Body fat monitors and ingunial crease

ljones27uk

Hi all,
A quick query about body fat monitors and ingunial creases.
I have a weight watchers electronic scale at home, it measures weight, body fat and hydration. It reckons I have 25% body fat at the moment and am 'red' because of this.
However in the last few days my inguinal crease has appeared, and when I look this up online most websites suggest I need to be at <10% body fat.
Is to possible that my monitor is that far out, or is it possible to see the crease with fat levels so much higher?
FYI (in case of use) I'm 5'9' and a 166lbs.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks
Luke

Sued0nim

I know that body fat monitors are rarely accurate - neither are body fat scales - and they're most useful for tracking progress rather than an absolute

I have just had to google what an ingunial crease is ... and really? Who knew?

It doesn't help that I landed on a Men's Health page that says "It goes by many names: love line, moneymaker, Marky's mark, the Michelangelo muscle. In trainer-speak, it's called the inguinal crease, but you might know it as the twin cords of ligament stemming from the hip that direct her attention where it will do the most good."

<chuckles>

ljones27uk

Lol, yeah, I never knew what an inguinal crease was either, never had the need to know until it appeared for the first time ever. :-) maybe I'll see about getting body fat properly measured, would be nice to know that I'm out of the 'red zone' I guess. Cheers

squirrlt

I like this guy's site. He has pics of several different body fat percentages so you can compare yourself and get a general idea. You should be able to tell if you look more like the 25% guy or the 10% bf guy right away, there is a BIG difference. If you seem somewhere in between (like the 15 or 20% pic), is there an athlete mode on your scale? My Omron monitor seemed a bit off, and I switched to Athlete mode and it is in line with my caliper readings now.

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

ljones27uk

excellent.. very useful.. definitely look more like 15 than 25% .. im sure my scales do have that setting so Ill give it a whirl, sounds like you've solved that little conundrum, so thanks very much

squirrlt

No problem! Hopefully the setting change works. Worst case scenario, your scale is just always over, but you can at least use it as a reference point to monitor progress, then get a more accurate body fat check elsewhere if knowing the actual percentage is important to you.

ljones27uk

Bingo, changed the setting, now saying 12%. Might not be very accurate but names me feel a whole lot better then 25% and makes a lot more sense now. I'll just use it as reference now, thx again