Recommendations for measuring body fat?

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designerdiscounts
designerdiscounts Posts: 517 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm so very close to goal and have been keeping my measurements but I am curious about my actual body fat percentage. My gym does not offer the service, it's a tiny community gym and there are no personal trainers there.

I could go to a bigger gym and see if they offer it for free to non members but am guessing I'd need to sit through a spiel of some sort.

I've considered getting a new scale that also measures body fat but these are notoriously unreliable. But maybe even if unreliable, I could/would see a trend in one direction or the other.

Anyone have a scale they like? Or a way to measure at home? Or the best way to get the most accurate measurement?

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  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    The scales are pretty useless. The most accurate BF measurement techniques are Dexa Scan and Hydrostatic. Both have a margin of error but are the best available methods.
  • jeagogo
    jeagogo Posts: 179 Member
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    Check out whether your can get a DEXA scan at your hospital. I go to Kaiser and I know they are offered there (though still not free, but cheaper than buying an unreliable home scale).

    I did a DEXA scan at a facility dedicated to health/fitness scans last week and it was very interesting. I'm also close to my weight goal, so it was helpful to be able to set fitness goals for the year based on the body fat % I want to reach. I now know that even though I'm only a few lbs from my goal weight, I have a couple more lbs of fat to lose beyond that in order to reach my goal body fat % (and a couple lbs of lean mass to gain). I plan to scan 2 or 3 more times throughout the year to track how I'm progressing.

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