, most people are hopeless at caliper testing and that includes trained instructors.
The other way is hand held body fat tester-if used correct they can be quite accurate, but if used wrong they can be useless, the details need to be correct and the device held in the proper position and done before exercise and well after food! again some trainers are not aware of these simple facts!

ok thanks, i take it you should be able to get it mesaured in any gym so.

rubadub

cowzerp wrote:

The other way is hand held body fat tester-if used correct they can be quite accurate,

These work on the same principle as the weighing scale ones- measuring the electrical resistance of your body. Flucuates wildly depending on hyrdration and other factors.

I have a slim guide calipers that is sprung so has the same tension all the time. Depending on what formula I use I could be 8 or 18% bodyfat, so I ignore the formulas. I measure several places and tot up the figures, if I am 25mm and the next time 23mm I know I have lost fat. I could be pinching a bit wrong BUT I am consistent, so all that matters is the differences each time.

The mirror is stilll a great tool.

barclay2

or you could try this website, all you'll need is a measuring tape. http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html

cowzerp

Jack Bauer999 wrote:

ok thanks, i take it you should be able to get it mesaured in any gym so.

Any gym can do your body fat for you..

rubadub

barclay2 wrote:

or you could try this website, all you'll need is a measuring tape. http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html

Anybody have any other sites/calculators like this? 2 areas (neck & abdomen) seems like too little to make a good estimate, though mine came out at 13% which I think is about right.

Colm_OReilly

I read a great article by Tony Leyland on this once, and there were two main points. 1) BF is inaccurate, even the underwater BF tests - a sd of 3%. 2) BF is not a good indicator of health.

If you're exercising regularly and eating right, and you see your body shape move closer to what you want, why would you worry about an inaccurate measure?

rubadub

Colm_OReilly wrote:

I read a great article by Tony Leyland on this once, and there were two main points. 1) BF is inaccurate, even the underwater BF tests - a sd of 3%. 2) BF is not a good indicator of health.

If you're exercising regularly and eating right, and you see your body shape move closer to what you want, why would you worry about an inaccurate measure?

I get what you are saying.
But...
Most people like to be able to measure progress. Many say BMI is useless, but for the majority of people it is better than nothing. Some say BF is better than BMI, but I imagine the fluctation in BF readings is far more than weight. The majority of people are not bodybuilders so I imagine with the tools available and people taking measurements -then BMI is possibly better than BF (for the average person on the street).

Many people might have a skewed view of themselves, anorexics or generally underweight people might think they are overweight, if a figure suggested otherwise they might cop on a bit, e.g. it they were told they have lower BF or BMI than 99% of the poplulation they might step away from the mirror for a minute and rethink. Same with chronically overweight people who think they are fine- and there seem to be plenty of girls these days with massive guts hanging over their belts wearing belly tops- pround as punch.

For people doing weight-training they might simply want to track their progress on a new routine, are they gaining muscle at all.

Colm- what would you reckon is the best measurement (besides mirror), hip to waist or something? I am not talking a guide to fitness here, a guide to determining body composition, muscle & fat ratios.

Colm_OReilly

rubadub,

I get that measurements are good as they can act as a motivational tool for so many people. What I'm saying is that if you're going to use a measure why not have one that actually means something in terms of your health?

With that in mind the ratios of body composition are worthless. The low cost measurements are grossly inaccurate, the more "accurate" ones are cost prohibitive, and even at that not very accurate.

Looking good naked is a derivative for the majority of health. This is brought about the most efficiently by concentrating on performance. It's a great irony that by concentrating on performance you improve your aesthetics.

Better ways to track your progress: Are you moving more weight over a longer distance in a shorter time? More reps/higher load/quicker runs?

Do you look better in the mirror?

More importantly, do you feel better?

These will tell you so much more than some arbitary metric which is primarily in place because it allows a rapid, easy calculation.

By way of comparison, a fighter of mine was at the MMA League in Antrim when the first aid people wanted to check his blood pressure. They took this literally just before his fight. So after a strenuous warm up and just before a fight his BP was high and she expressed concern.

A one time measurement of a wildly fluctuating variable and she deemed it necessary to tell him she was worried about his BP. Crazy.

Hanley

barclay2 wrote:

or you could try this website, all you'll need is a measuring tape. http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html

Hmmm I wouldn't trust that site TOO much. It can be skewed for those carrying alot of muscle. For example it has me at 17% BF whereas my calipers consistently have me between 13 and 15%.

rubadub

Hanley wrote:

It can be skewed for those carrying alot of muscle.

Yeah, somebody with a neck like Mike Tyson would probably appear obese. Like the BMI it is more suited to the average joe who does no weights.

IncredibleHulk

barclay2 wrote:

or you could try this website, all you'll need is a measuring tape. http://www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html

This gives me 34% when I calculated it from another site where I had to do lots of calculations it was 15%, cannot recall what site

cavanmaniac

Most methods I use has me at 22-25%. This is the only way I can gauge whether or not I am progressing in the right direction towards my goal of losing enough body fat to make my muscle gains visible, so I'd say BF readings are important for me anyway.

If I don't see it starting to shift downwards pretty soon there'll be one very pi55ed off cavanmaniac!