Perhaps this is a stupid question re Body Fat %

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2

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  • wareagle8706
    wareagle8706 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    I saw on TV once (that makes it true!) that the most accurate way to measure Fat% is to be weighed while sitting on a scale in a big pool of water.

    What I would do with this information? Who knows. Play the lottery, perhaps?

    This is true, that's one of the most accurate ways. It just costs a lot of money. Not something you can do to measure progress over time...
  • leslisa
    leslisa Posts: 1,350 Member
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    There are several ways to figure it out:

    1. Military Bf Guideline Measurements - Similar to BMI, this form fits your dimensions into a BF curve.
    2. A scale with impedence - I recommend Tanita, after a lot of research, this was the winner
    3. Calipers - accuracy is better by a trained professional, but if you are careful to do it the exact same way every time you will know if you are improving.
    4. Hydrostatic - I just had this done and it's considered "The Gold Standard" in body fat percentage. You get in a tank of water and they compare your weight on the ground to your weight under water. Fat floats, everything else does not. The trick is expelling ALL of the air from your lungs (because air floats as well). Check out this website for services in your area: http://www.bodyfattest.com/
    5. BodPod - Quickly becoming a favorite because of the difficulties with the hydrostatic. Uses air displacement instead of water.

    I have done all but #5 recently and here are my results:

    1. 28%
    2. 27%
    3. 17.9%
    4. 21.5%

    Other background, I'm female, 30, 135lbs, 5'4".

    I'd hesitate to go with the military one. My son is having to drop lean muscle mass to join the military because their system was developed in the 1800's and they never changed it. He's actually gotten a little bit more "fatty" because he's always been pretty darn lean, always lifted, but he has to lose mostly based upon his height (they did raise it for him, I mean really, he can lift his shirt and you can tell he's not fat).

    Partially it's because the bones in our family are very dense. For example, I'm usually about a size 2 or 4 at 125 lbs and I'm only 5'1". When I get down to say 105 - which most 5'1" women can carry, I'm wearing a size 12 in girls and look like I'm gonna keel any moment.
  • stephl21uk
    stephl21uk Posts: 123 Member
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    If ur in the uk, boots pharmacy have scales that you can pay 70p to use and it measures ur body fat, it'poblanoob not 100% accurate but it will give you a good idea or at least help you to judge if you're losing any week by week if you keep using them. I use them once a week for my 'weigh in' and they are the only scales I use so I know that diff ones aren't going to measure/weigh me differently or wrong xx
  • HMVOL7409
    HMVOL7409 Posts: 1,588 Member
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    I actually went and had mine measured via Bod Pod. It's not as easily accessible in some areas and depending on that factor, it can be expensive. However it was only $100 for 6 sessions and my husband and I go every 4-6 weeks as we can share the package. I probably will stop bc I reached my goal but I know he's still working on it. I've also had mine done with the callipers in the past but I honestly didn't care for that method. :)
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
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    pictures don't tell the whole story:
    r8e0y9.jpg
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
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    BMI is terrible. According to it I'm obese. Get a good body fat caliper and learn how to use it. In general, you take a reading from three different locations on your body. then re-test 3 times, and take the average.

    I use this. No guesswork or math.
    http://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Digital-Body-Mass-Caliper/dp/B00488FDO8
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
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    pictures don't tell the whole story:
    r8e0y9.jpg

    Yes and no. These women may have the same total amount of BF but there's no way they have the same BF percentage. The added muscle of the lady on the left will skew her percentage lower.
  • MissMollieD
    MissMollieD Posts: 130
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    There are several ways to figure it out:

    1. Military Bf Guideline Measurements - Similar to BMI, this form fits your dimensions into a BF curve.

    I'd hesitate to go with the military one. My son is having to drop lean muscle mass to join the military because their system was developed in the 1800's and they never changed it. He's actually gotten a little bit more "fatty" because he's always been pretty darn lean, always lifted, but he has to lose mostly based upon his height (they did raise it for him, I mean really, he can lift his shirt and you can tell he's not fat).

    Partially it's because the bones in our family are very dense. For example, I'm usually about a size 2 or 4 at 125 lbs and I'm only 5'1". When I get down to say 105 - which most 5'1" women can carry, I'm wearing a size 12 in girls and look like I'm gonna keel any moment.

    Anything that form fits you to an average curve is not going to work for everyone (thus, outliers). I wasn't implying that it would, just one way to determine. As you can see from the results I have posted, it may or may not be accurate for me depending on which one you think is most correct.
  • bert16
    bert16 Posts: 726 Member
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    There are several ways to figure it out:

    1. Military Bf Guideline Measurements - Similar to BMI, this form fits your dimensions into a BF curve.
    2. A scale with impedence - I recommend Tanita, after a lot of research, this was the winner
    3. Calipers - accuracy is better by a trained professional, but if you are careful to do it the exact same way every time you will know if you are improving.
    4. Hydrostatic - I just had this done and it's considered "The Gold Standard" in body fat percentage. You get in a tank of water and they compare your weight on the ground to your weight under water. Fat floats, everything else does not. The trick is expelling ALL of the air from your lungs (because air floats as well). Check out this website for services in your area: http://www.bodyfattest.com/
    5. BodPod - Quickly becoming a favorite because of the difficulties with the hydrostatic. Uses air displacement instead of water.

