Direction of fold is vertical and is taken two centimeters to the side of the umbilicus. For example if your waist is 30 your hips are. Skinfold calipers measure the thickness of your subcutaneous fat the fat underneath the skin at certain body locations. Pinch should be maintained while reading the caliper. The skinfold caliper is a device which measures the thickness of a fold of your skin with its underlying layer of fat. All calculator measurements should be made on the right side of the body.
With lower levels of body fat the resolution of the calipers is a problem. The caliper testing method of body fat measurement works on the notion that 50 percent of total body fat lies under the skin. There is significant person to person variation in fat distribution through the body limiting the accuracy even with expert usage. Pinch the skinfold with your left thumb and index finger so the fold is 1 centimeter above the site. Caliper should be placed 1 cm away from thumb and finger perpendicular to skinfold and halfway betweencrest and base of fold. A skin fold test is a method of estimating body fat percentage by taking skin fold caliper measurements in 3 9 different locations on the body see glossary for pictures and then applying the results into one of the various formulas available.
By doing this at the key locations can be a quite accurate representative of the total amount of fat that is on your body it is also possible to estimate the total percent of bodyfat on your body. March 19 2018 8 min read. 2 specialist skinfold testing. Measurements are taken at either 3 or 7 different sites on the body. A body fat measurement can be useful for tracking your weight loss progress because unlike the scale it tells you how much of your weight is fat and how much is muscle and other good stuff. Heres how body fat is measured and what that number actually means.
How to get accurate caliper measurements. The calipers only measure the fat under the skin and at a few locations. Position the caliper perpendicular to the fold about 1 centimeter beneath the thumb and index finger then press on the thumb pad. Hip suprailiac or iliac crest average. Wait 1 to 2 s and not longer before reading caliper. The fold spot should be between the top of the hipbone on the side and the bony part on the lower right of the belly which is still the same hipbone.
To calculate body fat percentage add your waist and hip measurements and then subtract the neck measurement to determine your circumference value. 45 degrees going up and away from the body 2 centimeters right above the iliac crest. The skin fold is an angled one approx.
Gallery of Body Fat Caliper Measurement Locations
