What is the "pinch test"?

What is the "pinch test"?

The pinch test, or the skin fold test, is probably one of the oldest ones around. It's very accurate except for sometimes when people are very obese; the skin or the fat does not compress or allow the callipers to work as accurately. However, for the most part (for the general consumer) the skin fold test actually works very well. There are different sites of measurement for men and different ones for women, and depending on the manufacturer of the calliper (the skin fold calliper) there are a different number of sites of measurements going from 3 to 5 to 7 and even 9 points of measurement. That is then put into a formulation as a total sum of millimeters, and then based on gender and age it will tell you what that means as far as a body fat percentage.