Bodyfat - children - skinfold

This procedure estimates bodyfat in children by measuring skinfold at 2 different places.

skinfoldInstructions:
1. Measure skinfold in millimeters as indicated on the pictures and enter values.
2. For further instructions see our guide "How to measure body fat with a skinfold caliper"

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Background

Estimating bodyfat in children by this method is more valid than using BMI or Ponderal index.

References

Skinfold equations for estimation of body fatness in children and youth. Slaughter et al. Hum Biol. 1988 Oct;60(5):709-23.  

Anthropometric assessment of muscularity during growth: estimating fat-free mass with 2 skinfold-thickness measurements is superior to measuring midupper arm muscle area in healthy prepubertal children. Boye et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Sep;76(3):628-32.

 

Secular trends in physical fitness and obesity in Danish 9-year-old girls and boys: Odense School Child Study and Danish substudy of the European Youth Heart Study. Wedderkopp et al. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2004 Jun;14(3):150-5.

Comments  

#9 BB 2017-12-18 13:39
Quoting davep33175:
with Slaughter formula there is a small clause you are missing. If the sum of skinfold (tricep and subscapular) is more than 35 mm the formula changes to
Fat (%) = 0.546 (tricep + subsc) + 9.7 otherwise is fine.
Thanks for this great Site

You are right, if the sum>35 there is additional formula. However, the formula you gave is only for *female*. For male:
Fat (%) = 0.783*(tricep + subsc) + 1.7
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#8 Marcela 2014-09-06 03:07
mm, Morten Z...I was just doing that... looking for the formula and found this site. I do not have net access, where I will be doing the measurements. Therefore I needed the formula.
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#7 rekha m r 2012-04-25 11:56
please send formula
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#6 davep33175 2012-02-26 18:16
with Slaughter formula there is a small clause you are missing. If the sum of skinfold (tricep and subscapular) is more than 35 mm the formula changes to
Fat (%) = 0.546 (tricep + subsc) + 9.7 otherwise is fine.
Thanks for this great Site
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#5 asmitha 2012-02-02 03:28
i want to after find the skin fold measurements apply the formula for children
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#4 ARJUN.K 2011-11-21 09:15
kindly let me know reference of the calculation of body fat in 2 sites
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#3 Matt 2010-10-02 08:12
ya but most of the sources are published articles, so you have to have certain subscriptions or access privileges. I get the NSCA publication, but not a lot of the research is geared toward children. Maybe you have some suggestions for better information?
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#2 Morten Z 2010-10-01 23:35
Matt - to be honest with you - if we just published all the formulas and math behind the calculators, we wouldn't generate much traffic on the site.

We do provide links to references, so it is possible to go to the original sources and extract additional information there.
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