Measuring body fat %

JulieAnn72

I've spent the first half of the year focusing on just losing weight. Now I'd like to start working on lowering my body fat % more. I have a digital bathroom scale that I use for my weekly weigh-ins, and it has a body fat calculator as well. I've used it a few times over the past couple months, and have been very disappointed to see it sit around 33% body fat! I can tell my body has gotten much leaner and stronger over time, so I had a hard time believing my body fat % could be so high still.

I finally spent the $10 on an Accu-Measure body fat caliper. It arrived from Amazon about an hour ago and I just tried it out. I took my measurements a few times and every time it came up with 8 mm, which is 20.8% body fat. This seems more reasonable to me given the way my body looks and feels, but then I wonder how could the two measurements be so drastically different? Are digital scales really that bad? Could I be measuring wrong with the caliper? Thoughts?

zytah

I don't think the scale is accurate. im thinking its making a guesstimate. I don't own one of those fancy ones so do you have to program it to your height? does it take account of gender, or muscle?

Azdak

I've spent the first half of the year focusing on just losing weight. Now I'd like to start working on lowering my body fat % more. I have a digital bathroom scale that I use for my weekly weigh-ins, and it has a body fat calculator as well. I've used it a few times over the past couple months, and have been very disappointed to see it sit around 33% body fat! I can tell my body has gotten much leaner and stronger over time, so I had a hard time believing my body fat % could be so high still.

I finally spent the $10 on an Accu-Measure body fat caliper. It arrived from Amazon about an hour ago and I just tried it out. I took my measurements a few times and every time it came up with 8 mm, which is 20.8% body fat. This seems more reasonable to me given the way my body looks and feels, but then I wonder how could the two measurements be so drastically different? Are digital scales really that bad? Could I be measuring wrong with the caliper? Thoughts?

It is anatomically impossible for a female to do skinfold measurements on herself. Accurately measuring skinfolds is a two-hand operation and one of the primary measuring sites on a female is the back of the upper arm.

This is not to say that the scale is accurate either, but a one-site skinfold measurement is not and cannot be remotely accurate.

JulieAnn72

I don't think the scale is accurate. im thinking its making a guesstimate. I don't own one of those fancy ones so do you have to program it to your height? does it take account of gender, or muscle?

You do put in your gender and height, and it calculates your weight and body fat %.

I'm starting to think I shouldn't bother. It seems maybe there's no real accurate way to measure body fat besides paying someone to do it for you...

rassha01

My bathroom scale has said 23% for the last 20 pounds!! I did the skin fold test (calipers) and I am at 18%, pretty sure the scales are not all to accurate.

Edit: There are a lot of differant ways to measure body fat% this site has some good calculators:
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

I have done the tape and a few of the skin fold calculators and all of them are within 1% but still 4-5% lower than what my scale says.

clobern

Might depend on the scale. I put my stats in a calculator and got one result, and then used my scale that sends electrical currents through your body (they move at a different speed through fat than through muscle) and it gave me another result, but they were very, very close.

amwoidyla

I have actually been struggling with the same thing! I got my bf% tested at the gym and was convinced it couldn't be right because I was only .5% lower than what I was 10lbs ago. So I bought a super cheap caliper off amazon and had my fella do it and it was closer to what I expected it to be. Use this link for guidance about how to do the skinfolds, especially if the person doing it for you isn't familiar.

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/SkinfoldProcedures.html

Best of luck!

JulieAnn72

Okay, I did some more research, and I am guessing I'm more like upper 20s. So somewhere between the scale and the caliper. I'll have my husband measure a few other spots tonight with the caliper and see what happens.

mkakids

20% is right around where you can start to see ab definition. If you have no visible abs I would guess you measured wrong. Scales however are not very accurate either.

MsEndomorph

Okay, I did some more research, and I am guessing I'm more like upper 20s. So somewhere between the scale and the caliper. I'll have my husband measure a few other spots tonight with the caliper and see what happens.

Yes, judging by your pics, there's no way you're 20% (no offense intended - I'm not either!) I think it's really hard to gauge - I'm a small person with a normal BMI, but I'm 34%-ish percent body fat. My scale gives me a body fat percentage, but I don't really trust it. In the end, since I'm not going to go bed submerged in water, the most important thing to me is seeing changes.