Body fat monitor

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amaried621
amaried621 Posts: 260 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am just curious as to how many people go by their percentage of fat vs. weight. Normally I would focus on the number but last month I weighed about the same but had a decrease in body fat % by 4%. I just bought a Omron Body Fat Monitor and figure I will go by that more than my weight - which I know you need to enter your weight so I will still need to utilize my scale. I was just wondering who also did this and if you find it to be a good tool.

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  • Quickster34
    Quickster34 Posts: 209 Member
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    bf % is a great accurate way to track progress especially as you start to turn fat into muscle since muscle will weigh more and the scale could read the same or more but in reality you are much healthier since your bf% is lower. the only thing to note is how you get your readings, scales and other readers that rely on electricity traveling through your body can be swayed by how much water is in your system on a given day, calipers are slightly more accurate then scales. hydrostatic weighing is the best but also a little over the top for regular fit people since mostly top level athletes will want that type of precision
  • Destinie589
    Destinie589 Posts: 211
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    I thought about getting a monitor but I read and researched and I feel like a lot of them are inaccurate. Something about the amount of water in your body can make a big difference. I could be misinformed.
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    I thought about getting a monitor but I read and researched and I feel like a lot of them are inaccurate. Something about the amount of water in your body can make a big difference. I could be misinformed.

    No you are correct.. The amount of water in the body does play a role in their determination.

    I got tested once by my old PT and it read 19%.. got tested a few weeks later by my new pt and it read 22%..Simply because i went out drinking that past weekend and was dehydrated.
  • lulabox
    lulabox Posts: 96 Member
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    I guess it measures via BIA. I wrote a blog post about it some time ago and the issues with accuracy:

    I measure my body fat using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) via my scales. This method simply relies on sending a very low electrical current through the body. The current has trouble going through fat. It’s possible to estimate body fat as a percentage based on this property when knowing a person’s height, gender and weight.

    Like most methods of measuring body fat, it’s not very accurate. The gold standard is now DXA (Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), which as the name suggests involves an X-Ray scan. It’s apparently more accurate than the previous gold standard method of underwater weighting, which is based on immersing the body into water and taking advantage of Archimedes’ principle to calculate body fat, but it may not be completely accurate either as DXA was originally developed to measure bone density rather than body fat percentage.

    For your regular dieter or fitness fan, I would suggest sticking to BIA via your scales (I bought some decent scales 4 years ago for £40/60$) and measuring body fat as follow:

    1) First thing in the morning using the same scale. Food/water can alter the results.
    2) 3-4 days in a row and take the average.
    3) Repeat every 4 weeks or so to measure progress.
    4) Do it along with taking regular pictures (front, back, side).

    I don’t think it truly matters what your *true* body fat percentage is. The most important thing is to see how it progresses over time. Mine’s about 25%. I thought it was perhaps a lower estimate, but based on the picture above, it looks about right.

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