Skinfold

[willy222]

anyone know a easy skinfold equation to use? anything I find is like
body density x 0.000045 - sum of seven site + age
LOLOL makes no sense.

[oldmma]

try to find a trainer/dietitian who has an electric pulse/node body fat unit. more accurate than water displacement and light years ahead of skin calipers.

[sicky]

I found an easy/pretty fair way of measuring their own bodyfat (however I am usually against it mainly b/c they check it too often lol). There is a caliper called acu-measure gold or something like that. You measure a supra-illiac fold, look up the value on an enclosed chart, compare to your age on the chart, and it gives a value. The value isn't as accurate as hydrostatic, but it gives a good estimate.

[CHIQUITITA]

Sicky, Are you referring to the 7pt caliper pinch technique?

[willy222]

i was doing an assignment on body composion, and ive found that "electric pulse/node body fat unit" are no where near as accurate as calipers, these can be cheated very easily, water consumption can alter the results by up to 10%

I found an equation, the withers equation, its a 7 site method and easy to work out

[MuscleScience]

Originally Posted by oldmma

try to find a trainer/dietitian who has an electric pulse/node body fat unit. more accurate than water displacement and light years ahead of skin calipers.

If your talking about bioelectrical impedence (BIA) machines they are no were near as accurate as hydrostatic displacement. Duel Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) is by far the most accurate to date right now. BodPods are complete crap and you have to have someone that has at least 100 skinfold measurements under their belt to have a close to accurate skin fold reading. Skinfold is still pretty good, but it is not very accurate for those under 5-6% bodyfat. Not that it matters at that point.

There are lots of formulas out there. The more spots you use the more accurate your results. Try a google scholar search for studies that have standard formulas.

[IronpumpedLady]

Skin fold still remains 2nd behind Hydrostatic weighing!! There's a big margin for error there and your results with skin fold testing greatly depend on how good the person is at skin fold testing. Not a bad guideline, but not accurate.

Stay Strong~~!!!
IPL

[oldmma]

my experience with the electric pulse b/f test matched my hydro results so if figured.....hey why get wet and pay$50 when i can have a dude put some stickers on my wrist and ankle and plug me in. so maybe i just had a good exp. with the pulse or a bad one in the water but i'm going to remain skeptical of the skinfold measurements. Oh Happy ThanksGiving to everyone.....Im just glad we, as Americans, have a day when we can just stuff our fat faces and make pigs of ourselves(like its a day different than any other for the vast majority, arent like 60% of americans obese or morbidly obese?) ENJOY THE PUMPKIN PIE!!!