How to Perform the Body Fat Pinch Test

If you are dieting and exercising in an attempt to lose weight or to become more healthy, simply measuring your weight change over time may be a misleading method of tracking your progress. Muscle weighs more than fat, so someone who is losing fat and gaining muscle may see no change in total body pounds or may even see an increase. A more accurate measure of fat loss is the body fat pinch test using a skinfold caliper. Follow these steps to track your body fat percentage over time.

Things You'll Need

• Skinfold caliper
• Notebook to record body fat measurements

Instructions

1. Purchase a skinfold caliper. These come in many varieties and a wide range of prices, but the two most common are the expensive and extremely accurate Harpenden caliper and the much cheaper and slightly less accurate Slim Guide caliper. Harpenden calipers would be more appropriate for very athletic individuals who are seeking to closely monitor their progress, whereas Slim Guide calipers are best as a starting point for most people.

2. Calibrate the caliper if your model requires and supports this feature. Small errors in calibration can lead to large errors in body fat percentage measurement. However, be aware that it may be necessary to purchase a calibration kit separately.

3. Choose a site to measure your body fat, and stick with this site each time to ensure consistency. Some common sites are the triceps, biceps, abdominal, and front of the thigh. Typically a site on the right side of the body is used, although this is again only to ensure consistency in measurement. Consult the instructions that came with your caliper for exact positioning.

4. Pinch the skin at your chosen site with your fingers, grabbing skin and adipose tissue but not muscle. The muscle will be noticeably denser and more firm than the skin and adipose tissue. Try it as many times as necessary to get a feel for the tissues.

5. Apply the calipers one centimeter below your fingers and at a right angle to the skin surface (which means directly into the pinched skin, not obliquely at an angle). Take your measurement after waiting two seconds with the calipers engaged, then release and take another measurement, averaging the two values.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not rely on a single day's measurement to nail down your exact body fat percentage. Skinfold testing is more accurate if done over a long period of time to track changes in body fat.

• Start with an inexpensive caliper before splurging on the Harpenden variety, unless you are already highly athletic and desire pinpoint accuracy in your body fat measurements.

References

• "British Journal of Nutrition;" Body fat assessed from total body density and its estimation from skinfold thickness: measurements on 481 men and women aged from 16 to 72 Years; J. V. G. A. Durnin and J. Womersley; 1974
• "British Journal of Nutrition;" The assessment of the body fat percentage by skinfold thickness measurements in childhood and young adolescence; Paul Deurenberg, John J. L. Pieters and Joseph G. A. J. Hautvast; 1990