Yeah, you can buy the calipers, but calipers are only as accurate as the trained professional using them. (Statistically they are very inaccurate if done by someone who isnt trained) I dont want to buy calipers, I want to find a professional to measure me.
Most trainers aren't trained to use calipers. Is there a trainer who is a competitive bodybuilder or who trains body builders? In my experience, we are the only ones who own the right equipment (a Lange caliper costs around $250-300) and know how to use it. The plastic calipers that you use on yourself are no more accurate that bioimpedence, maybe less. You need a seven or nine point reading and it's virtually impossible to get your own skinfolds on your kidney area, tricep, subscapular, or even calf. The digital Accumeasure calipers only use a 3 point reading.
Why is it so important to you? I've stopped being calipered and go by landmarks on my body. I know what I want to look like. If I'm lax with my eating or workouts, my abs disappear starting with my obliques. The little hollows in my back disappear, then my quad cuts. Clean up the food and exercise intensity and they are soon back. Use the mirror-- it's another good tool.
Its not really that important to me...I just thought if someone said "hey yeah...you can walk into this chain of gyms and buy one without a membership" easy I would do it.
I just kinda want a reading, I havent had (an accurate) one in 20 years. Kinda like I get my blood sugar tested even though I am not diabetic and follow a diabetic diet. Just want to know where I am.
Besides, I know so many people who look in the mirror and see fat and they are rail thin. (including my 15% bf friend) I'm getting close to where I think my goal might be and kinda want that check as I dial in a final goal- I think its more important than weight. I dont THINK I have body dysmorphia, but how would I know?
And how the heck would I know what a good measurement is for me, I've never been thin. Once I get to goal, I can have measurements and know what I look like and what is defined, but honestly, I dont know WHAT I should/could look like. I'm honestly quite surprised that as muscular as I am and as much weight as I have lost, I STILL have nowhere on my body that has much definition.
No, none of the trainers at the gym own calipers. Odd since it is a hard core musclehead gym that I highly suspect pushes steroids on the side.
I'll go with the average of the navy method and the hand held bioelectrical as a good measurement since they are only about 1% apart. My scale was freaking me out for awhile since it apparently is stuck on 33% body fat which I KNOW isnt right. I might try and get her to do the bioelectric one again in a few days just to get 2 readings and call that good.
I think your idea of getting a couple of hand-held readings and using an average is good. It's like the scale--it's the difference that's important, not that absolute value. I've ever only had the impedence method done, one with the hand-held and once with the kind you stand on--but my body fat percentage has dropped 10 points, and that's the thing I want to know about!
ennay- the other thing you need to factor into the bio-impedence reading is whether it is being done through your feet (scale) or hands (Omron thing). From your other posts, I gather you are well endowed up top and that's fat. Socially acceptable fat , but fat none the less. You'll generally get a higher reading on a measurement that goes through your upper body (handheld) than the foot-to-foot method if done at the same time, under the same conditions. You will also get a higher reading than someone who has pretty much the same body as you but little boobage. If you do find someone to caliper you, boobs are not one of the skinfolds that go into the calculation , so if you are comparing yourself to a friend who has been calipered at 15% or tested by another method at 15%, your higher number may be accurate but not really indicative of the parts of your body that you are concerned about. Here's a site that shows where the skinfolds are for women. If you know yours, you can plug them in and it will do the calculation.
The Navy and YMCA methods only work if you have an hourglass figure with a fairly ideal waist to hip ratio.
ennay- the other thing you need to factor into the bio-impedence reading is whether it is being done through your feet (scale) or hands (Omron thing). From your other posts, I gather you are well endowed up top and that's fat. Socially acceptable fat , but fat none the less. You'll generally get a higher reading on a measurement that goes through your upper body (handheld) than the foot-to-foot method if done at the same time, under the same conditions. You will also get a higher reading than someone who has pretty much the same body as you but little boobage. If you do find someone to caliper you, boobs are not one of the skinfolds that go into the calculation , so if you are comparing yourself to a friend who has been calipered at 15% or tested by another method at 15%, your higher number may be accurate but not really indicative of the parts of your body that you are concerned about. Here's a site that shows where the skinfolds are for women. If you know yours, you can plug them in and it will do the calculation.
The Navy and YMCA methods only work if you have an hourglass figure with a fairly ideal waist to hip ratio.
OK so this is what I get
Hand held--22.9% (post workout)
Navy - 24%
Foot to foot - 33.X%
I was wondering what the boobs would do, which IS another reason I want calipered. The navy (which is the only one I can do at home) has at least been tracking with my weight loss and indicates that I have gained a small amount of muscle mass. The foot scale tells me that I have lost primarily muscle while losing 40 lbs. Fortunately it seems my fat has gotten stronger
My "eyes" tell me I have about 8-10 lbs left to lose. I still have significant fat on my torso. All the places they like to caliper are still soft and squooshy.
Hard to say about the boobs, they are nursing floppy boobs, so they dont weigh that much.
You definitely have to take into consideration the whole top vs. bottom thing. My sister has a booty and hips and a generally pear shaped body. I'm shaped like a boy (I was an apple until I lost weight...now i'm just a line...) with no boobs and no hips. A handheld gives me a higher measurement than a foot-to-foot, and gives her a lower one.
Other than your gym...
, but fat none the less. You'll generally get a higher reading on a measurement that goes through your upper body (handheld) than the foot-to-foot method if done at the same time, under the same conditions. You will also get a higher reading than someone who has pretty much the same body as you but little boobage. If you do find someone to caliper you, boobs are not one of the skinfolds that go into the calculation 
, so if you are comparing yourself to a friend who has been calipered at 15% or tested by another method at 15%, your higher number may be accurate but not really indicative of the parts of your body that you are concerned about. Here's a site that shows where the 
