Build Muscle and Burn Fat

Body fat calipers are a quick way to determine a rough estimate of your body fat. Losing bodyfat is more critical than losing total pounds, which is a combination of both fat and muscle. Using only the scale to measure your weight lose progress is a mistake. Ideally, you should strive to lose primarily bodyfat. In fact, maintaining muscle while you lose fat will accelerate your overall progress and will greatly improve your appearance.

Body fat scales and underwater weighing are two additional methods of measuring you bodyfat. Underwater weighing is more accurate than fat measurement using skinfold calipers. Does it really matter if you have a precise measurement of your bodyfat? Not really. What is important is whether you are making progress with your current diet plan. Skinfold measurements will give you a very reliable guide to determine your progress. Plugging the measurements into an equation to determine the percent body fat is helpful – but only when used to determine trends.

So, the next time someone tells you, “I have a bodyfat of 3.4 percent”, you can rest assured that it is impossible to measure to that precisely and that even underwater weighing is only accurate to plus/minus 3%. Skinfold measurements, when used correctly and applied to even the best equation, are only accurate to plus/minus 4%.

Now, on to the measuring technique..

• All measurement should be made on the right side of the body
• Caliper should be placed 1 cm away from thumb and finger, perpendicular to skinfold, and halfway between crest and base of fold
• Pinch should be maintained while reading the caliper
• Wait 1 to 2 s (and not longer) before reading caliper
• Take duplicate measures at each site and retest if duplicate measurements are not within 1 to 2 mm
• Rotate through measurement sites or allow time for skin to regain normal texture and thickness

Skinfold Measurement Sites

• Chest – Diagonal fold, midway between upper armpit and nipple
• Midaxillary -Horizontal fold, directly below armpit
• Bicep – Vertical fold, halfway between shoulder and elbow, directly on bicep
• Abdominal – Vertical fold, one inch to the right of navel
• Suprailiac – Diagonal fold, directly above iliac crest
• Thigh – Vertical fold, midway between knee cap and top of thigh
• Calf – Vertical fold, inside of leg on largest part of calf
• Subscapular – Diagonal fold, directly below shoulder blade
• Triceps – Vertical fold, midway between elbow and shoulder
• Lower Back – Horizontal fold, directly over the kidneys, and 2 inches to the right of spine

Tips for Using Body Fat Calipers

• Use body fat calipers to measure progress only.
• For greater accuracy, monitor changes with skinfold measurements rather than converting them into a body fat percentage and using that to judge progress.
• Use good quality calipers, not the cheapest ones you can find.
• Have someone skilled with calipers show you the best technique.
• Take readings within 4 seconds of applying the body fat calipers to the skinfold.
• Take measurements at the same time of day for each test.
• Don’t measure immediately after exercising.