How to Measure Your Body Fat With Callipers
by Tanya Zilberter, PhD
A good old method to measure body fat, not just weight, is a skinfold
measurement. You purchase a skinfold caliper (it's usually inexpensive,
the link below will lead you to the calliper that costs $39.95) and
pinch your skin along with under-skin fat in several (7 to 20)
designated areas, then produce a simple calculation as your caliper
manual instructs. Why so many pinches? Because one can store his or her
fat in quite different places: as you surely noticed, there are people
having a tine waistline and broad hips, or that are heavy in the bottom
and slim in the shoulders, and so on. By the way, the very fat
distribution can tell about this particular person's health risks
(you've heard of course of "apples and pears"), but this is
another story.
A healthy male's body should be approximately 12 percent to 18 percent
fat.
In females the number is slightly higher; approximately 14 percent to
20 percent fat.
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FatTrack
Computerized Body Fat Calipers
Building muscle is one thing, but building solid,
lean, fat free muscle is quite another. You have to train right, you
have to eat right, and you have to make sure you are supplementing
correctly. But even with all this covered you need an accurate way to
measure just how well your program is working. Sure the scale might be
going up, but is the majority of weight you are gaining muscle?
Now there is a new state of the art way to monitor
your lean mass and body fat levels accurately and conveniently. It's
called FatTrack and it's absolutely awesome.
FatTrack is a computerized skinfold caliper that is
ultra-accurate down to the millimeter. It uses a patent pending
"Floating Code Thickness Measuring System" that detects the smallest
change in measurement with unmatched accuracy.
FatTrack stores each measurement in memory and then
calculates your body fat percentage instantly and accurately. There is
no math to do, FatTrack does it all for you.
FatTrack can store data for up to three people and has
an "undo" function so you can take multiple measurements until you get
it perfect. FatTrack has a "self-calibration" feature that maintains a
lifetime measuring accuracy. It also stores maximum and minimum
thickness at each measuring site so you can monitor, with a Statistical
Report, exactly what is happening with your body fat levels.
FatTrack comes with complete detailed instructions as
well as tips on how make your measurements as accurate as possible.
This is a "must-have" tool in your quest for optimum physical
condition.
Body Calculators:
References:
1. Generalized equations for predicting body
density of men. A.S. Jackson and M.L. Pollock. Br J Nutr,
40(3):497-504, Nov 1978.
2. Measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition in the
clinical setting. M.L. Pollock, D.H. Schmidt, and A.S. Jackson. Compr
Ther 6:12-27, 1980.
3. The anthropometric estimation of body density and lean body weight
of male athletes. H.L. Forsyth and W.E. Sinning. Med Sci Sports
5(3):174-180, 1973
4. Estimation of body fat in young men. A.W. Sloan. J Appl Physiol,
23(3),:311-315, Sep 1967.
5. Body fat assessed from total body density and its estimation from
skinfold thickness: measurements on 481 men and women aged from 16 to
72 years. J.V. Durnin and J. Womersley. Br J Nutr, 32(1):77-97, Jul
1974.
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