Body Fat Calipers

Skinfold calipers measure the thickness of a pinched fold of skin and fat at set sites on the body. You add up the readings and use a chart to estimate body fat percentage.

For home use or a first set, the body fat calipers with girth tape and user guide ($25) come in black, white, pink or red, and the Slimguide calipers with BMI tape ($39) come in five colours. The digital body fat calipers ($39) show the reading on a screen. Trainers who test a lot of clients tend to use Harpenden skinfold calipers ($849), and there’s Harpenden body assessment software to go with them.

The skinfold caliper user guide and charts ($25) shows you which sites to measure. For girth measurements, see body measuring tapes.