hey everyone in this video I want to
demonstrate how to measure body fat
percentage on an adult male using skin
fold calipers which is going to measure
the skin fold thickness at various sites
on the body the skin fold thickness
measurement is part of the
anthropometric measurements we assess
such as high and weight and so forth to
perform this nursing skill you're going
to need some skin fold calipers and here
we're using some inexpensive calipers
that we purchase from Amazon also you
need some materials to record the
measurements that you get and you're
going to need a calculator and a
reference chart to determine the body
fat percentage based on your
measurements to measure body fat
percentage there are various methods you
can use and in this video I'm going to
show you how to do the one side three
side and seven sight methods now let's
talk about how you use skin fold
calipers so whenever you're using these
calipers you want to make sure you refer
to the manufacturer's instructions on
how to use them however here are a few
General tips that you want to keep in
mind as you measure first people often
wonder how much skin should you pinch
together well you want to create a space
of around three inches between your
index finger and your thumb and grab the
skin at that width and as you pinch the
skin together remember that you only
want to fold the skin and the underlying
subcutaneous fat in that area you do not
want to actually pinch the muscle and if
possible while you're collecting these
measurements you want to use the right
side of the body now as you fold the
skin position the calipers around one
centimeter under your finger and thumb
you want to place the caliper heads near
the center of the skin fold as much as
possible the caliper heads should be
perpendicular to the fold that you
create and you want to make sure that
you allow the caliper heads to adjust
for a couple of seconds onto the skin
fold before recording the measurement
and when you record the measurement you
want to make sure that you record it to
the nearest millimeter and for increased
accuracy take three readings at each
side and then average them out and then
lastly always be sure that you clean
your calipers and perform hand hygiene
before and after doing this measurement
test first I want to demonstrate a
common method we use a nursing known as
the triceps skin fold thickness
measurement so you want to make sure
that the patient's arm is relaxed and at
their side and you want to go halfway
down the back of the arm and then pinch
that skin together into a vertical fold
and pull it out gently use the same
method discussed earlier to obtain the
caliper reading to the nearest
millimeter now I'm going to demonstrate
a method that uses three sides and it's
known as the Jackson Pollock three site
method it uses the chest the abdomen and
the thigh to measure the chest skin fold
thickness grab a three inch portion of
skin halfway between the nipple and the
armpit and gently pinch it in a diagonal
fold use the same method discussed
earlier to obtain the caliper reading to
the nearest millimeter to measure the
abdomen skin fold thickness grab a three
inch portion of skin around around one
inch to the right of the belly button
and fold the skin into a vertical fold
and then to measure the thigh skin fold
thickness grab a three inch portion of
skin about halfway down the thigh and
pinch it into a vertical fold and
finally I'm going to show you the seven
side method by Jackson Pollock which
uses the triceps the chest and abdomen
and thigh in the same way I demonstrated
before but you'll also add the
subscapular Supra iliac and mid-axillary
locations to measure up the subscapular
site grab a three inch portion of skin
just under the shoulder blade and gently
pinch it together into a diagonal fold
to measure out the Supra iliac side
we're going to palpate to fill the top
portion of the hip bone which is called
the iliac crest we're going to go just
above that and grasp a three inch
portion of skin into a diagonal fold and
then finally to measure at the mid
axillary side we're going to pinch a
horizontal fold below the armpit and
measure using the same measuring
techniques as before once you've
recorded and averaged all your
measurements you're ready to calculate
your body fat percentage and how you
calculate will be based on the method
you use because it will use a specific
calculator chart or formula as an
example the calipers I used actually
came with a Char and it recommended that
I use the three site method so I took
those measurements and I looked on the
chart and it told me based on the
patient's age and the measurement I got
what the body fat percentage was so here
were my patients measurements for the
chest abdomen and thigh I added the
average for each of these sites and it
gave me a total of this in millimeters
and then once I looked up his age and
that corresponding measurement I was
able to see that his body fat percentage
using that three site method was this
percent now if you're using your
facilities charting system it should
automatically calculate that score for
you once you put in the data in those
required Fields finally if you do not
have a chart you could use various body
fat percentage calculators on line that
are free to use such as the one from
linear Dash software.com they have a
calculator for various methods and all
you have to do is enter your
measurements the calculator will then
tell you your estimated body fat
percentage and here are the body fat
percentage ranges for men and women
according to the American Council on
exercise okay so that wraps up this
video on how to calculate body fat
percentage for an adult male and if
you'd like to watch more videos on this
topic you can access the link in the
YouTube description below