I bought some calipers last night
 

And I'm 34% body fat. BMI is 27.2.
I have 112 lbs of lean body mass so to have a athletic amount of BF I need to be 20-24% BF. my new weight goal is 135 lbs.

It's always nice to know the numbers! Sounds like a very reasonable and attainable goal!

best wishes, from another 5'6" chick! ;) ( ( I will buy us a bottle of champagne when we hit 135! :D )

Another 5-6er here! Going for a goal of 136. We can do it!!!

You are so close!

Absolutely!!!

It is the 5'6" club in here!

I got measured at the dr's office at five feet 5.5 inches recently!!!

What kind of calipers did you get? They range in price from $6 to $200+ based on a quick internet search. I'm not about to run out and get a DEXA scan but I might be interested in trying calipers.

25.00 I got them at a vitamin shoppe.

I want to be part of this club!!!

Did someone say champagne?? :hyper:

Good for you and good luck!

I totally thought this thread was titled "I bought some caterpillars last night" :lol: I think its time for bed haha

I'm in the club too! 5'6 and goal is 135. I want calipers too! lol. Were they easy to use?

I'd love to know that too! would be kewl to have all that info.

The 5'6" and 135 Club, and Stephanie must be Club Prez! :cool:

As the elected official prez of the 5'6" club I say: calipers, caterpillars, and champagne for all!!!!

I have 2 calipers (and 2 scales, safer that way lol). Very easy to use. Even online calculators to input that'll do the math for you AND YouTube vids on how to measure. Personally I like the 7 site measurements best, I think they're the most accurate.

So funny, madam president!!

So.... then why do so many sites say that callipers are hard to use and only a few people know how to use them properly?

And, by the way, I have similar goals. I just want to get to under 25% body fat in the perfect world.

In the beginning of March I had the bodpod test taken and it gave me 34% body fat at 185 pounds. Ironically, my bodyfat scale gave me the exact same numbers!!! So, if that is accurate(ish) when I was 165 last spring, my BFP was about 28%. I was SOOOO CLOSE. and then I got derailed.

And yes.. I'm in the 5'6" club (just a bit over).

The Internet says a lot if things. They really aren't anything but a tool. Just like any body fat measurer. There's a magin of error. If the same person measures in the same areas they're at the very least accurate to themselves.

Personally, I was trained to use them when I got personal training certification (which means about as much as, well I can't think of any clever thing, basically it means nothing lol). They aren't hard to use if you put a little effort in. In my personal opinion.

I used to be 5' 6". :/ I don't know what happened but I lost a whole inch somewhere in the last 10 years.

They are easy to use. I was going back and forth with my goal weight. I think I was driving my husband insane. So this really helped me finally decide.

With respect - they are not easy to use AND get accurate measurements for several reasons.

Reason #1 - people have bad equipment. For example the first pair of calipers I bought were these and yes they are "easy" to use but because of how they work it's also very easy to get different measurements of the same site. After doing more research I bought these and they provide much more consistant measurements at a low price. Professional grade equipement costs 5x that or more but while the second might not be 100% accurate it is at least easier to be consistant.

Reason #2 - people don't reach deep enough or pinch hard enough. If it's not at least a bit uncomfortable you're not doing it right and you have to get all the fat not just the outer bit.

Reason #3 - people are too fat. This ties into reason #2. The more fat the more challenging it is to get all of it to measure.

Thanks for the information! I have another question I've always wondered about calipers - are they accurate for formerly obese people with lots of extra skin? A couple of years ago someone used calipers on me and they used an arm measurement, where I have terrible extra skin. Wouldn't that skew the results? Or, if enough measurements are taken and averaged out, does it all work out to something slightly accurate?

I'm having a DEXA scan (for bone density) done this week. I may see if my doc can also use the same test for body fat %. That would be great info to have!

^ good question. I was wondering the same thing!

Extra skin should not make much, if any, of an impact on caliper readings. If you have extra skin - you're not bundling it up and measuring it.

What is not uncommon for very obese people who have lost a bundle is to have loose skin in their problem areas which also has fat under it. Because this skin and fat is flapping around (sorry I don't know how else to describe this) it seems like it's just skin. This isn't just skin, it's skin and fat. This fat can be very challenging to mobilize because the lack of blood flow to these areas. And yes - this kind of thing can mess with caliper readings.

Thanks for the response. Yes, this ^ is what I'm thinking about. I know I have excess skin under my arms and around my abdomen, but I also know (especially in my belly area) that there is still fat there. I have no idea what is what, and no idea how to figure that out!

When you say "difficult to mobilize" does that also mean difficult to lose?

Yes. Mobilization basically means getting the fat out of the cell. Some fat is stubborn and difficult to mobilize and one reason is lack of blood flow. More than you ever wanted to know.

#1 I actually have both of those calipers. I agree about the quality.

#2 I agree, as well. BUT I do also think that if someone is actually interested in doing it the right way, and they make effort to learn how to use them, they can indeed learn to take measurements for their own use and tracking progress.

#3 You got me there. I don't think they're a great tool to use if a person is quite overweight (though I think a person could still track certain sites and watch them go down even if they aren't getting an actual body fat % measurement). 50+ pounds ago I couldn't pull fat to measure on my leg, it was compacted too much and same with my stomach, now I can, but of course it would have ruined my results if I'd have attempted to pinch back then cuz I'd have gotten basically nothing.