Scale issue

annabanana2587

I want to lose a little bit more weight and get toned, but I have been at the same weight for a while now in a healthy range, so I am thinking about focusing more on my body fat percentage. The problem is, I am not sure what my starting percentage is. I got measured by a trainer before I lost a lot of weight and he said I was at 25% (which he said was awful for someone my size - no muscle tone). I've lost about 30lbs since then and I have been using a scale at home which measures body fat percentage, water level, and weight. It almost always reads about the same weight, but different times a day it will read as low as 13% and as high as 21%. The water level is pretty stable, but it shows that I am almost always bloated or in the high range of normal. Is there a certain time of day to measure? Pre or post-workout? Or is my scale just broken? I just can't imagine that I'm at 21% after all this time!

Previously I figured if my water was especially high, I could reduce a pound or two and that was my accurate weight, but now that I'm not looking at that as closely, I am not really sure how to use my scale. I know a lot of people weigh themselves in the morning when they are dehydrated and haven't eaten, but I eat late at night and I wake up a lot, have a snack or a drink, and go back to bed.

Any guidance is appreciated!

cdprouty

Anna,

Others can chime in to support or refute but I've heard that the scales that measure body fat % are largely inaccurate. I suggest finding another method for measuring your body fat. Calipers work...so do waist, hips, neck measurements put into a calculator like this one:

http://www.livestrong.com/tools/body-fat-calculator/

I weight myself once a week, in the morning, after a long run with no hydration. I heard that this technique normalizes and stabilizes the number. Today was a weigh in for me, I got up, ran 4.5 miles, sweat a bunch, got home, weighed in and then hydrated.

I'm interested in what others have to say as well...

Chris

McLifterPants

1) Your scale sounds broken, I have a scale with body fat percentage and as long as I weigh at the same time every day, it doesn't fluctuate more than .5% from day to day. Also, at 13% you'd look like a skeleton, so that's highly unlikely.
2) Your trainer is an *kitten*, 25% for a female is the low end of the "acceptable" range for a female. Check out this chart for the ranges: http://www.healthchecksystems.com/bodyfat.htm

susi819

Anna, if you look at your scale's manual you may find some information on when is the best time to take your body fat and water percentages. I have an EatSmart Precision scale that measures all 3 and in the manual they recommend measuring the body fat and water in the evening before dinner, so the body is well hydrated. To get the weight, weigh in once a week, same day, same time for the most accurate results. I would also recommend a caliper to measure your body fat. You can find one around $5 at amazon.