Fitness, skinfold package

The Slim Guide is a great caliper. The spring-loaded mechanism gives a much more consistent and accurate reading than the AccuMeasure, but the caveat is that you can't take measurements by yourself! You WILL need someone else to take your measurement for you with it! The reason for this is down to the fact that you won't be able to see the dial on it whilst doing the pinch test in most areas! (-including the suprailliac crest). I thought I would perhaps be able to get around this by taking the measurement in front of the mirror, but you'd be surprised at just how difficult it is to see the dial, even when you do that! However, this is not the fault of the caliper. It is more just a case of most calipers were not designed for self-testing. But I thought I would mention this in case anyone else was thinking of self testing like I did, so that they knew not to waste their money. For that, the AccuMeasure is the one you need, as it remembers where the pinch mark is, so you can still see how many mm your skinfold is even after you take it off your body, so is PERFECT for self-testing! (But the AccuMeasure's drawback is that it does take alot longer to learn how to use it properly in order to get consitent readings!) However, if you have someone who can take your readings, the Slim Guide caliper is GREAT!! (and it's HANDS DOWN easier to get consistent readings with!!) So the moral of the story here is that they are both great calipers, just you have to use the right tool for the job, depending on your situation!

I bought the Accu Measure Fitness 3000 Personal Body Fat Tester and the Skinfold calipe as I am very new in all this thing of body fat measuraments and I have to say that, in my opinion, the Skinfold caliper has a lot much better quality and instructions of how to use it properly. The Accu Measure Fitness 3000 Personal Body Fat Tester was as dissappointment. The quality is not good and you can measure anything. It is like the kind of product you would find in a poundland.

I went through several pairs of cheap calipers which snapped after a week or 2 of general use. I picked this one because it looked sturdier and I wasn't wrong. This is thick plastic and metal spring loaded so I have no worries about this one falling apart. Measurements are accurate (tested against a boxed professional set from a PT friend) and comes with some really informative charts. If you want an affordable calipers which will give a good reading and won't disintegrate then pick this up.

Received the callipers, which are fine (can't see how you can go wrong to be honest) But the manual/instruction book with it is very unclear. It appears that it was originally written in another language and then translated with some software, not proof read and then printed. If you haven't used callipers before it's a very poor product overall to purchase.

It's build is premium and and it is pretty easy to use, especially with the instruction booklet provided which includes instructions on measuring as well as general information about body composition and reference tables. All of this in multiple languages! To be honest this is probably the best value-for-money caliper out there

Much more accurate than those rubbish impedance testers people use. Bit overpriced for two bits of plastic and a spring, but does the job. The instructions are good enough but only tell you how to do a 4 site test, whereas I prefer to do an 8 or 9 site test (details on these are found easily on the web). Been cutting my bodyfat away for 12 weeks now and it read me as 8.3%bodyfat which is a little lower than I think I actually am, but it's good all the same.. Recommended.

Where to begin? OK, positives first. The calipers are well made. Now the negatives. I found it really difficult to get a skin grip, due to the width and thickness of the pincers of the calipers (and no, I'm not showing off, I wish I were). I did get some readings but have no idea how accurate they are. There's a pretty chart showing various numbers and percentages but it's not explained how this is all worked out; what happens if your 'Sum' is between 15 and 20? Is that good, or bad? What does it mean? And then there are the 'instructions'. These are almost worth the money in themselves. Here is a direct quote 'Natural subjects standing fully exposed so that the measured positions. Detect personnel calipers right hand grasping the handle so that is was open two half-bow arm, his left thumb and forefinger to test parts of the skin and subcutaneous tissue caliper filed, the two fingers apart to about 3 centimeters, meters will be open in brought into the point below the caliper, release the handle when the pointer stopped reading after'. WTF? It's 2012!!! Is it too much to expect things to be translated properly? Obviously it is. Very disappointed. I can only guess the 5 star reviewers got a different product, or can read fluent gibberish.

Perfect perfect perfect. A lot of people whinge that "oh you can't do it on yourself", well guess what, you're not supposed to! It's much better to get someone else to do it. Just make sure its the same person each time to get most accurate results. I am a Nutritionist by profession and I get my girlfriend to do it on me (under strict instruction haha). It comes with a great booklet to show you how to do it, great quality and gives accurate results each time I use it. Comes in a resealable plastic bag/pouch thing so its altogether all the time :) This is much better than all the other smaller pincer plastic things that are cheaper. Although more expensive, if you are wanting to measure your fat %, you should invest in good equipment, if you're serious about knowing and tracking the values. Happy measuring!!