Caliper recommendations

[Dominique]

So far I’ve been using my Fitbit Aria smartscale and the mirror in order to evaluate my body fat %. Although I understand it has limitations, just like the above mentioned methods, I thought I’d add a caliper to my arsenal. I see lots of calipers on Amazon. Any recommendation as to which are good, or better than others, and why?

[josephz2va]

or if you want to go futuristic, try Skulpt. It tells you if your muscles are improving or degrading by electrode measurements.

[Dominique]

Yes, I recently heard about Skulpt, but lots of poor reviews on Amazon and the high price were a deterrent. Have you got one?

[aps10]

Be careful when assessing the accuracy of calipers. I own a very expensive pair worth approximately $1000, and have done close to 500 assessments using said calipers and tell my clients that to expect plus or minus of 3%. It is also important to have a suffisticated program that takes in consideration variables like age, gender, race, etc. I attempt to dissuade my clients from attempting to determine % body fat because it is difficult to get accurate.

[Dominique]

FWIW, I ended up buying the Accu-Measure Fitness 3000 Body Fat Caliper on Amazon UK. For GPB 7.98 + shipping, it won’t break the bank. I understand there is a relatively high margin of error, but I’m less interested in accuracy in absolute terms and more in changes over time. I’ll try to use the caliper as consistently as I’ve been (and still am) using my Aria scale.

The caliper does come with charts for men and women. They take into account age, but no other variables. The charts are also available online here.