Bioelectrical impedance analysis - Body Fat %

hikeout470

Did this body fat test at the gym yesterday, and from what I can tell got a false reading because it was not properly administered.

According to all of my googling this morning, you are suppose to be standing on a plate that will conduct electricity with the hand held device BIA (full name in title). Well both myself and my boyfriend tested, and I believe mine was artificially high, and his was artificially low. Some links to the info. Here is the research:

http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-percent.pdf

And here is a home body fat test that you can perform with a measuring tape. I just did this, and mine looks closest to the picture provided in the above article. So does his.

http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html#healthyamount

Enjoy my MFP friends!

so,

111408

Thanks for posting this.
I just did the tape measure test and got my % and it was way lower than I thought, even with the 3-5% potential offness.

lausa22

You have 24.4% body fat.

You have 42 Pounds of fat and 130 Pounds of lean (muscle, bone, body water).

That sounds about right I'm was already aiming for about 130lbs

kathleennf

Interesting. Well I got my % fat done at the gym today and it came out 29.6 by the impedance method. So when I read this I did it and it came out 27. So then I looked to read if it is accurate or not and found this disclaimer which kind of applies to me:

"Conversely, if a person is skinny but not fit, this body fat test may yield a number 3 to 5 percent lower than his or her true percent body fat. Though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can't see from the outside."

I think I'm going to keep aiming for 25% on the one at the gym!

MayhemModels

You can do the US Navy calculator which is 1 to 3% accurate to the Water Displacement Test

http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

hikeout470

Interesting. Well I got my % fat done at the gym today and it came out 29.6 by the impedance method. So when I read this I did it and it came out 27. So then I looked to read if it is accurate or not and found this disclaimer which kind of applies to me:

"Conversely, if a person is skinny but not fit, this body fat test may yield a number 3 to 5 percent lower than his or her true percent body fat. Though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can't see from the outside."

I think I'm going to keep aiming for 25% on the one at the gym!

Did they have you stand on a plate?

randomartisrgirl

According to this, I'm only 26% body fat and have 35 pounds of fat...

xxthoroughbred

You can do the US Navy calculator which is 1 to 3% accurate to the Water Displacement Test

http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

How do you get this one to work? I can't find a button to calculate my numbers once they're in there.:ohwell:

hikeout470

You can do the US Navy calculator which is 1 to 3% accurate to the Water Displacement Test

http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

How do you get this one to work? I can't find a button to calculate my numbers once they're in there.:ohwell:

I found the button, but it didn't work for me. Posted no values.

hikeout470

BTW, I did some more reading on this topic and found that body fat testing is so inexact that I don't think it is worth it. In fact it may be harmful to the progress if it errors as much as 8-10% in the wrong direction. I think I just stick with measurements, the mirror and scales...

hikeout470

BTW, I did some more reading on this topic and found that body fat testing is so inexact that I don't think it is worth it. In fact it may be harmful to the progress if it errors as much as 8-10% in the wrong direction. I think I just stick with measurements, the mirror and scales...