Am I using fat caliper's correctly?

[Fidens]

So I'm new to serious health maintenance. Up until 5 years ago I was an MMA instructor, in the Army, and in great shape. I had the metabolism of a gazelle and I never worried about tracking anything because I was always in good shape.

IN the last 5 years though, I hurt my leg and started gaining weight. On top of that, I became lazy and lethargic. I went from 185 pounds at 6ft, mostly muscle (probably 15% body fat but never measured) to 265 pounds. I got simi-serious 6 months ago and lost 30 pounds from mainly walking an hour every morning, and eating 6 300-350 calorie meals a day. But then I got the flu, and got lazy again.

Anyway, at this point I'm sitting at 236 pounds. I'm not wanting to become a body builder, but I want to get in shape and be healthy again. On to my question. I've looked at a lot of different calculators that estimate your body fat percentage, and everything says I'm probably about 32%. However, I got an Accu-Measure 3000 caliper and today took some measurements. So I did the Suprailiac measurement and according to that I'm at about 27%, I did the Jackson/Pollock 3 method and got 25.47% and the Jackson/Pollock 4 method says 25.45%

I FEEL way fat, I don't feel like I'm only 25% because my belly is pretty large. Granted, I have no fat from shoulder to hands, or thighs to feet, but my stomach and chest are pretty fatty. Should I trust the percentage I'm getting from the calipers, or are the general calculations from online calculators without the calipers more trusty? I wouldn't worry about it except it's a 7% difference which is obviously huge in my efforts to get back to who I'm supposed to be.

[Heybales]

In the hands of a trained experienced person, they can be accurate up to 5-10%, depending on the person presenting the same hydrated body to them to measure.

As such, in those best hands also means consistency, so you can see trend line over time, even if accuracy isn't exact.

You'll probably have very little consistency right now.

I'd suggest paying to get it done once, perhaps if person seems friendly enough, asking to measure right after they do with your device to see if you get the same figure, and hopefully remember the technique in the future.

Here's site to take the measurements to.

Sadly the best 7-site method can't be done by you, you can't reach the spots.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/BodyComp.html

Spreadsheet on my profile page About me section has a Simple Setup tab that has the same thing, and then a Progress tab to log the measurements in. 

Or make your own spreadsheet to track.

As the spreadsheet does, if you can average in that 5-10% accurate method with couple others like measuring, you are increasing accuracy.

And yes, any body that is disproportionate to the formula's expecting average will throw them off.

Imagine J-Lo or Kim Karadashian doing body measurement method with their hip measurement - probably throw everything off.

[Fidens]

So you are saying in the hands of someone who is trained calipers can have up to a 20% margin of error?  That's huge.

The last 3 day's I've taken my measurements every moring as soon as I wake up and empty my bladder, My measurement's have been as such:

Suprailiac:  27 / 27.5 / 27

JP3:  25.4 / 26.1 / 25.3

JP4:  25.4 / 25.9 / 25.4

If a trained person is going to have a 5-10% accuracy and mine has a variance of at most 0.6% with no more than 0.2% between the JP3 7 4 tests and 1.5% with a single measurement. Keep in mind all online calculators that use measurements say I'm at least 5-7% more than what the calipers say.

I've trained before and used calipers a few time a REALLY long time ago, but I don't remember them being this far away from measurement calculators before.  I'll have to find a place where I can get measurements done by a pro then, it'll be interresting to see the difference.

[josephz2va]

Most calipers and fat measuring sensors in scales vary in their accuracy. Most of them are accurate to the letter including your personal trainer's sensor scanner. But also a variance is time of day measurement. Like measuring in the morning to just a few hours later.

I would say just use one caliper and one time frame like the zero hour. Maybe use the JP4. Me on the other hand I use a Withings scale that has fat measurement, but Fitbit Aria is what many recommend to switch to.

[Heybales]

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@Fidens wrote:

So you are saying in the hands of someone who is trained calipers can have up to a 20% margin of error?  That's huge.

The last 3 day's I've taken my measurements every moring as soon as I wake up and empty my bladder, My measurement's have been as such:

Suprailiac:  27 / 27.5 / 27

JP3:  25.4 / 26.1 / 25.3

JP4:  25.4 / 25.9 / 25.4

If a trained person is going to have a 5-10% accuracy and mine has a variance of at most 0.6% with no more than 0.2% between the JP3 7 4 tests and 1.5% with a single measurement. Keep in mind all online calculators that use measurements say I'm at least 5-7% more than what the calipers say.

I've trained before and used calipers a few time a REALLY long time ago, but I don't remember them being this far away from measurement calculators before.  I'll have to find a place where I can get measurements done by a pro then, it'll be interresting to see the difference.

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Your variance between measurements is small - that's good.

But the 5-10% reference was not to measurement variance, but to the resulting BF% compared to tested by more accurate method.

But considering you have no better accurate stat to compare with, you have no idea on accuracy for yourself.

That ability to pick just the right spot, each time, which is the correct spot to use, can be difficult. Watching the pro helps, or online video, though without feeling it live, misses something.

[Fidens]

Yeah, I vaguely remember doing about 8 point tests back when I did MMA, so I'm trying to go off what I remember feeling back back when testing.  And of course I watched video after video trying to get a feel on where they are doing it.  I'm looking into places around here where I can do an actual scan or something to get an exact body composition measurement.  If I know I'm in the ballpark and only off a couple percent or something I'm ok with that, but 7% is way too much lol.

[Heybales]

That helps alot then I'm sure, prior experience, always can grab the same spot, ect.

As for measurement method, not sure what you used, but even sites that ask for more, the only stats for men actually used are ab, neck, height, and ab, hips, forearm, wrist.

So you may be able to look at those body parts and realize that for you, one is kind of out of proportion to the other or rest of the body in general. Like a big beer belly with small hips will throw it off, as will reverse. Or big huge forearm but small wrist.

In the sites you are using, it is interesting to see if you happen to guess which part is is that may be inflated right now beyond the others, if you adjust the same stat in the site, is the BF% more in line?