At home body fat % tracking

cendrine

cendrine

Cathlete
I want to track my body fat % while doing the STS workout and I was doing some research on what would work best for me.

I read the recommendations from BFFM and he says that unless you want to have someone else do the measuring for you, the accu measure caliper is an inexpensive and practical, fairly accurate way to do it at home.

Since I don't see myself going to have my body fat checked too often, I opted for this one. I can't wait for the DVDs to come so I can get started!

For those of you who are interested, I got it from www.chponline.com
 
Thanks for the link! I have been looking for a fairly accurate way to measure my bf% at home, and my scale is anything but accurate! Please keep us updated - if you think it's a good one, I'm ready to order.
 
I'm pretty sure it will work for most of our purposes.

What the guy writes in his evaluation is that it is decently accurate. He also makes a good point. Ultimately, he says it's not as important whether or not it is as accurate as the 'dunking' method, which has its limitations too, he says, you are basically using the calipers for tracking progress. So if you were 20% and then you got to 18% you would have tracked the 2% body fat loss and that is more important than whether you in fact would be 17% with a more accurate measurement. I hope you understand what I mean. It makes sense to me.

I did a tape measure test from a different method that came out to saying I'm 24%. I hope that's wrong! But even if it's not, my goal now is to lose 6%, and that can be tracked by regular measuring, even if the other measurement starts me off at a different number. The focus is on what I lost, not what I started out with. (For me, I'm not competing against anyone but myself, so I don't have to reach an absolute % number for a contest)
I hope that makes sense!:)
 
This is a great site. For now, I'm going to use this method to track my measurements and bf%. The number I got didn't make me want to jump head first off my roof, so I'm encouraged. :)
 
The scientificpsychic site doesn't take into consideration FRAME SIZE

It only had me at 120# LBM.
I can tell you that is so wrong..... I have a very muscular body and a 6.5" wrist.

I have 133# of LBM. That is quite a difference.
I've never done the water displacement method, but I was tested at the Hospital by a Physical Therapist with calipers and electro-impedement (SP) like the scales that 'read' body fat %. Those tests were similar to Covert Bailey's formula with 135# of LBM

I'm sticking with Covert Bailey's formula. It better reflects my muscle mass.
 
Last edited:
I did the Navy Circumference Method and came out at 14.5%. The Covert Bailey formula had me at 22%. Last time I had calipers done, it showed me at about 15%. So I'm inclined to think the Navy method is more accurate for me. I have a small frame, but am quite lean and muscular for my frame size. I guess whatever method we choose, it's important to track the up or down trend, as no method is 100% accurate.
 
I'm probably fluffier than the average Catheite, but here goes-

The Navy site is giving me 39%, which even to me seems high. I am NOT 40% butter!!!!

The other site is giving me 21.8%, which seems a little low based on my wt, but I do have quite a bit of muscle, if I do say so myself. But at least that falls into the healthy range.

The Navy site is twice as high as the other, and I used the same figures when they both called for the same measurement. Something is odd.

My BMI is a 28.6, yes I know I'm fluffy, so the 21% seems a little low, but 40% seems waaaaaaaay to high

Nan
 
Ok, my calipers came in and I did the bodyfat measuring with the calipers, the healthcentral.com website and the scientificpsychic.com website.

Here are the results:

Calipers: 23.4%
Healthcentral.com: 25% (I measured 24% a couple of weeks ago...)
Scientificpsychic.com: 21.3%

It says on my calipers that it measures within 1.1% of the gold standard underwater weighing results.

It's like I decided earlier, the caliper is super fast and even if it isn't the most accurate, it will help me track my body fat decline anyway, which is what I got them for.

I hope you guys are finding a method that will work for you to track your progress on the STS!
 
Hi Cendrine,

I just placed my order for the accu-measure calipers. I agree with you that even if the number isn't 100% accurate (and what number is) it's a quick way to show a trend. And, since I"ll be measuring myself I can be certain that it's consistent. That's the biggest problem I have when getting it measured at a gym - seems like I can never get the same person twice, and everyone measures a little differently. How long did it take for yours to arrive? I had mine sent UPS, as regular mail seems to be a little slower.
 
