What is the most AFFORDABLE and accurate way of measuring body fat percentages? What experiences have you had?

I didn't think I had an answer and was waiting for someone else to respond. But I came up with the info below.

I'm pretty sure when I joined a gym 17 years or so ago, they offered a free (with membership) annual assessment. I remember doing a flexibility test. And I think they did a body fat assessment with calipers. I've read here that the caliper test isn't accurate for folks who've lost a lot of weight and have loose skin.

My Tanita scale has a body fat calculator based on impedance - electrical flow through your body. I don't remember where we bought the scale, possibly at Sam's. I've read that they can be off by quite a bit.

Underwater tests are supposed to be very accurate, but I have no idea where to start looking for one of these.

I did a search on the topic and found this article that compares several methods.

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwfit/bodycomp.html The site was created by a graduate student at Georgia State and is on the University's website, but hasn't been updated since 1998.

There's also an online calculator that uses your height, weight, age, hip measurement, calf, thigh and wrist measurements. This is free and easy. I was surprised it didn't take the waist measurement into account.
http://www.healthcentral.com/cholest....html#accurate

Also, do a search on 3FC for Calculate Body Percentage (can't search using Fat as it's only 3 letters), and you'll find a number of interesting threads on the topic.

Two other websites that will calculate your body fat % based on your weight and/or measurements are:
FreeDieting.com
BBLex

Both of these sites come pretty close to the number my trainer comes up with using the calipers, so I think they are reasonably accurate.

This is the one I use. The US Navy Calculator is horribly inaccurate for someone who is obese. The Health Central one seems to be mid line of all of them out there. It was the closest to what I expected. None of those measurements are very accurate but they can help establish trends. Just use the same one each month.

I can put my same measurements into the various calculators and get anywhere from 25% to 51%.

To get an accurate result, underwater testing or the Bod Pod are the best options. Though they aren't as cheap. If you are not obese or very over weight than you can get a reasonably accurate reading using calipers if the person using them is experienced.

Yeah, at HealthCentral I get 33.6%, at the BBLex site / US Navy method, I get 39.2%, and at FreeDieting I get 26.39%. Hard to know what to make of numbers like that. But it can be motivating to see how the numbers change over time

My boyfriend (a runner) measured his body fat percentage on the BBLex website and found out he had.. guess, it's too good to be true (and horribly inaccurate). He had a 3% (as in the number between two and four) body fat percentage. I measured him myself afterwards and got the same results Umm, that's cool for you I guess haha