    Actually, the most accurate method is currently the DEXA body scan, but those aren't available everywhere and are expensive. They're more accurate than any of the above, though.
  • jenluvsushi
    jenluvsushi Posts: 933 Member
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    From what I have read, the DEXA scan is the most accurate....I am going to have mine done soon and can't wait!
  • MissMollieD
    MissMollieD Posts: 130
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    [/quote]

    Actually, the most accurate method is currently the DEXA body scan, but those aren't available everywhere and are expensive. They're more accurate than any of the above, though.
    [/quote]

    True. I don't have that in my area so I blanked it.
  • MissMollieD
    MissMollieD Posts: 130
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    pictures don't tell the whole story:
    r8e0y9.jpg

    Yes and no. These women may have the same total amount of BF but there's no way they have the same BF percentage. The added muscle of the lady on the left will skew her percentage lower.

    Do you understand how percentages work?
  • graelwyn
    graelwyn Posts: 1,340 Member
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    They seem to have a pod pod at the local university here in my city, as part of their sports and nutrition department, but whether they ever allow a member of the public to be tested, I don't know. Worth finding out, I guess. By callipers, I am around 19%(but I was measured that way right after working out so might not be accurate). By the military one, I was 16.4%.
  • BigBrewski
    BigBrewski Posts: 922 Member
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    Jump up and down and track how much you jiggle. :wink:

    LOL when I read this I instantly heard "wiggle wiggle wiggle" in my head..
  • Lee1265
    Lee1265 Posts: 15 Member
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    I don't have an accurate answer, but I do have an experience with it! I had stalled...scale not going up or down...held steady. Friend of mine had helped me do the body fat, water weight, on one of the fancy scales mentioned.. When I got back on and did the body fat .... I had dropped 8 percentages. So putting on muscle mass but still dropping fat? He tried to explain it as a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weigh the same...but they take up less room. So the body is changing, body fat dropping and muscle being put on...it balanced the scale number out. I confused myself, wouldn't be surprised if I just confused you more! LOL, I tried though!!!!
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
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    pictures don't tell the whole story:
    r8e0y9.jpg

    Yes and no. These women may have the same total amount of BF but there's no way they have the same BF percentage. The added muscle of the lady on the left will skew her percentage lower.

    Do you understand how percentages work?

    Yes, do you?
  • hali1
    hali1 Posts: 54 Member
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    BF% scales are useless, especially for women. The electric current can only measure the lower part of your body. So if you carry weight unevenly in your top and bottom halves (read: you are female), or if the amount of water in your body changes, it will be inaccurate.

    I'm just under 20% body fat. The expensive scale at the gym puts me at 25-27% body fat. Why pay for a scale that tells you you're fatter than you are?

    Part of me just thinks, crud, wish I'd known that before...

    But even if it isn't ideal, I probably still would've invested in it. I'm more interested in trends than the exact numbers at this point. Plus my husband uses it, so if it's fairly accurate for him, then it isn't a total waste.

    Also, I had guessed my BF% to be higher than my scale says it is... now I can imagine that it *might* be even lower than that. Which is not a bad feeling, lol.
  • happypath101
    happypath101 Posts: 534
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    BMI is pretty useless in my opinion, it doesn't seem to account for muscle mass.

    There are a bunch of different ways to measure body fat %, the easiest ways to do it yourself are usually done by measuring different body parts. It doesn't necessarily matter which one is the most accurate, as long as you consistently do it the same way every time.

    This one works well for me:
    http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/body-fat-calculator-usmc

    Thanks for the post and thanks for this response. I'd actually never thought to look for this online; I thought you needed a machine. I'm a short, curvy, muscular girl and the BMI puts me at just overweight which I think is kind of BS. My % on this site is 20.73% So, YAY!
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    I'm taking your question a different way. It seems to me that what you want is confirmation that your body is changing. For me personally, that's what I'm looking for. I couldn't care less what my true BF% is; I just want to look good with my shirt off.

    When I was doing the Insanity workout, my body weight only changed a few pounds. But I looked much different. Three things I did that I would recommend to you.

    1. Take photos of yourself on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly). Use the same mirror, lighting and pose(s)
    2. Use a tape measure and take and record your measurements. If you're gaining muscle while losing fat, you may weigh about the same even tho you're shrinking
    3. This is similar to #2. Put on a pair of pants and check the fit. You can even measure the slack if you want to accurately compare. Hopefully the pants will get baggier and baggier as you progress.

    I mean, you can spend a bunch of money and time getting water displacement tests if you choose, but most of what you probably want to know is in the mirror.
  • keenercam
    keenercam Posts: 321 Member
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    Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to post a response. Hopefully, the question and answers were helpful to others besides me.

    Davidpulliam - I agree that the most reassuring measure I am seeing right now is the change in the mirror and the bagginess of my pants and the way my suit jackets now fit when they are buttoned. I guess I was also looking for some other "meaure" to counteract the discouraging BMI number that inevitably results right now from the scale not moving (and the fact that I can't alter my gender or height. LOL!)

    It is good to know the options available for measuring. Thanks again!

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