So I bought a pair of cheap body fat calipers, which I did not expect to be accurate, but I wanted a rough estimate of what I am. After my measurements i used this calculator with the Parillo caliper method to get a result of 49.07% body fat (rounded up for thread title). When I use the calculators that require tape measurements I end up at around 30%. I need to know roughly what I am so I can calculate my BMR. I'm really confused about this because i'm under the impression that i'm mainly muscle. My legs/ass are solid muscle and although my abdomen holds a lot of fat, when you actually poke me I'm nowhere near as soft as I look. Also I have fairly strong lifts. Here are my stats: Height: 180.3cm (5'11") (1 metre, 52.4 centimetres) Weight: ~104kg (16.3 Stone) Chest: 117.5cm Arms: 38.5cm Hips: 120cm Waist: 115.5cm Thighs: 73cm Calves: 45cm Forearms: 28cm Shoulders: 134cm Neck: 42cm And my pics:
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* While it's hard to estimate the higher bf ranges, I'd say you are close to the lower 30's. Edit: Eh, 30ish.
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* Can't see your pics OP. Try again using a different image host other then imagashack.
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* throw out those calipers, useless. total random rough guess, yes high 20 low 30. You said you are strong, what are your lifts like?
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* You dont need to calculate anything, pick a calorie number, follow it, see what happens....and adjust after 3 weeks.
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* Yeah I'd say your in 30s Just a note lifts don't matter when it comes to fat since fat can hide muscle cardio/diet helps with that
Do I Look 50% Body Fat? *Pics* I wouldn't say the calipers are necessarily useless, they can be pretty handy when tracking progress (mm thickness as an indicator vs. estimated/calculated %BF). While I don't place a lot of faith in the accuracy of skinfold testing for %BF determination, my money on the major factor here is user error.
