The Body Fat Caliper Formula to Get Washboard Abs

You need the body fat caliper formula if you're losing weight, for washboard abs or just for health. You can use skin-fold calipers to measure you body fat and keep on track to drop the fat.

Weight training is one of the best methods of strength training! If you want to start weight training safely and effectively, with the best info, diet, and routines, check out the 5 Day Beginner Weight Training Course!

For getting a cut body, your body composition is the real bad guy. Extra weight is fine if it's muscle - but fat just won't cut it.

Use the body fat caliper formula to track how low you get your body fat percentage. Just get it down to 6-8% for men or 10-12% for ladies, and you'll be able to see those ripped abs!

This article is targeted at people that want ripped abs, but anyone can use the info here to track their body fat percentage - And lower it!

And if you're all muscle, well, who cares exactly how much you weigh? It's what the weight is made of that's the problem.

Feedback - Um, Where Am I?

I assume you already have a six pack abs workout you do to get stronger and build up your abs. If not, try the workout and diet plan in my How to Get Abs e-book here. You need a workout, cardio and weight lifting, in order to start dropping the fat.

But, constant feedback is necessary to keep on track. Otherwise, you could be doing your workout religiously and a month later realize you're not making much progress. Where are those washboard abs...?

I've been there, and it's really depressing. You feel cheated of you time and your mental and physical energy is drained. So, lets not do that :-)

To get washboard abs, you need to be finding out you body composition, what your body-fat percentage is, regularly. There are several ways of doing this, but the best one I've found is skinfold calipers.

These guys are only $15-20 and are easy to use to measure your body fat. Simply clip your fat at several points on your body, plug in the millimeter readings, and you'll know how much fat you're carrying.

Measuring Your Skinfolds

The very first thing you do is get the measurements on your skinfolds. This is basically measuring the fat you are carrying at 3 points on your body.

There are several formulas for getting your body-fat measure with skinfold calipers. I prefer the the Jackson and Pollock measurements system, which was devised in 1978. It's simple, only 3 measurements, and the math's pretty easy.

You use the skinfold calipers to measure, in millimeters, the amount of skin and fat hanging from the body. You measure at your mid-chest, abdominal (1 inch to the side of the belly button), & top of mid-thigh if you're a guy.

If you're a lady, measure at the mid-triceps, suprailiac (outside abdominal, about 2 inches forward of your love handles), & mid-thigh if you're a woman. Different measures account for male-female body differences.

But then you have to use your 3 measurements to get your body-fat...

The Math of Your Body-Fat
- The Body Fat Caliper Formula -

After getting your skinfold measurements, then you find your body density, and then calculate your body-fat percentage. It sounds difficult, I know, but it's not really that hard.

Or if you hate math, just jump down to the handy body fat caliper formula calculator!

Here's the equations for body density & percentage of body-fat:

Body Fat Caliper Formula for Men:

Body Density = 1.1093800 - (0.0008267 X sum) + (0.0000016 X (sum squared)} - (0.0002574 X your age)

Sum is the sum of the chest, abdominal, & thigh skinfold measurements.

Body Fat Caliper Formula for Women:

Body Density = 1.0994921 - (0.0009929 X sum) + {0.0000023 X (sum squared)}- (0.0001392 X your age)

Sum is the sum of the triceps, suprailiac (outside abdominal), & thigh skinfold measurements.

Body-fat Percentage:

Body-fat Percentage = {(4.95/body density) - 4.5} X 100

Working it Out...

So, say I'm a 138 pound, 21 year-old male with chest, abdominal, and thigh skinfold measurements of 10mm, 12mm, & 11mm. The sum of my skinfold measurements is 33mm (10+12+11), which I plug into the men's body density formula to get:

1.0784359 = 1.1093800 - (0.0008267 X 33) + (0.0000016 X (33 X 33)} - (0.0002574 X 21)

With a body density of 1.0784359, I plug that into the body-fat percentage formula to get:

= {(4.95/1.0784359) - 4.5} X 100

So, I have about 9% body-fat. Not washboard abs yet, but not too shabby, especially for a college student who spends most of his time reading ;-)

Or, Just Use This Handy Calculator...
And Avoid The Math!

When Do You Check?

In order to make these measurements useful, you have to do themEVERY WEEK. Yea, just do it.

That way, you know if your dieting and cardio has payed off and you don't have to change anything. Or, whether you need to step thing up a notch...

Summing It All Up...

With cardio and the body fat caliper formula feedback, you know where you're going. If something works for a week, you can stick with it knowing you'll get similar results, and change your diet or exercise more if you're not dropping the fat you want.

If you want a more complete and structured plan, though, check out my How to Get Abs e-book. It contains exact, step-by-step instructions for how to get ripped, with exercise and diet info.

Get good info, and work hard!

Oh, and be sure to sign up for the e-zine Starting Strong to get monthly strength training, exercise, and diet tips e-mailed to you - and access to the free e-book Train Smart, Eat Smart: Exercise Nutrition Hacks!

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References:
Creative Health Instruction Book. How to Measure Your % Bodyfat.