How to calculate body fat using calipers?

Question

One of the trainers in my local gym did my measurements with a fat caliper. He unfortunately has not had time to calculate the fat percentage.

I have the numbers and figured might as well do it myself but I not sure what formula to use. I can't match up all the body parts since he uses some different names.

He used the caliper in 6 areas:

bicep
tricep
scapula
Illioc
calf
Lower Back

What formula can I use that I can plugin my numbers to calculate my body fat percentage?

There are a number of online calculator you could use: - Linear software has 6 different body fat calculators - free online body fat calculator You can read this nerd fitness article for background information regarding body fat percentage, what it means, looks like and how to measure it. — zeFrenchy, Jul 06 '13 at 20:27
That first link is money from an Exercise Scientist's point of view. If you have the data for the 7-fold Jackson/Pollock, that would be best. You have enough data for the Durmin/Womersley test though (I don't know a lot about this one). — BryceH, Jul 08 '13 at 17:11

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 01 '13 at 16:01

1

You can put those numbers into a site like: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

And you should get a good BF% number back.

Not sure what Illioc is though?

answered Oct 01 '13 at 16:01

Peter Souter

111
3

It probably refers to the Illium, which is part of the hip bone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_bone) – Ivo Flipse Oct 01 '13 at 16:35
Indeed, looks like they mean the Iliac crest, which the website refers to as the Suprailiac – Peter Souter Oct 01 '13 at 16:39

arober11 · Answer 2 · 2015-06-17T20:24:12.793

There are numerous free app's around that will estimate and track body fat from a set of Skinfold measurements (an give you the formula), but if you want do do it the hard way there are hundreds of academic papers in existence that propose and/or test a multiplicity of different regression equations, for different populations eg. Validation of anthropometric equations for the estimation of body density in professional soccer players

Based on your readings above I'd suggest:

Durnin and Rahman, 1967 (age: 18-34 R=0.83 ESE=0.0069):  
  fatPct =  495 / (1.161 – 0.0632 * Math.Log10(bicepSF + tricepSF + subscapularSF + supraIliacSF)) - 450

But there are numerous other formulas eg.

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related: How to calculate Body Fat % – arober11 Jun 16 '15 at 17:31 — arober11, Jun 16 '15 at 17:31

How to calculate body fat using calipers?

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