For the future: "Help I stalled posts"..read this

Tacklewasher

@johnnylew Do you track your BF% and can you post it?

Looked at mine and I really don't find it helpful at all. Scale going down fine, but the BF% is all over tha map.

JohnnyLowCarb

Tacklewasher wrote: »

@johnnylew Do you track your BF% and can you post it?

Looked at mine and I really don't find it helpful at all. Scale going down fine, but the BF% is all over tha map.

I track it in a spread sheet. Two weeks ago my bmi was 26.5 and fat 22.3. I won't measure ever week. This week. Bmi 26.5 and fat 21.7. My weight went up 193.5 to 194.1. I have incorporated more weights into my workouts

dotwilldoit

This was informative post. Thank you OP for your suggestions. It wouldn't be a waste of time or money for me... just another arrow in the quiver.. like a good kitchen scale, good weigh scale in bathroom, good habits ... I like it.

reedkaus

rainbowbow wrote: »

reedkaus wrote: »

If that were the case then i never would have commented on this thread to begin with. Unfortunately, they aren't accurate to track trends overtime.

You can read more here.

Anecdotally, because i have one of these as well and it was money i wasted... mine will give me wild readings from 14% all the way up to 25% even given the same variables and factors.

Thanks for the article, very insightful!! Though I've never been a fan of BIA myself, I may have jumped on the "hey, if it works for the man, maybe it couldn't be so bad as long as we're trying to control all variables" but the numbers don't lie. I appreciate the link!

Best

VintageFeline

So to be clear. The mean people of MFP never provide enough information about nutrition, weight loss, variables etc. But then we also are treating people as simpletons who should automatically know that the device in the OP is affected by a lot of factors, can be wildly inaccurate and cause as much stress with the variations as a traditional scale? Okay then.

A someone stated, support does not always mean agreement. If someone comes here and is clearly undereating and overexercising and thinks this is a brilliant method of weight loss should we applaud them and tell they're awesome? No.

It's not bashing, it's offering as much information and perspective as possible.

And there are many ways to track progress other than the scale and I nearly always recommend them to people who haven't seen a loss, particularly women who can have massive fluctuations. I usually recommend tracking 6 weeks of scale weight in a trending app if they can take a step back and not find it obsessive or stressful. Alongside that I recommend tracking measurements, side by side photos, clothing fit and setting fitness goals to take the pressure away from the scale.

There's a lot of unfounded, unfair accusations in this thread directed at those trying to provide a fullness of information and not a blanket statement of "everyone should buy this, it's awesome!".

AnvilHead

Tacklewasher wrote: »

LowCarb4Me2016 wrote: »

Have the ones against the device tried it and found it didn't work? I could understand the protests, then.

My scale does this (Withings scale) and I can assure you looking at the results in Trendweight, it would be far more frustrating to just follow the BF% with how much it varies day-to-day. You think scale results look wonky.

I have a Withings scale also, which tracks BF% by BIA. I weigh daily at almost the exact same time every morning, under nearly identical conditions (naked, immediately after getting out of bed and voiding my bladder, before eating or drinking anything). Here are my weight and BF% readings for a recent week:

206.2 _______ 18.4%
205.7 _______ 19.0%
205.2 _______ 18.6%
205.3 _______ 17.7%
207.3 _______ 18.3%
206.6 _______ 17.5%
206.5 _______ 17.8%

I find it pretty hard to believe that I had an actual 1.5% fluctuation in bodyfat over a 4-day period (19% to 17.5%). Especially when considering that the lowest reading (17.5%) was at a weight of 206.6 and the highest reading (19%) was at a weight of 205.7. So I gained 0.8 lbs. and simultaneously went down 1.5% in bodyfat in four days? And my bodyfat was 0.7% lower at 207.3 lbs than it was two days earlier at 205.7 lbs? And I was 18.6% at 205.2 lbs, but 17.7% (almost a full percent lower) on the very next day at 205.3 lbs?

It's also worth noting that the BIA bodyfat percentage is anywhere from 1.5% - 3% higher than what I get from skinfold caliper readings and visual estimation.

stevencloser

3 pounds of fat lost while weighing a pound more in 4 days? You gotta tell me what steroids you use

Cortelli

AnvilHead wrote: »

Tacklewasher wrote: »

LowCarb4Me2016 wrote: »

Have the ones against the device tried it and found it didn't work? I could understand the protests, then.

My scale does this (Withings scale) and I can assure you looking at the results in Trendweight, it would be far more frustrating to just follow the BF% with how much it varies day-to-day. You think scale results look wonky.

I have a Withings scale also, which tracks BF% by BIA. I weigh daily at almost the exact same time every morning, under nearly identical conditions (naked, immediately after getting out of bed and voiding my bladder, before eating or drinking anything). Here are my weight and BF% readings for a recent week:

206.2 _______ 18.4%
205.7 _______ 19.0%
205.2 _______ 18.6%
205.3 _______ 17.7%
207.3 _______ 18.3%
206.6 _______ 17.5%
206.5 _______ 17.8%

I find it pretty hard to believe that I had an actual 1.5% fluctuation in bodyfat over a 4-day period (19% to 17.5%). Especially when considering that the lowest reading (17.5%) was at a weight of 206.6 and the highest reading (19%) was at a weight of 205.7. So I gained 0.8 lbs. and simultaneously went down 1.5% in bodyfat in four days? And my bodyfat was 0.7% lower at 207.3 lbs than it was two days earlier at 205.7 lbs? And I was 18.6% at 205.2 lbs, but 17.7% (almost a full percent lower) on the very next day at 205.3 lbs?

It's also worth noting that the BIA bodyfat percentage is anywhere from 1.5% - 3% higher than what I get from skinfold caliper readings and visual estimation.

I have an Omron scale - really old one - that I bought maybe 10 years ago. It uses BIA plus profile facts to estimate BF% -- i.e., it stores personal profiles (gender, height, maybe something else). And I too weigh daily under the same circumstances.

I found whenever I thought my BF% was a little high, I just added a few inches to my height, and pretty soon I was ripped according to the scale.

(Which is to say, I am not sure how much of the calculation is based on any actual impedance versus an equation mostly based on weight and height). Maybe they've gotten a fair bit better than my old scale (or the handhelds are better) but my scale never was within 6 or 7% of a same-day hydro or DEXA, and bounced around on a daily basis as bad as my weight and worse than AnvilHead's readings.