Body Fat testing

[power]

What's the most accurate way to measure body-fat at home?

 

[tim290280]

^^ Accurate or precise?

Because there aren't any accurate ways to measure body fat at home.

Precision comes from quality of the device or user. 3 site skin fold caliper test can be the best ball park measure, but precision is purely in the hands of the tester. Bioimpedence is reasonably precise, but I've found that you have to get a good unit that has algorithms for active people.

I posted a paper on this sometime in the past I think. If not there is one comparing the different methods and their accuracy and precision.

 

[mvsf1]

Some byopsias.

 

[power]

Some byopsias.

What is that?

 

[The Creator]

skin-fold is your best bet if you find a person that has some experience to pinch you. I would take the number with a grain of salt but it is a great way to measure progress.

 

[mvsf1]

What is that?

A biopsy is a medical test involving the removal of cells or tissues for examination. It is the medical removal of tissue from a living subject to determine the presence or extent of a disease.


You could also detect how many fat the tissue has.

 

[tim290280]

What's the most accurate way to measure body-fat at home?

A biopsy is a medical test involving the removal of cells or tissues for examination. It is the medical removal of tissue from a living subject to determine the presence or extent of a disease.


You could also detect how many fat the tissue has.

Not exactly the sort of testing one does at home.

Also biopsy is by its nature very site specific and not particularly accurate unless the site is representative of the body as a whole.

 

[Big_Guns_Lance]

i'm sure the seven site skinfold is more accurate than the three?

But anyway, like above said make sure to have somebody with experience and also repeat 3 times or so to see how reliable the tester is.

 

[power]

Not exactly the sort of testing one does at home.

Also biopsy is by its nature very site specific and not particularly accurate unless the site is representative of the body as a whole.

I thought about the same thing LOL
Thanks for trying to answer my question Mvsf1.

 

[tim290280]

i'm sure the seven site skinfold is more accurate than the three?

But anyway, like above said make sure to have somebody with experience and also repeat 3 times or so to see how reliable the tester is.

Nope. Not any more accurate at all, just more measurements, probably greater precision, but precision is more about the tester.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1930739x?journalRedirectCheck=true

Obesity Research (2003) 11, 852–858;
Validity of Six Field and Laboratory Methods for Measurement of Body Composition in Boys

Lisa Parker, John J. Reilly, Christine Slater, Jonathan C.K. Wells and Yannis Pitsiladis

Objective: To determine the validity of the following six body composition methods against a reference method (three-component model): air displacement plethysmography (BODPOD); estimation from body density using BODPOD; skinfold thickness using the Slaughter equations; bioelectrical impedance, both leg-leg (TANITA) and hand–foot (Bodystat) approaches; and total body water.

Research Methods and Procedures: Forty-two healthy white 10- to 14-year-old boys (mean age, 12.9 plusminus 1.0 years) were enrolled in this study. Measures of body fat percentage and body fat mass derived from the three-component model were used as the reference method. Validity of all of the other methods was assessed by comparison against the reference by calculation of biases and limits of agreement.

Results: Mean body fatness measured using the reference method was 16.4 plusminus 11.6% and 8.7 plusminus 7.0 kg. Estimates of fatness from total body water had the narrowest limits of agreement relative to the reference (+0.9 plusminus 5.0% body fat; +0.5 plusminus 2.9 kg fat mass). For all other methods tested, we observed large biases and very wide limits of agreement.

Discussion: This study suggests that the validity of newer field and laboratory methods for estimation of body composition is poor in adolescent boys. For applications where high accuracy of estimation at the individual level is essential, only reference methods would be acceptable.

Keywords:
total body water, body density, bioelectric impedance, air displacement plethysmography, anthropometry

 

[The Creator]

^^ Beat me to it! I'm actually in the process of doing a study on this. So far, surprisingly, the BEI and the 4-site skin-fold are the most accurate in my cases.

 

[mvsf1]

Not exactly the sort of testing one does at home.

Also biopsy is by its nature very site specific and not particularly accurate unless the site is representative of the body as a whole.

Nope, of course not. Yeah, it's site specific but I read an article (don't ask, I don't remember authors, etc) where researchers presented a method based on a few biopsias (I think 3 or 4) to calculate BF.

PS: don't try it at home, LOL