Fitbit Aria scale - Body Fat %

scolaris

But despite this I LURVE my Aria. It is so accurate! My old scale used to bounce up & down which I thought was just normal fluctuation. With Aria that range in any 24 hour period has tightened down to about 18 oz in either direction.

Merkavar

It might not be accurate but can't you just use it for long term trends?

Say one month it averages 20% and next month it's 19% the 18%.

You might be 23% in reality but according to the scale your body fat % is going down.

TheopolisAmbroiseIII

Merkavar wrote: »

It might not be accurate but can't you just use it for long term trends?

Say one month it averages 20% and next month it's 19% the 18%.

You might be 23% in reality but according to the scale your body fat % is going down.

Usually you can do that, as long as you weigh in first thing in the morning after a bathroom trip and before eating and drinking anything. Also, occasionally you can toss a reading out, like the day after a spat of drinking, or a salt heavy day.

rankinsect

Even the professional-quality impedance measurement devices (the ones that use six or eight electrodes and not two) are unreliable. The consumer-grade ones are even less.

They are actually OK for measuring population averages but poor at measuring individuals. Which stinks because each of us is an individual, not a population average.

mrmrsptogether08

i called fitbit customer service because my weight and body fat we're fluctuating each time i stepped on the scale (4 times in a row) he looked into my information and told me it looked like my scale was not calibrated and also asked if i work out (in regards to the BF) i told him i work out 2 hours a day 6 days a week ( 1 hour cardio/ 1 hour crossfit) he stated there's an option to have the BP set for normal or athlete so he changed it to athlete and calibrated my scale. after that he had me weigh myself 3 times in a row to see how it was doing. weight was spot on all times and my BF had dropped 10%. i asked how i could calibrate it myself if i ran into the problem again, he said weigh myself 5 times in a row and the 6th time it would be correct.

AnvilHead

Merkavar wrote: »

It might not be accurate but can't you just use it for long term trends?

Say one month it averages 20% and next month it's 19% the 18%.

You might be 23% in reality but according to the scale your body fat % is going down.

Here's a great read about why BIA isn't particularly useful in that way either: http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/index.php/free-content/free-content/volume-1-issue-4-the-pitfalls-of-body-fat-measurement-parts-3-and-4-bod-pod-and-bioelectrical-impedance-bia/the-pitfalls-of-bodyfat-measurement-part-4-bioelectrical-impedance-bia/

(Read below the heading "What About BIA For Measuring Change Over Time?"

cityruss

BIA isn't useful for tracking trends.

Amongst other things, the moisture content or level of dirt on the soles of your feet will throw it off at any given use.

There's simply no way of gaining same state data points to create an accurate trend.

Aaron_K123

cityruss wrote: »

BIA isn't useful for tracking trends.

Amongst other things, the moisture content or level of dirt on the soles of your feet will throw it off at any given use.

There's simply no way of gaining same state data points to create an accurate trend.

That isn't true. Lots of things affect your weight too but you can still use a scale to track your weight over time and from the multiple measurements establish a reliable trend.

BI being innacurate in a single measurement doesn't mean it can't be used to establish a trend over repeated measruements. Sure it might be +5% off one day and -4% off the next but over time that variation will bounce around a trendline and if that trendline is angled downward you are losing bodyfat over time.