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Progress Journals & Experimental Routines / Re: chasing athleticism
« on: February 20, 2016, 01:43:14 pm »
I actually have 2 pairs of calipers.. and ones a good quality one. Never use it though. It's not very useful. I can tell when im leaning out by skinfolds getting smaller, jiggle test and not to mention mirror test. Calipers would just show diminishing skinfold measurements in mm which don't really matter. Actually, the data might be useful to see where the fat is coming off .. but it would be too much effort to track regularly .. hmmmm. But if that's what you wanna use the calipers go ahead, it will be useful. What it's not so useful for is coming up with an accurate bodyfat percentage.
Anyway. Suppose you go to the effort and take 8 site skinfolds.. then you plug them into an equation and get back a magic bodyfat measurement. That's your bodyfat percentage, right? Not quite. The equation is made from a model taken from a sample of a population .. it might be way off for a given individual, especially out of population the original sample was taken from. So for me since I know i have little in common with the average white man it wont be accurate, similar for someone of african descent or south asian descent. If someone did make a model for my race it might be more accurate for me but nevertheless it's just an estimate and doesn't have to be accurate for an individual but for most of the original population sampled. Btw this same thing applies for DEXA too which is why i dont put much stock in it either.
Anyway. Suppose you go to the effort and take 8 site skinfolds.. then you plug them into an equation and get back a magic bodyfat measurement. That's your bodyfat percentage, right? Not quite. The equation is made from a model taken from a sample of a population .. it might be way off for a given individual, especially out of population the original sample was taken from. So for me since I know i have little in common with the average white man it wont be accurate, similar for someone of african descent or south asian descent. If someone did make a model for my race it might be more accurate for me but nevertheless it's just an estimate and doesn't have to be accurate for an individual but for most of the original population sampled. Btw this same thing applies for DEXA too which is why i dont put much stock in it either.