Step By Step, How to do a 9 Site Body Comp

[FireGuy]

Due to the overwhelming requests to “Guess my body fat %” I have set up a step by step guide on how to do a 9 site caliper test and come up with what should be fairly accurate numbers. The calculations for computing body fat are from John Parrillos BodyStat manual. Calipers work best on men with percentages up to 18% and women up to 30% and have an accuracy of +/- 2%.
The most important thing to aim for when doing body fat testing is consistency. Although the actual numbers are important and relevant you want to use it as a tool to determine if your diet, training and/or cardio schedule need to be adjusted.

What you will need:
*Accurate scale
*Skin fold calipers
*Extra set of hands

Keys to consistency are:
*Always have the same person do them in the exact same fashion.
*Always do them at the same time of the day.
*Always weigh yourself on the same scale immediately prior to the test. If you have a 1-2 pound difference between scales it will throw your numbers completely off.

How to pinch: All pinches are done with either a horizontal or a vertical pinch depending on the site. I have listed which to use for each site in detail below. Learning to feel the difference between skin, muscle and fat is the biggest challenge to doing accurate body comps. Practicing them on very lean subjects is a good way to a get good at it as their fat pulls from skin very easily. When you pinch a site you want to pull the skin 1 inch outward from the body. The caliper measurement is taken halfway in, not on the edge of the skin or at the body of the person. Be sure and hold the pinch in place while taking the measurement, do not let go. Take 2-3 measurements at the same site (releasing and re-pinching each time) and use the average of the readings.

Other helpful hints:
*Be sure whoever you are going to test does not put lotion on their skin prior to the test. This makes it extremely hard to pull the pull the skin.
*Hydration levels have an impact on the testing. If a woman is bloated due to monthly issues it can affect her results.
*Do the comps every 7-14 days and make adjustments as necessary. I usually wait until I get 2 comps in a row going the wrong direction (muscle loss, or lack of fat loss) before I make adjustments to cardio/diet.

[FireGuy]

Chest- Horizontal Pinch, You want to start top center of the chest, go 1 inch down and then 4 inches to the side. This can be a tough spot to pull and it not always pleasant for the person getting tested. If you are having trouble getting a pinch ask the person to roll their shoulder forward as this will often help you get a good pull.
Average measurements 3-15mm.

Scapula- Vertical Pinch, Find the shoulder blade of the person and then go 1-2 inches inwards towards their spine. If you are having trouble getting a pull try have them place their arm behind their back.
Average measurements 8-20mm.

Bicep- Vertical Pinch, Mid bicep, this one is real easy to grab just skin on. Be sure and feel for underlying fat.
Average measurements 2-10mm.

Tricep- Vertical Pinch, Locate the inside tricep head and measure just below there. This will be the area just above the elbow.
Average measurements 3-18mm.

Kidney- Horizontal Pinch, This is by far the toughest area to caliper because the lack of distinguishing landmarks. This is the area where men (and some women) tend to carry the thick “backfat”. You don’t want to pinch on the “side” of the person or on the “back” but the spot in between there. How high up or down on waist you pinch is slightly different with each person. Look for the area that has the thickest amount of fat and pinch there. If you can find a landmark (mole, scar,) in the area make a note of it so you can be sure and hit the same spot every time. Don’t be surprised if as the person gets leaner this measurement actually goes up a time or two. This is due to the fat being too thick to get an accurate pinch the times before. As long as the other measurements are going down reassure your client this is a positive sign.
Average measurements 8-40mm

Suprailiac- Horizontal Pinch, Locate the area halfway between the bellybutton and the hipbone and pinch there.
Average measurements 4-15mm

Abdominals- Vertical Pinch, Find the bellybutton and go 1 inch to the side and 1 inch down. Just like the Kidney area look for the area of greatest fat in that close proximity and pinch there everytime.
Average measurements 4-30mm

Thigh- Vertical Pinch, Center of the quad usually about 8-10 inches above the knee cap. This is another area like the kidney that can sometimes increase as the person get leaner. This can also be a really hard site to measure if the person has thick fat in their legs. Be sure and have the person shift all the weight off of the leg you are doing the caliper on.
Average measurements 6-25mm

Calf- Vertical Pinch, Inside head of the calf muscle, center calf. Again, be sure the persons weight is off the leg you are measuring.
Average measurement 5-15mm.

