What are my scales telling me? Hoping for a SHBoss type answ

Simplicity

Basically I bought new scales 'cause the old ones were a little basic.

The new one promises weight, fat, water percentages and I'm like yes I know the body fat offset is like 5% either way but i thought it would give me a general idea.

Anyways I have been using it for about a month now and I have gone from 172 pounds down to 167 the body fat has gone from 22% to 20.7% and the water percentage has gone from 59ish% to 61%.

is my water percentage just going to continue to grow and my body fat decrease? what do they mean? is high water percentage good, my friend's is 50% in comparison lol. Also how much can i rely on these (electronic sends a pulse throught your body) scales to head for my goal? anywhere between 12-15% Body Fat.

Thanks
Ben


PS.
http://www.tescodiets.co.uk/diet-tools/percentage-body-fat-calculator/450000/

this website will tell you your goal weight ish if you know your Body Fat % it's fun to mess round with. Tells me I need to lose 8-10pounds of body fat to reach 15%

Simplicity

Just to add also.
Can anyone recommend Body fat calipers for self testing or I have a friend who could help. I keep reading about accumeasure being good but can't decide between digital or read-it-yourself ones. I don't mind spending a little if its worth it.

Thanks

SHBoss1673

Hi Ben,

first, doing body fat with calipers is difficult, and takes trainers years to perfect, it's not something I would recommend you trying for a while, as you'll most likely have very inaccurate results. Even experts have a few percentage points margin for error, rookies at it can be up to 30% off if they take the measurement at the wrong place, pinch the wrong size...etc. If you really want to know your body fat with a high degree of accuracy, get a bod pod test, or a hydrostatic test. You can google for locations near you, they usually cost between 30 and 50 bucks US.

If you really want to try it though, or if you are practicing for a career, then you can get calipers online. There are varying quality levels of caliper out there, if you go to medical equipment sales websites, they usually go in order of price = quality.

As to your water, that makes senses, muscles require water (kind of), and the more you build muscle, the more water your body will retain. That's the simple answer but it works for your question. The fact that you're losing weight and losing fat with working out means you're probably building muscle mass or density, either one will increase water retention.

Be wary of those scales though, they are often very inaccurate. if you do use one for these number, remember this, the larger the sample size, the more accurate the results. I.E. if you take 1 measurement, it could be far from accurate, but if you take 10, drop the high and low measurement from the set, and average the rest together, then you're probably going to get very close to accurate. but don't do 10 measurements all in a row, do them over, say, a 48 hour period.

regards,

-Banks

Simplicity

Thanks Banks. I was guessing that kinda answer but cheers for the backup i will have a look online for a bod pod test. probably they have them in uk somewhere i will look. I live in the second largest city so they should have lol.
Thanks again
Ben

SHBoss1673

Thanks Banks. I was guessing that kinda answer but cheers for the backup i will have a look online for a bod pod test. probably they have them in uk somewhere i will look. I live in the second largest city so they should have lol.
Thanks again
Ben

If there's no bod pods, look for hydrostatic testing. It's about the same accuracy, they basically dunk you in a tank of water. It's pretty cool actually.