home Body fat test??

[bigguns15]

BTW, I´ve read calipers are also pretty subjective and variable...

It's true that there is some variation with calipers. However, it is generally less than +/- 3%. Also, hydration status does not affect this type of measurement as much as the bioelectrical impedence devices. With practice, the variation also decreases. Most importantly, have the same person check it each time and try to have it checked at the same time of day/same day every time. This will further decrease the amount of variation.

 

[IJ26]

Those machines are terrible. Before spring break I was calipered at 7% and was shredded and then one night b4 my health class I went out drinking. The next day someone brought in one of those and I tested at 24%.

 

[dr~pepper]

bigguns15

When you say it varies by 10%...Do you mean the difference between 10% BF and 20% BF or the difference between 10% BF and 11% BF? I could live with the latter in terms of accuracy...

 

[pwr_machine]

She meant +/- 10%. I've personally seen evidence that they can be up to 8% off. In Bigguns15 example, if you were actually 15% bodyfat, you would get a measurement as low as 5 or as high as 25%. I don't know of any device today that has an accuracy of +/- 1%, not even hydrostatic weighing or the DEXA.

 

[bigguns15]

bigguns15

When you say it varies by 10%...Do you mean the difference between 10% BF and 20% BF or the difference between 10% BF and 11% BF? I could live with the latter in terms of accuracy...

Unfortunately, the difference between 10% and 20%.