Now take the total of the measurements and divide them by your bodyweight. Example, your total measurements came out to 75mm and you weigh 215lbs. 75/215=.3488 Now multiply .3488x.27=.094
This gives us a body fat percentage of 9.4%.
We can also figure out total lbs of fat by taking the .094x215(bodyweight)=20.21.
So we know now that at 215lbs we have just under 195lbs of lean mass and just over 20lbs of fat.

[FireGuy]

Chest

[FireGuy]

Scapula

[FireGuy]

Bicep

[FireGuy]

Tricep

[FireGuy]

Kidney

[FireGuy]

Suprailiac

[FireGuy]

Abs.

[FireGuy]

Quads

[FireGuy]

Calves.

[FireGuy]

Here is total front and back. She is carb depleted which will make her reading a tad high. She came in at 14.5% BTW.

[jimmyinkedup]

great thread fire ...thank you...

[Hunter-S-Thompson]

excellent info thanks man

[Jfew44]

Wow this is some great info as always.

[FireGuy]

great thread fire ...thank you...

Thanks guys, sorry it took so long to get it done but this was all written up from scratch, no copy and paste.

[ENraged]

Sticky!!!

[Phate]

Sticky!!!

agreed

[GT2]

Sticky!!!

^^^ x3

Great thread, very useful information

[Mind]

Great thread !!

[manwitplans]

14.5, seems very high!

[FireGuy]

14.5, seems very high!

People almost always underestimate womans BF%. Remember, even though her fat level is low she is does not carry nearly the amount of lean body mass to give her the lower readings a man would have. Also, she is getting ready for a Figure contest and she has been under 50 grams of carbs for over a week. She is extremely flat in the pics. Once she takes in some carbs and fills up I am sure she would register somewhere in the 13% or better.

[xnotoriousx]

nice fire, great info should be a sticky.

[bigol'legs]

Great Post

Ive noticed some pinches are really hard.. like triceps and quads. I always seems to bruise when someone pinches my tris... grrrr

[NBRD1808]

solid post.i like

[jamyjamjr]

Suprailiac

fireguy, who is this in your pic?? and where can i get one of her???? damn that's a body...

[FallenWyvern]

Awesome!

Sticky!

[romo6]

Very interesting.

[FireGuy]

fireguy, who is this in your pic?? and where can i get one of her???? damn that's a body...

That would be one of Mrs Fireguy's clients and she is married to one of my good friends. No twin sisters that I know of. I will post a picture of her after her show and I think everyone will be very surprised what a week of carbs is going to do for her look.

[KatsMeow]

She is in fantastic shape, she looks great!

[Knockout_Power]

Thanx for another great post Fireguy, always a great read and pics help a lot, thats why I stick to childrens books =)

[FireGuy]

Results as promised. She finished 4th in tough class of 16 girls this weekend.

[jamyjamjr]

Results as promised. She finished 4th in tough class of 16 girls this weekend.

wow, absolutly impressive!!!!

[xnotoriousx]

Fireguy you lucky dog, you get to be around women in tip top shape and your lady is cool with it!

I hear ya man.

For her result, that is great! She looks amazing. Surprised she didn't finish higher. Nice work on her training too fire!

[FireGuy]

Fireguy you lucky dog, you get to be around women in tip top shape and your lady is cool with it!

I hear ya man.

For her result, that is great! She looks amazing. Surprised she didn't finish higher. Nice work on her training too fire!

Thanks man but I cant take any credit for training her.

[xnotoriousx]

Thanks man but I cant take any credit for training her.

Ahh I re-read "Mrs. Fire guy's clients"

Well i'm sure she got the knowledge to train from a well known source -_-

Great work as always!

You were one of the first people to help me learn when I found this site and still today you help countless people understand and reach goals. Thanks for all you do man.

[jbm]

nice! bro...............

[blasphemy]

Are these the calipers you use?

http://www.amazon.com/Baseline-Econm...=pd_sbs_hpc_16

It looks like the same ones. I'm a little wary to buy them because there are so many others that are at least $160 or more and I don't want to buy them unless they are pretty accurate (within 2% + or -).

[FireGuy]

I have a pair like that and another pair that was over $100. They both give the same readings, my advice, go with the cheap ones.

[gigabitbucket]

I had a pair that were @100 bucks, some measurements as the ones at my gym