I got mine by us mail because I wanted to save shipping cost.... :)
It took about 5 days from the time I ordered.

I hope you get yours soon!

I'm off to do 1RM for week one of STS so I can start next week!

Have a nice weekend!
 
jansherman said:
I agree with you that even if the number isn't 100% accurate (and what number is) it's a quick way to show a trend.
Click to expand...
I agree that pretty much any at-home body-fat measuring device won't be 100% accurate, but it will be good for showing trends up or down (and when used in conjunction with other things, like measurements, or how your pants fit) it can give you a general idea.

I have a scale that supposedly measures hydration and bodyfat% as well as weight, and when I weighed myself regularly, I used it as a general guide to see trends, and not as 100% accurate.
 
cendrine said:
I got mine by us mail because I wanted to save shipping cost.... :)
It took about 5 days from the time I ordered.

I hope you get yours soon!

I'm off to do 1RM for week one of STS so I can start next week!

Have a nice weekend!
Click to expand...

was it expensive? and did you already know how to use them or do they come with good instructions?? I know alot of questions, but really want to track progress. how do you track body to muscle gain? I want to know how much muscle gain as well as fat loss.

meezAnimatedBodyshot300x400small-1.gif
 
The calipers cost about 22.- including shipping, very affordable in my opinion.

They come with instructions on how to measure. They recommend measuring several times until you get consistent readings every time. It took me 4 tries to decide that I must be doing it right, because I was getting the same result every time.

The instructions also have a table where you can go find out how much body fat your measuring comes to.

Once you have your % and your weight, you can figure out your lean body mass in lbs as well as your fat mass in lbs easily.
It also comes with instructions on how to figure out how much that translates into in lbs.
I'll give you my example, maybe there are easier ways, but here's how I do mine.

caliper reading: 10.2mm look it up under my age and gender equals 23.4% body fat.

My body weight: 123.5 lbs which would be 100% of me

I divide the body fat % by 100 then times it by my body weight 123.5 which comes to 28.8 lbs (that means that I have 28.8 lbs of fat) I then subtract the lbs of fat from my total body weight 123.5-28.8 and that gives me 94.7 lbs of lean body mass.

I am going to monitor any Fat change and lean body mass change and weight change each week, and that will show me if my body weight loss has come from lean body mass (which it will hopefully not be) or from fat mass, which is the goal.

So basically I am looking for the lean body mass to stay the same each week while the body fat mass would go down.

I hope that is helpful to you!

Let me know if you have any questions!
 
cendrine said:
The calipers cost about 22.- including shipping, very affordable in my opinion.

They come with instructions on how to measure. They recommend measuring several times until you get consistent readings every time. It took me 4 tries to decide that I must be doing it right, because I was getting the same result every time.

The instructions also have a table where you can go find out how much body fat your measuring comes to.

Once you have your % and your weight, you can figure out your lean body mass in lbs as well as your fat mass in lbs easily.
It also comes with instructions on how to figure out how much that translates into in lbs.
I'll give you my example, maybe there are easier ways, but here's how I do mine.

caliper reading: 10.2mm look it up under my age and gender equals 23.4% body fat.

My body weight: 123.5 lbs which would be 100% of me

I divide the body fat % by 100 then times it by my body weight 123.5 which comes to 28.8 lbs (that means that I have 28.8 lbs of fat) I then subtract the lbs of fat from my total body weight 123.5-28.8 and that gives me 94.7 lbs of lean body mass.

I am going to monitor any Fat change and lean body mass change and weight change each week, and that will show me if my body weight loss has come from lean body mass (which it will hopefully not be) or from fat mass, which is the goal.

So basically I am looking for the lean body mass to stay the same each week while the body fat mass would go down.

I hope that is helpful to you!

Let me know if you have any questions!
Click to expand...

very!:D I was was wanting to make sure not losing lean mass as well.

meezAnimatedBodyshot300x400small-1.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top