What is the best way to determine body fat %? And some cutting advise..

[solidassears]

I have some strange results from body fat measurements; the resistance calculator says 28%, but using calipers to measure my trainer got results from 9% upper body to a high of 19% where my left over gut resides. Legs and lower body were 14%.. I'm thinking overall I must be somewhere in the 16-18% range right now.

The second part of my post about cutting is going to be a challenge as I don't have a normal digestive system; I only absorb 5-10% of the fats I eat, so I have to eat a lot of fat or I have problems with really dry brittle hair and nails etc. I also only absorb about 30-40% of the protein I eat, so again I have to eat a lot of protein to get what I need. During the bulk period it's not a problem, but how to cut and still get enough protein? That's the question..

I absorb 100% of simple carbs and about 50% of complex carbs.. If that makes any difference.

My biggest concerns are about fats and proteins so any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated..

Thanks in advance!

 

[bigss75]

Bodpod works the best. I'd take the pinch test over resistance. At 16-18 you're probably alittle leaner then the average dude but not by a lot.

As for diet you have that might something you talk to a real nutritionist about. If you have that serious absorbing issues you wouldn't want to risk messing with your hormones playing with your fat intake. You can keep protein high during cutting still because for the most part the break down of amino acids to glucose is pretty inefficient.

 

[Big Ronnie]

The best way is the dunk test where they dunk you in the pool and measure body fat. It is too expensive unless they have some incredible special.
Calipers suck and don't even get me close.

 

[SeattlesBest]

The way I tell my body fat is how veiny my penis is. I find it to be within 1-2% accurate. Right now I have a hard on and Id say... I'm around 6%.. Going for my pro card, 5 weeks out. My penis is lookin real good right now.. Real dry

 

[Conceal30]

glad to know im not the only one.

my penis veins say im 14%, give or take 1%.

The way I tell my body fat is how veiny my penis is. I find it to be within 1-2% accurate. Right now I have a hard on and Id say... I'm around 6%.. Going for my pro card, 5 weeks out. My penis is lookin real good right now.. Real dry

 

[SeattlesBest]

glad to know im not the only one.

my penis veins say im 14%, give or take 1%.

That's very good, I'm glad others know about this secret. If your cock doesn't have multiple veins running parallel and perpendicular with a circumference of 3 millimeters.. Your doin somethin wrong my friend.. Id recommend tying a 2 1/2 pound, possibly a 3 pound weight to the base of your shaft, and do cock raises. "hard on of course" just get a good bounce to it.. try to squeeze at the top. Don't fuck around.. Your only shorting your self bro..

 

[sassy69]

Here's a series of articles that speaks to this topic: http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=218

Generally:
Dexascan is probably your best be to closest thing to absolute bodyfat measure.

Bodpod is pretty good but I think not the ultimately in absolute measure.

Skinfold calipers can't measure internal bodyfat (e.g. around the organs) and is also limited to how proficient the person is who is taking the measure, and further some might argue, the quality of the eqpt you're using (e.g. those plastic calipers vs the $300 metal ones that supposedly take into account the "squeeze" part of the skinfold measure). This is what I have always used as my preferred method of measure because it is relatively easy to use and historically is probably what most BB's are referring to when they speak of bodyfat (think - old school). But it isn't an absolute measure, but IMO it's sufficient to measure relative changes over time, again assuming you have a consistent person taking the measure & you're using enough pinch points (e.g. ref: 11 pt measure). I would also recommend taking 3 complete sets of measures every time you do this, and take the average of them to help eliminate the variability of trying to pinch.

Bioimpedance / Tanita scale - these are measuring the resistance across your body - and this can be affected by the amount of water in your system, so it can be very hard to measure consistently if you're looking for changes over time, since water is such a transient part of our body makeup (women can shift up to 10 lb in water weight in a given day during TOTM). These measure to a couple decimal places, but what they are measuring doesn't quite match apples to apples to a skinfold caliper.


If you're using skinfold caliper, I think you need to get the pinch measures and then do the calculation - trying to compare bf% from different parts of your body is sort of irrelevant. Everyone has a different distribution of fat cells across their bodies (easy illustration - women & estrogen-pattern fat depositing - dieting down will probably leave women lean on top, possible loss of breast tissue -- i.e. boobs shrink, but can still have more junk in the trunk, even if they are ripped on top) This site has a couple different online calculators you can use:

http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

But even with this, a note of caution - from this article you can see there's a huge variation in final bf% based on the method of calculation: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/bodyfatcalipers.html

If absolute number matters to you, go get a dexascan. If you're more interested in your relative changes over time, consistent caliper measure is fine.