Where can I get body fat calipers?

[GaryBoy]

As described in topic title. Does anyone know where I can purchase a decent body fat caliper? Decent as in reliable and should last long.

 

Thanks

[xydboy]

The most accurate brand that people will swear by is Harpenden (http://www.harpenden-skinfold.com/). Those people who go through a body composition assessment/certification would use this. Forget about those cheapo plastic ones if you are seeking for reliable and long lasting ones. Mind you, this can cost around 700 or more. But very durable and accurate.

[GaryBoy]

I checked out that thing... But I'm not gonna open a fitness centre lol. Just for personal use. 700 is over kill for me.

 

Any others that are less "industrial standard" ones? Haha

[xydboy]

On 5/18/2016 at 1:41 PM, GaryBoy said:

I checked out that thing... But I'm not gonna open a fitness centre lol. Just for personal use. 700 is over kill for me.

 

Any others that are less "industrial standard" ones? Haha

There are, just google and you will find many available. But don't expect them to be as accurate and durable. Btw you want to use it to measure others or yourself? That caliper is meant for you to measure others. You can't measure yourself with it. Do note the various sites and methods of "pinching", there will be quite a significant inter-rater variability if the individual does not know how to execute the measurement well.

[GaryBoy]

49 minutes ago, xydboy said:

There are, just google and you will find many available. But don't expect them to be as accurate and durable. Btw you want to use it to measure others or yourself? That caliper is meant for you to measure others. You can't measure yourself with it. Do note the various sites and methods of "pinching", there will be quite a significant inter-rater variability if the individual does not know how to execute the measurement well.

 

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the confusion. What do you call those that you measure yourself with? I thought they were called calipers as well. I did realize that some mentioned you can do 'self test' while others can't. I assume it's because you can't see the reading yourself.

 

I'm aware that inexperienced measurement might have some variability, but I guess everyone has to start to learn somewhere? lol. Anyway I mainly want it as something to track my own progress and see what diet works for me, though I can eyeball it but.... it'll take longer to see a difference and know if I'm maintaining the right diet and sort, thus wasting more time. Since it's me measuring myself over time I will slowly get better and more consistent with my measurements I suppose.

 

Haha, yes, google provides a lot, but I wanted to know where specifically to get in Singapore, where I can walk in and pick up one. XP Not a fan of ordering stuff online. Thanks a lot for your feedback thus far btw =)

[xydboy]

48 minutes ago, GaryBoy said:

 

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the confusion. What do you call those that you measure yourself with? I thought they were called calipers as well. I did realize that some mentioned you can do 'self test' while others can't. I assume it's because you can't see the reading yourself.

 

I'm aware that inexperienced measurement might have some variability, but I guess everyone has to start to learn somewhere? lol. Anyway I mainly want it as something to track my own progress and see what diet works for me, though I can eyeball it but.... it'll take longer to see a difference and know if I'm maintaining the right diet and sort, thus wasting more time. Since it's me measuring myself over time I will slowly get better and more consistent with my measurements I suppose.

 

Haha, yes, google provides a lot, but I wanted to know where specifically to get in Singapore, where I can walk in and pick up one. XP Not a fan of ordering stuff online. Thanks a lot for your feedback thus far btw =)

I think you are looking for the BIA, a body composition analyser. The one where you hold onto the electrodes while standing on the scale and it measures for you. That machine doesn't require you to do anything as compared to a caliper. A caliper requires 2 hands, one to grip the skin and the other to clip the device on to measure. If you measure yourself, how do you clip your left arm? LOL. As for the formerly mentioned device, you can purchase them from many places as well. Yes google, and click search tools, under country select singapore, and they will tell you where to buy in singapore. Just FYI, I helped you find one place, its called tangs. As for other places, feel free to google it. There are physical shops located that sell those, not just online.

 

Just to add on, when we talk about self test vs non-self test, it just simply means the machine can be operated on your own. Some other complex machinery that calculates the body composition requires and external individual, eg. hydrostatic weighing or even DEXA. It doesn't require much skill to operate the BIA because the machien does everything for you and you just need to stand there and operate as mentioned in the operating manual.

[GaryBoy]

Haha, yea, I'm aware of Body composition analyzers. Just that I don't trust them too much, and they aren't cheap, maybe I'll get them in the long run, but not now.

 

Lol, my plan was just to use the calipers to record thickness measurement, not use the formula to deduce the final percentage, as the final percentage isn't accurate anyway. I just need a relative measurement. So my plan was to maybe just take like pecs, abdomen and thigh measurements, as long as I have something to see if I'm gaining or losing. I'm not going for competition or anything so it doesn't matter to me what's my %.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to check out Tangs. Maybe my google fail, lol, but I have a hard time finding physical shops via google... a lot of online only. I'll try looking harder. Thanks for your help~ Appreciate it.

[xydboy]

58 minutes ago, GaryBoy said:

Haha, yea, I'm aware of Body composition analyzers. Just that I don't trust them too much, and they aren't cheap, maybe I'll get them in the long run, but not now.

