body composition testing

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JagerLewis
JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Good morning/afternoon mfp! My local pharmacy (Walgreens) does some health screening, one of them being body composition testing. I'm considering trying it out, but don't want to spend $15 to have it tell me the same thing my scale tells me (inacurrate BF and muscle%). The pharmacist tells me it's kind of like a scale I stand on while holding on to a bar. Has anyone had this done? Is it more accurate than home scales? My home scale says I'm 30%BF and 31% muscle which I know is off. I know it's only $15, but if it says the same thing my scale tells me, I'd much rather spend my $15 on a new pair of shorts!

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  • JagerLewis
    JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
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    Bumping!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I've got BIA scales that use hand and foot sensors so sounds similar to your pharmacy.
    Apparently I've been 13% and 21% BF all in the same week..... Hmmmm.

    If you use them same time of day, same conditions, same hydration levels then you can get a rough idea of a trend if you average out the bumps and dips.
    But as a one time body composition test - waste of time and $15 in my opinion.

    As you have lost 54lbs I imagine new shorts would be a way more sensible way of spending your money!
  • JonnyQwest
    JonnyQwest Posts: 174 Member
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    Google "pictures of body fat percentages for women" or something like that and it will show you what women look like at various levels of body fat.....compare to yourself and that will be as accurate as most of the tests you have to pay for and waste money on....will certainly get you within a few percentage points and until you get extremely lean that's as good as you really need to get.
  • civilizedworm
    civilizedworm Posts: 796 Member
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    I have a cheap-o Aldi scale that I use. It gives body composition. I don't know how accurate it is, but I use its numbers as kind of a diagnostic that I take with a grain of salt. The bf part never seems to move.

    If I recall correctly from college, the only way to get an absolute accurate bf number is go under the scalpel and have it removed - but you'd be dead.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    I would just go get a more accurate BF% test done like the bod pod. Also my friends home scale was only a +1% off of body fat which is pretty close for a 50$ test.
  • Armagan123
    Armagan123 Posts: 72 Member
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    I wouldn't spend my money for an unknown accuracy.I have on omron scale at home but I prefer those online body fat calculators, like the army, navy, etc. Also if you just search for 'body fat calculator' and click on the wikipedia result, there is a bmi based calculator which has been updated. That one and the navy one and my home scale gave pretty close percentages.
  • JagerLewis
    JagerLewis Posts: 427 Member
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    Thank you! I currently use online calculators with my measurements, which shows a lot better results than what my scale tells me. :), I was just wondering if the test at the pharmacy would be any good.

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