Hi guys, I am looking to cut a bit for the summer. I’m around 5’11", 16 years old and weight 190 pounds. Because sites say things completely different, I am unaware of my body fat. Anywhere from 6-12 it seems.
the picture i have posted here is for the parrillo method, and my results in mm. This turned out to be 10.05%. However, the jackson/polluck 7 site method turned out to be less than 4.25%. Obviously I’m not 4.25 body fat, but I’m wondering if anyone has had any past with calipers and their accuracy and if anyone can guide me in the right direction in terms of formulas or what and what not to believe.
using this calculator: Build Muscle Mass - Complete Muscle Building Guide | gymJP.com
and a 3 site pinch, I have gotten results that were 5% lower than a “true” reading from a Bod Pod.
thanks man, thats probably about right. it gave me 4.7 and im probably close to 9 or 10.
most calipers are useless shit and readings are way off. the only test of BF level is the mirror.
calipers should be used as an indicator of progress only.
Im with hanban, use the mirror rather than BF%. You might be 15% but look good, so why drop to 7% in an attempt to ‘look good’ if you already do?
[quote]hanban wrote:
most calipers are useless shit and readings are way off. the only test of BF level is the mirror.
calipers should be used as an indicator of progress only.[/quote]
I think I agree with what you mean, but would state it like this…
The BF% calculated from the readings is useless when comparing one person to another or for arriving at a true BF%. When used with the mirror and scale acurate caliper reading can be helpfull as one indicator of progress.
Calipers are barely more effective than drawing a number out of a hat.
Well, I should say that it’s accuracy depends on the skill of the person doing the pinching. Which, in my experience is normally very low even among coaches.
I’ll give you an example…
A few years back I was schedule to go do a biosignature course. Biosignature is essentially trying to evaluate your hormonal profile depending on where you store fat. So out of the 24 hours of class, something like 16 is spent testing with calipers.
Ok, so before I left for the trip I had my body fat measured by a friend of mine (a very good bodybuilding coach) and it came out at 1.7% (yeah, right).
Then, during the course I was measured by 20+ other very qualified coaches and depending on who measured me, I was anywhere between 6 and 18%!!!
So in a 1 weeks period I tested anywhere from 1.7 to 18%!!! And all by good coaches who had plenty of experience measuring body fat.
And most people GROSSLY underestimate how much fat they carry.
Here is a pick of myself (on the left) and a friend of mine. Most people would claim to be around 5-6% body fat at that level of leanness. But we are barely under 10%.
So unless you are at that level of leanness or very close to it, you are unlikely to be 10-12%
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