BMI

areay

How accurate are BMI's? I have a body fat scale and it's way different than my BMI that I get from websites. What is the best way to do body fat percentage?

areay

How accurate are BMI's? I have a body fat scale and it's way different than my BMI that I get from websites. What is the best way to do body fat percentage?

yoginimary

Your BMI is not your body fat. BMI is your height to weight ratio - essentially.

There are many ways to get body fat:

The scales - electronic impedance - sends low level electricity through your body - these aren't very accurate for most people, but you can keep track of change through these scales as long as everything else is constant - the amount of hydration, how long ago you exercised, when you last ate, etc.

Skin-fold calipers - usually done by a personal trainer. Can be fairly accurate in the right hands. But not as accurate as the following two methods.

Hydrostatic Weighing - get in a tank of water and get weighed (I have not done this method)

DEXA scan - basically a body low-level x-ray - you can see where you are fat with this one. I had it done at a University and it was $75. I was told that this measuring device can lose accuracy with big people.

Here were my numbers if you are curious:
BMI - 27
% body fat by method:
scale, like yours - 30.3
hand held electronic impedance - 29.8
skinfold - 28.2
Dexa - 37.8

look at that variety! So, I'm somewhere between 28.2 & 37.8 body fat! This was done at a University by the lead researcher.

Here's another one, though not more accurate than those above, but you can do it for free:
http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html

areay

Thanks! This was a lot of helpful information! I love this website, people are awesome!