A recent discussion online asked which type of fat measuring calipers to buy. In my opinion there is only one that you should get. It is the only one I will use in my Singapore personal training private gym.

The brand is “Harpenden” (shown above). It is accurate to 0.1mm and you can actually “see” the measurement change even if the personal training or fitness bootcamp client is already very lean. One of my clients is under 5% bodyfat but he had a break from training for 2 weeks because of exams. I was able to see a 0.5% change in his bodyfat percentage… which works out to about a 0.4mm difference in most of his skin-fold sites.

You will NOT be able to see these changes (good OR bad) with a cheapo, plastic toy style $40 pair of calipers. These can miss by up to 4mm per site because they are simply not accurate or consistent enough. Because I take 12 body-fat measurements per client to get the most possible information to help my client, 4×12=48 and 48mm is a MASSIVE potential error. Might as well use the near-useless electric, hand help methods then!

The principle of “if its good, it isn’t cheap, and if its cheap, it is very unlikely to be good” holds true here just like it does for gym equipment or fitness instructors or nutrition coaches. The Harpenden fat measuring calipers cost more than $700 SGD. But once you get one or use one, you will neever need to “upgrade” and you will never use another fat measurement device again.