Body Fat %

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  • fatcity66
    fatcity66 Posts: 1,544 Member
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    Solar_Cat wrote: »
    There may be better BI scales than the one I have, but I know mine is absurdly inaccurate. The biggest influence on its reading is how wet my feet are. When they're dry, sometimes the scale doesn't even get a reading, and if it does, it's something ridiculous like 55%. When my feet are nice and wet, after a shower, it's much closer to what calipers tell me (21% - 22%), but even then the scale isn't consistent. One day it's 23%, next day it's 25%. And if I wait five minutes it's 30%. Nuts!

    Mine varies from 40-45% depending on lots of different factors, and those readings can be within minutes of each other. But this range has not changed since losing 30 lbs and lots of inches...so I don't see how it can be accurate.
  • Wheelhouse15
    Wheelhouse15 Posts: 5,575 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Solar_Cat wrote: »
    There may be better BI scales than the one I have, but I know mine is absurdly inaccurate. The biggest influence on its reading is how wet my feet are. When they're dry, sometimes the scale doesn't even get a reading, and if it does, it's something ridiculous like 55%. When my feet are nice and wet, after a shower, it's much closer to what calipers tell me (21% - 22%), but even then the scale isn't consistent. One day it's 23%, next day it's 25%. And if I wait five minutes it's 30%. Nuts!

    There are a lot of things that really influence the accuracy of the scale and there are more than one type. The bathroom scales are LL type and only measure lower body since electricity will take the shortest route the most accurate measure several points at once (tetrapolar). The link I gave above should give more of an idea of the issues. For me there is no sense even turning it on since my body doesn't conform well to their model.
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
    Solar_Cat wrote: »
    There may be better BI scales than the one I have, but I know mine is absurdly inaccurate. The biggest influence on its reading is how wet my feet are. When they're dry, sometimes the scale doesn't even get a reading, and if it does, it's something ridiculous like 55%. When my feet are nice and wet, after a shower, it's much closer to what calipers tell me (21% - 22%), but even then the scale isn't consistent. One day it's 23%, next day it's 25%. And if I wait five minutes it's 30%. Nuts!

    There are a lot of things that really influence the accuracy of the scale and there are more than one type. The bathroom scales are LL type and only measure lower body since electricity will take the shortest route the most accurate measure several points at once (tetrapolar). The link I gave above should give more of an idea of the issues. For me there is no sense even turning it on since my body doesn't conform well to their model.

    That's why I bought this scale close to two years ago:

    amazon.com/Omron-HBF-514C-Composition-Sensing-Monitor/dp/B0020MMCDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415885462&sr=8-1&keywords=omron+514+scale

    It measures through both hands and feet at the same time, giving a reading for your full body. I had previously used a hand model and a feet model and had averaged the two results. This scale seems more accurate. It may not be, but it's definitely more consistent day to day.

  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    I'm finding minor inconsistencies in all the home measuring methods. As noted above, a BI scale will give you different readings if your hydration levels change. But so what? Your weight readings vary as well if your hydration levels change. Does that mean you should quit weighing yourself? I weigh myself daily. I take BI readings daily. I don't let minor variations bother me, I just look for trends.

    Calipers are great. You squeeze skin between the calipers to see how many millimeters of thickness you have. The thicker you are, the fatter you are. From what I've seen and I could be wrong since I only looked once, skin thickness also changes slightly as you get more hydrated. A bigger variance seems to come from consistently finding the same exact area to measure each and every time. It sounds simple to grab the same patch of skin every time, but it's not. I saw a Youtube video where somebody had put an X on a guy at every measuring point with a magic marker. That would solve the problem, but I don't want to draw X's on myself.

    Tape measures are good, but again, it's hard to measure the same spot consistently. When I take my weekly caliper and tape measure readings, I sometimes get two or three consistent results that vary by no more than 1 millimeter (for calipers) or one tenth of an inch (for tape measure). Other times I find wider variances and I wind up taking five or even six readings of the same spot, then average the results and possibly dismiss any obvious outliers.

    Overall, I'm guessing that people have a lot more confidence in calipers and tape measures when they have someone else like a trainer taking the readings. That way they don't have to see the variances in the readings and may see only the final averages or results. They also are not likely to have a trainer take measurements on two or more consecutive days. Since we all know that bodyfat composition doesn't change much overnight, seeing swings of 2 or even 3 percentage points daily, the way you might with a home BI scale, would make you start to doubt the accuracy of tape measures and calipers.

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