Skinfold Caliper

Plain, simple, and cost effective! We have used a bathroom scale to measure our weight loss for the longest time. Sometimes this can be frustrating and not give you the whole picture. When you first start exercising, the weight loss is visually noticeable and readily shows up on the scale. But the closer you get to your goals, it might become a little trickier and mildly depressing. Body composition changes are is not as easily detected at this level, particularly when exercising with the intent to build muscle (weight lifting, calisthenics, etc). Using something like this device is not only easy (with a second person for some of the measurements), but it also gives you a better picture than pure poundage alone can do. Note: Your scale might be much better than ours, but our digital scale varies by 5-6 pounds in multiple reads within a 5-minute period of time with the same person wearing the same garments! Overall: Great price and good instructions to that give you all the details you might need for encouragement and data.

These are good quality calipers that are very accurate even with a three point pinch test once you calibrate them to a known body fat composition measured on a precise machine. What I mean is this. Go get your body fat measured in one if those super accurate machines that's sends a current through your body and can tell you exactly how much fat you have. Next go do a three point pinch test of your abdomen, chest, and thigh until you get the exact locations that correlate with the precise machine's reading. Make sure you mark exactly were you took your caliper readings from and use those same locations after that. Also when you take the abdomen reading do it sitting down or else your skin will be too taught standing up and your skinfold will read thicker than it really is by about 5 mm. There is no better tool than this to keep you honest about your weight problem. The calipers never lie. I know mirrors for me are not a reliable gauge for body fat since shadowing effects or change in muscle tone can give the illusion of being either fatter or thinner than you really are. Scales can't tell you if you are gaining or losing fat or muscle. For under $20 this is as accurate as any $3,000 device once you calibrate it like I've described. So far I've lost 10 lbs since using these calipers and my body fat readings are consistent with the weight loss so I know they are accurate and since I've lost close to no strength it only confirms it is almost all fat loss. If you are a body builder or competitive athlete where weight control without loss of strength is of importance, this tool is a must. I choose to do the three point skin fold test since it's faster than those that require several more skin folds and I can reach all the points myself because they are in the front. I don't need to rely on someone else having to get readings from the back side if my body. As I said once calibrated to an accurate machine the three point skin fold test is just as accurate.

Good quality but really pinches. Comes with a nice guide for use. I think this is a little overpriced for a couple of pieces of molded plastic and springs but wanted a quality item for my clients. I opted for the white because I thought because of the trigger function, the black one might look a little scary to some.

I ordered this item because of the large amount of good reviews it gets here on amazon en other sites. Also noticed that a lot of profesionals use this one... so I bought it to. great device! p.s. The manual itself is clear but has een error on the 3 points measurements point. It gives the wrong location for the pectoral, This should be the diagonal fold halfway between the nipple and the upper portion of the pectoral muscle at the armpit.

Good to estimate overall body fat

I was looking for an accurate body fat caliper to use at home. I am familiar with using the professional ones which cost $300-$600. Not wanting to spend that kind of money I thought I’d give this brand a try as it got good reviews. While the measurements appear to be close to accurate the whole unit is cumbersome to use. It’s GIANT measuring almost 12” long. Also the numbers aren’t any larger even though the device is so large so it’s really not a benefit like if someone had trouble reading m small print. But my biggest issue is that there is a rough spot in the plastic right where you pinch the skin. The result was with just one measurement my husband had scratches and broken skin from the caliper. Again, I have a degree in exercise science and know how to properly do body fat measurements, these calipers are just poorly made. You should not have broken skin from using a body fat caliper. It’s my advice to look elsewhere for a caliper. Perhaps mine was just defective in the way the plastic was poured and formed but I also find the large size difficult to use. There’s no real benefit to them being this large and I’d also have a hard time storing it. It would take up and entire drawer worth of space.

These work pretty well, i mark a few areas on my body with a marker to be sure i get a reading form the same area every time. I am not sure the accuracy of each reading but you can tell for sure when you are losing fat. i lost 10% body fat in 6 months putting my at 7%. i am not sure how accurate this is saying i was really 7% but i know this was good at showing my progress. the last 2 months i stopped working out and dieting and it showed the 6% of fat i gained by setting on my butt! pretty nice thing to have if you like to see how your body changes

My fat pinchers recently arrived and I have to agree with the issue with the sharp edges. When I first unpacked them and pinched my inches it was pretty uncomfortable to the point it was really unbearable. This, however, is an easy fix. I took some 300 and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and wet sanded the sharp edges down, I could have stopped at the 300. This took about 10 minutes. I would not recommend a lower grit as it could scratch the plastic up pretty good and take even longer to smooth back out. While I am understanding as to why it is like this it is an inconvenience to have to smooth this out. The company should be aware of this issue and should take steps to buff these sharp edges out before it gets to your door. For that I have to dock one star for sheer lack of quality control. Now the good. These things seem very well built and solid. I know there are complaints about them being too big but if they were smaller they would be weaker and could deform from the pressure of the springs or the MM Markings would be so close together it would be difficult to distinguish between them. Then there's the book. What a great resource. It is worth the money paid. I watched some videos on how to use these but the book was what corrected my errors, you should start there. So why did I buy this? Well I have been sitting at a desk for about 15 years non-stop with little to no exercise. I decided it is a time for a change. I watch my kids and see how they live the example I set forth, well no more. That example has to change, so I started exercising, and it is amazing how quickly they changed to reflect my change, they are excited about exercising with us. Initially I saw a nice drop in weight, as to be expected but that was just about all water. Then my weight plateaued. I was also taking measurements, also I saw a nice decrease upfront. But again, I hit a plateau. I knew this was because I was building muscle while burning fat but I am data driven. I monitor my progress on a spreadsheet and frankly it was not changing even thought I knew I was and even though I could feel the improvements I was getting discouraged by the lack of changes in my data. Well some quick research and I decided I wanted to track my BMI as well. So today as I write this I am a solid 33.8% BMI at 37 years old. Yikes, it's a wonder I am not on tons of meds trying to keep me from dying. But God is good, He has opened my eyes, He is keeping my mind focused on the reason I want to be better and has given me a chance to do this now before I am too far gone. I heard it said you have to find your true reason to want to change. It is going to be deep inside of you and will not be vanity, even though that is what most will say upfront but if you really think about you you have a reason at your core to want to be better. Dig for it, find it and hold on to that so when you want to quit you have something bigger to drive you than a vain desire to simply look good.