 

Lol, my plan was just to use the calipers to record thickness measurement, not use the formula to deduce the final percentage, as the final percentage isn't accurate anyway. I just need a relative measurement. So my plan was to maybe just take like pecs, abdomen and thigh measurements, as long as I have something to see if I'm gaining or losing. I'm not going for competition or anything so it doesn't matter to me what's my %.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to check out Tangs. Maybe my google fail, lol, but I have a hard time finding physical shops via google... a lot of online only. I'll try looking harder. Thanks for your help~ Appreciate it.

Again, to measure pecs, abdomen and thigh, you need someone to measure for you. You cannot do that yourself because it won't be accurate, regardless the thickness measurement and formula usage. If you measure and don't use the formula then it pretty much defeats the purpose because the thickness on various sites tells you nothing about the total body fat percentage. And also since you want to know if your diet or exercises is working, the reduction in the thickness will not tell you anything informative. Body calipers gives random error while the body composition analysers give consistent error. So in terms of consistency and accuracy, I would rather get something that is consistently 5% off, rather than one that gives me 2% wrong on one measurement and then 5% wrong on another and then 3% wrong another time, etc.

 

Just fyi, the Brozek and Siri formula used for body fat calculation via skin fold measurements have been rather robust and in terms of accuracy, it's pretty much. But like I've said, such methods would give certain level of variability due to the wide amount of factors that come into play. And since we do not have access to the gold standards (eg. hydrostatic weighing or DEXA), by far, this is as close as we could get.

[Guest Guest]

Can PM each other instead of having a public conversation over this?

[Guest Guest]

3 hours ago, Guest Guest said:

Can PM each other instead of having a public conversation over this?

 

Why PM? I'm interested to learn more about measuring body fat as well.

if you don't like this thread, you can ignore and don't read.

[fab]

Is it possible for body fat to increase by 4% by the next day?

[xydboy]

3 hours ago, fab said:

Is it possible for body fat to increase by 4% by the next day?

It is possible, the percentage of body fat measured is dependent on the machine/methods that was used, the timing of measurement, the things you do prior to measurement, etc. Many variables..

[fab]

23 minutes ago, xydboy said:

It is possible, the percentage of body fat measured is dependent on the machine/methods that was used, the timing of measurement, the things you do prior to measurement, etc. Many variables..

 

Assuming same machine, same timing, same condition on the next day.

 

My concern is, is such huge jump normal, accurate or possible?

[GaryBoy]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think it's possible in terms of actual, real body fat percentage. But it's possible to get a skewed reading from a machine / method used.

 

You could've gained like 1% but the other 3 is false positive.

[xydboy]

7 hours ago, fab said:

 

Assuming same machine, same timing, same condition on the next day.

 

My concern is, is such huge jump normal, accurate or possible?

 

6 hours ago, GaryBoy said:

I'm not an expert, but I don't think it's possible in terms of actual, real body fat percentage. But it's possible to get a skewed reading from a machine / method used.

 

You could've gained like 1% but the other 3 is false positive.

In science, its either all or none. No such thing is 1% gain and other 3 is false positive. But yes like mentioned, it is possible to get a skewed reading, that is why no method is 100% fixed. There will be some form of error, but like what fab mentioned, if we were to play with the variables and keep it constant (same machine, timing, etc), then we would be able to reduce this possibility of finding errors. Even between models of the exact same machine, we would find discrepancies. Then again, 4% is quite a fair accurate bit. We are not talking about 10% or any huge variance. 

[GaryBoy]

12 hours ago, xydboy said:

4% is quite a fair accurate bit. We are not talking about 10% or any huge variance. 

 

I think he meant 4% body fat, not 4% variance.

[fab]

9 minutes ago, GaryBoy said:

 

I think he meant 4% body fat, not 4% variance.

 

Yes u r right. 

 

 

[xydboy]

4 hours ago, GaryBoy said:

 

I think he meant 4% body fat, not 4% variance.

When I talk about variance it just means how much does it differ from the expected sample (assumed average measurement). Lets go back to the original question,"Is it possible for body fat to increase by 4% (body fat) by the next day?" That was why I mentioned that the increment of 4% is possible because it can differ from time to time depending on the various factors mentioned. Hence I used that term because the statement suggest relativity. So you are now saying its 4% body fat? So the question should have been,"Is it possible for body fat to increase to 4% by the next day?" in such an instance it reflects absolute. So which is which? The latter suggest that the person begin with an even lower body fat to begin with, which I feel is rather unlikely. Regardless I'm always talking about body fat percentage, just to use specific terms to distinguish relative vs absolute.

[fab]

I mean from 15% bf to 19% bf. 

 

The strange thing is my weight decreased by .2 kg. 

 

Any insight?

[xydboy]

4 hours ago, fab said:

I mean from 15% bf to 19% bf. 

 

The strange thing is my weight decreased by .2 kg. 

 

Any insight?

Precisely that was what i meant. Just to repeat, the difference could be due to whatever factors that I have mentioned earlier (please see post above). Was it hard to understand what I wrote?