I recently got my Accumeasure calipers, and I knew they would take a little practice to get the right reading, so I practiced, and practiced, and practiced...

Nevertheless, the readings consistently have me pegged at 7% BF. Anyone who has seen my most recent pictures at http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=4200&page=3 knows that I am not 7%... yet :lol:

Could I be doing something wrong?

It's pretty easy to make visual assessments at your body fat, which, looking at your pics, is probably 11%-ish if I had to make a guess. I couldn't get an accurate reading when my body fat was that low late last year... I gave up on using them at that point. Besides, it's just as easy to look in the mirror and guage where you are. If you have to know to the gnat's ass, I'd just stop a trainer at your gym and ask him to do it.

-R

A couple of things. If you are using the Accumeasure calipers you can only use their one site (suprailiac) pinch test. These calipers will not do a thigh pinch or a tricep pinch, etc. When doing their one site pinch it is most important to find the point on the hip bone (the iliac crest). It isn't all that important to find THE right spot, just a feature on your own hip bone that you can find time after time. Once you have this spot, holding the calipers ready to go in your right hand, reach across your body with your left hand and put your index finger on the spot, making sure your index finger doesn't move gather as much fat with your thumb as you can, pinch what you have between your thumb and index finger, pull it out, squeeze it, whatever it doesn't really matter. place the calipers right next to your thumb, close until you hear or feel the click. If it doesn't click do it all over again.

I went through the same thing as you. I ended up sending Tom Venuto of BFFM the same question you did. He sent me a return email with his free ebook "How to measure your own bodyfat", using the Accumeasure callipers. Now I get 3 identical readings every time. Over the last 14 months I have watched myself go from readings of 23mm to 4.0 mm, down to 3.5mm, slowly back up to 6.5mm and now I am at 5.0mm. I swear by these things. I use them weekly and adjust my diet weekly using the results.