Sequoia Fitness TrimCal 4000 Body Fat Caliper (Black) [Health and Beauty] with Fat% Chart

These calipers give very consistent results for skinfold measurement, which is the most important thing for any caliper to do. Even if you aren't skilled with calipers, so long as you remain consistent in how you use them, you can get meaningful information from them, even if the numbers are all wrong. If your goal is to drop subcutaneous fat then all you really need to concern yourself with is how much your skin fold measurements change over time. If the measurements are decreasing, then you're on the right track, and if they're not....well...you probably need to change something.And for those who are trying to get absolute body fat measurements: While calipers like these aren't the most accurate means of measuring body composition, they do a good job for what you pay for them. The more accurate means available are very costly. This is especially true in my case, as I have a lot of water weight from kidney disease, which makes other common and inexpensive methods (such as BIA) practically useless because the percentage numbers are skewed heavily in favor of the water content, making i.e. fat and muscle percentages look lower than they actually are.

I bought this to replace an Accu-Measure (the small one that clicks) and first thing I noticed is that this design allows for way more consistent measurements.The Accu-Measure, although functional, had the tendency to overshoot a measurement as you reacted to the click, so you'd get a lot of variance in your self measures. With this one, as long as you use it correctly, it works, and is repeatable. It's also a lot closer to the ones I used in school and seems to be a mass-produced for "consumer" variation of those.

Glad I spent the extra $6-8 and went with this gun-style over the cheaper handheld pinch-style click one. This one seems much more repeatable.Saw someone else moaning about the chart being inaccurate... no surprise. Body fat measurements are known for being subjective/ranging from one test to another. And why bother limiting yourself to a crummy formula from a budget made in China product.I used the easy calculator over on the "linear software" website. (Just google 'linear software body fat' and it's the first result).They offer 6 different formulas, and short videos demonstrating where to measure (click 'chest;, 'abdominal', 'thigh', etc. to watch the corresponding video).I made a few measurements at each body location (to collect 2 data sets of what I thought was representative of a low estimate, and a high estimate), and plugged each set of numbers into the calculators, and averaged the results of the 6 formulas offered. Got a range of x%-x%, (a 2% range), which was in line with my guess based on looking in the mirror & comparing to popular consensus pictures.I mean if you're not willing to do that then keep on being fat. The calipers aren't going to eat less for you. Youtube "Body Fat Test Comparison: Hydrostatic, Skin Fold, DEXA Scan, BIA" by Alan Thrall & get a better understanding of why different assessments give different results, and that the $13 tool is just meant to be used as a quick, easy, cheap, way to track/monitor/adjust your progress towards being more or less fat.*the pair I received are a little inaccurate. They read about 1.5mm too low.That is to say: real world 5mm/10mm/15/20/50 corresponds to 3.5mm/8.5/13.5/18.5/48.5 on these plastic calipers.I verified up to 50mm. They still seem useful for collecting repeatable measurements over time to track trends.I also scratched the white paint off of the pointer arm/indicator arm with a razor blade, and replaced it with a sliver that I cut off of a white shipping label. It is thinner and makes the measurements more precise & repeatable.I've been using this for ~3 months now 2-3x/month and I think it'll hold up for years. If I had to do it again, I'd check prices for a digital recording style that would make back measurements easier to take solo. My assumption is that the cost of a decent pair is more than that convenience is worth to me.

We use them to measure the heels of patients. Works great. Good price. Good purchase.

Overall, I like the design of this caliper. It's a good idea to have the spring loading to increase measurement consistency. The springs used provide a good amount of force. Just enough to firmly pinch the skin without hurting it. The plastic used seems to be of high quality; it has a decent weight to it and it seems very strong and rigid.I do have a major complaint: The caliper I received has its "zero" point marked a millimeter ahead of where the readout mark on the moving arm is when fully contracted. I know this because after seeing that it didn't stop at zero, I measured the difference with a high quality professional millimeter measuring rod. I'm guessing that the readout scale was printed a millimeter from where it should be when this unit was manufactured. Normally I wouldn't complain about a millimeter deficiency in manufacturing tolerance, but it definitely matters when you're buying a measuring device made specifically to measure to the millimeter! I can easily compensate, because it was conveniently nearly exactly a millimeter off, so I can simply add 1 mm to every measurement I take. However, it seems possible other units might well be off by some significant fraction that isn't nearly as easy to compensate for. Something to consider before purchasing.

I like these calipers- they are bigger than I thought they would be- like bigger than my whole hand- so storage is a little awkward. The chart that comes with it seems a little forgiving to me. Like when I measure myself and I’m around 11% body fat the chart tells me I’m at 9%. Other than that- they are pretty easy to use and the numbers are easy to read as long as you are facing a mirror for the chest measurement.