accuracy of scales that measure fat/muscle and water percentage

zehrjordan

so last night I stepped on the scale and it read 202lbs with 23% body fat and 55% water. I then had dinner that night breakfast the next morning worked out and weighed myself again just to see if I could see a diffrence on the scale In water % after a workout. what I got was 209lbs 24.5 % fat and still 55% water. there's no way I gained 7lbs of fat over night. does anyone have a scale that seems to give them accurate numbers? I know they won't be perfect but mine seems to be completly useless.

2essie

I have the Withings scale or Nokia as it is now. I don't think mine is accurate at all but it seems to give me a good idea of what is going on. Sometimes my weight increases but I notice it is body fluid and sometimes I can see that I am storing water in muscles if I work out a lot. At least mine seems to make sense on the numerical side of things. Not sure yours do. Like you say you can't put 5lbs on over night without it being water weight but in this case that isn't what happened according to your scale. Maybe someone else can throw more light on this than I can.

Tacklewasher

Just like your weight, you really shouldn't look at one scale reading in isolation. Link your scale to something like trendweight and look at the trend.

kimny72

In general all of those scales are innacurate. At best you can track the trend over the long term, but even that is hit or miss.

AnvilHead

This explains the inaccuracy (or lack thereof) of those kind of scales: https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls-of-bodyfat-measurement-part-4-bioelectrical-impedance-bia/