Determining the amount of body fat you have is a common method of assessing your physical fitness as you progress through a fitness program. Skinfold calipers are a special type of caliper that can measure the thickness of the fat under your skin. This is a highly accurate method of measuring your body fat percentage that rivals the best scientific testing methods when you perform it correctly. A trained technician must take these measurements because they must be accurate to within a half millimeter.
Female Body Fat Calculation
Step 1
Locate a position within a half inch of the measurement site that contains a natural fold of skin. Pinch the skin and subcutaneous fat at this location with your thumb and forefinger. Pull the skin and subcutaneous fat away from the muscle. Apply the calipers and wait four seconds so the fat can compress. Record the measurement from the skinfold caliper measurement.
Take skinfold measurements from the thigh, triceps and suprailiac areas. Take the thigh measurement from the front of the thigh midway between the hip and knee. Take the triceps measurement on the back of the upper arm midway between the shoulder and elbow. Take the suprailiac measurement on the side of the waist just above the hip.
Step 2
Calculate the sum of the thigh measurement, triceps measurement and suprailiac measurement. Call this sum the skinfold sum.
Step 3
Use the skinfold sum to calculate the body density. San Diego State University provides the following formula for this calculation: body density = (.0000023 x skinfold sum x skinfold sum) -- (.0001392 x age) -- (.0009929 x skinfold sum) + 1.0994921.
Step 4
Compute the body fat percentage from the body density with this equation from San Diego State University: body fat percentage = 495 / body density -- 450.
Male Body Fat Calculation
Step 1
Locate a position within a half inch of the measurement site that contains a natural fold of skin. Pinch the skin and subcutaneous fat at this location with your thumb and forefinger. Pull the skin and subcutaneous fat away from the muscle. Apply the calipers and wait four seconds so the fat can compress. Record the measurement from the skinfold caliper measurement.
Take skinfold measurements from the thigh, pectoral and abdominal areas. Take the thigh measurement from the front of the thigh midway between the hip and knee. Take the pectoral measurement on the chest midway between the nipple and armpit. Take the abdominal measurement at navel level and just on the side of your navel.
Step 2
Calculate the sum of the thigh measurement, pectoral measurement and abdominal measurement. Call this sum the skinfold sum.
Step 3
Use the skinfold sum to calculate the body density. San Diego State University provides the following formula for this calculation: body density = (.0000016 x skinfold sum x skinfold sum) -- (.0002574 x age) -- (.0008267 x skinfold sum) + 1.093800.
Step 4
Compute the body fat percentage from the body density with this equation from San Diego State University: body fat percentage = 495 / body density -- 450.
Things You'll Need
- Skinfold calipers
- Calculator
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