Hospital-grade BF scale?

emilysusana

Good day!
My gym brings someone in from the local hospital to measure body fat using some sort of scale. I’ve read on here that such scales are notoriously inaccurate, but I’m wondering if one from the hospital might have a better chance of being accurate? The question sounds dumb as I’m asking it. The reason I ask is because I’m trying to decide if it’s worth my time to go out of my way to be at the gym when this is offered. I had it done on January 9 and I’d be interested in doing it today to see my progress, but not if the numbers are meaningless.

Muscleflex79

is it using bioelectrical impedence? if so, not very accurate compared to other methods (bod pod, dexa scan, autopsy).

tinkerbellang83

If you take readings over time with similar enough conditions there should be enough information to establish a trend but results may still be influenced by things like hydration levels, etc. The US Navy Body Fat method is a relatively good estimate too: https://bmi-calories.com/body-fat-percentage-calculator.html

Progress might be easier to see taking measurements/photos. You can add measurements into MFP and it will show you a graph of your progress.

sijomial

"Some sort of scale"?

More information required!
Make, model?
Just hand held? Just foot pads to stand on? Both hand and foot sensors?
That it comes from a hospital or from a joke shop isn't really relevant, it's the equipment itself that matters.

Yes some can be reasonable in providing a believable number but more likely a believable trend with some odd/inaccurate individual data points. They should be used consistently to reduce the impact of hydration, feeding, time of day and exercise variables.

Every couple of months isn't enough to get a good trend with a device that can have variable individual readings.

All bodyfat estimating methods have drawbacks and differing levels of inaccuracy.
Personally I've had a good trending experience from four pad domestic and commercial BIA scales if used correctly but with some weird data points.
I've also had comical results from hand held and foot pad only BIA units.
BodPod was reasonable/believable but with one very clearly erroneous reading.
Estimates based on tape measurements were so varied for me as to be useless.

solieco1

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

is it using bioelectrical impedence? if so, not very accurate compared to other methods (bod pod, dexa scan, autopsy).

I think I'll pass on the last one.

emilysusana

sijomial wrote: »

"Some sort of scale"?

More information required!
Make, model?
Just hand held? Just foot pads to stand on? Both hand and foot sensors?
That it comes from a hospital or from a joke shop isn't really relevant, it's the equipment itself that matters.

Yes some can be reasonable in providing a believable number but more likely a believable trend with some odd/inaccurate individual data points. They should be used consistently to reduce the impact of hydration, feeding, time of day and exercise variables.

Every couple of months isn't enough to get a good trend with a device that can have variable individual readings.

All bodyfat estimating methods have drawbacks and differing levels of inaccuracy.
Personally I've had a good trending experience from four pad domestic and commercial BIA scales if used correctly but with some weird data points.
I've also had comical results from hand held and foot pad only BIA units.
BodPod was reasonable/believable but with one very clearly erroneous reading.
Estimates based on tape measurements were so varied for me as to be useless.

Foot pads only, that’s about the only additional info I have.

If I decide to go step on the scale, I’ll definitely take any reading with a grain of salt!

Thanks for the replies everyone.

sijomial

emilysusana wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

"Some sort of scale"?

More information required!
Make, model?
Just hand held? Just foot pads to stand on? Both hand and foot sensors?
That it comes from a hospital or from a joke shop isn't really relevant, it's the equipment itself that matters.

Yes some can be reasonable in providing a believable number but more likely a believable trend with some odd/inaccurate individual data points. They should be used consistently to reduce the impact of hydration, feeding, time of day and exercise variables.

Every couple of months isn't enough to get a good trend with a device that can have variable individual readings.

All bodyfat estimating methods have drawbacks and differing levels of inaccuracy.
Personally I've had a good trending experience from four pad domestic and commercial BIA scales if used correctly but with some weird data points.
I've also had comical results from hand held and foot pad only BIA units.
BodPod was reasonable/believable but with one very clearly erroneous reading.
Estimates based on tape measurements were so varied for me as to be useless.

Foot pads only, that’s about the only additional info I have.

If I decide to go step on the scale, I’ll definitely take any reading with a grain of salt!

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Sounds like it's just a domestic quality unit that the hospital just happen to use rather than a more sophisticated unit. Perhaps explains why they are happy for it to be removed from the hospital.

Just measuring lower body means it has to make even more assumptions based on electrical resistance in half your body. It's data but don't expect it to be high quality data.