Online body fat calculators

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katiefraay
katiefraay Posts: 60
in Health and Weight Loss
How accurate are they, because I got mine tested my a nutritionist a month ago and then did an online measurement based one today, and I lost 3% points of fat, is this possible?

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  • kao708
    kao708 Posts: 813 Member
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    I don't think you can accurately guage body fat online.
  • ohwhataday
    ohwhataday Posts: 1,398 Member
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    I am also a little skeptical. I suppose you could estimate though.
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    I don't think you can accurately guage body fat online.

    That stinks, I was really excited about the body fat I had lost :(
  • MermaidFaith
    MermaidFaith Posts: 495 Member
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    at curves they use a hand held meter thing to guage your body fat each month. pretty neat
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    About as accurate as an online pregnancy test
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    at curves they use a hand held meter thing to guage your body fat each month. pretty neat

    Yeah they do that at my nutritionist's as well, but I was curious as to why I was gaining weight and I decided to calculate my body fat based on measurements.
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    About as accurate as an online pregnancy test

    Haha oh well :(
  • dgoforth
    dgoforth Posts: 7 Member
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    It may not be accurate to what your exact body fat % is, but in 4 weeks, if you use the same online tool, you can see how much you've lost/gained, respectively. It's like scales, not a single one is perfectly accurate, but as long as you keep using the same scale, you can tell your loss/gain.
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    It may not be accurate to what your exact body fat % is, but in 4 weeks, if you use the same online tool, you can see how much you've lost/gained, respectively. It's like scales, not a single one is perfectly accurate, but as long as you keep using the same scale, you can tell your loss/gain.

    Ok, I might just do that, and use my nutritionist's one as a real estimate, and the online as a change-over-time one.
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    Just FYI, you can get a set of plastic body fat calipers for around $10 or less. They are reasonably accurate. There's still a margin of error, but it's about the best you can do at home.
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    Just FYI, you can get a set of plastic body fat calipers for around $10 or less. They are reasonably accurate. There's still a margin of error, but it's about the best you can do at home.

    Where?
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    Just FYI, you can get a set of plastic body fat calipers for around $10 or less. They are reasonably accurate. There's still a margin of error, but it's about the best you can do at home.

    Where?

    I got mine real cheap on ebay, it was like 3.99 or something. I've also seen them in a GNC or Vitamin Shoppe type of store, probably for $10 or so. The brand is called Accu-Measure.

    Edit: here's a buy-it-now for $3.69
    http://cgi.ebay.com/3000-Personal-Body-Fat-Caliper-Tester-Accu-Measure-/310288265861?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483e9f3285#ht_2791wt_1117
  • katiefraay
    katiefraay Posts: 60
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    Just FYI, you can get a set of plastic body fat calipers for around $10 or less. They are reasonably accurate. There's still a margin of error, but it's about the best you can do at home.

    Where?

    I got mine real cheap on ebay, it was like 3.99 or something. I've also seen them in a GNC or Vitamin Shoppe type of store, probably for $10 or so. The brand is called Accu-Measure.

    Edit: here's a buy-it-now for $3.69
    http://cgi.ebay.com/3000-Personal-Body-Fat-Caliper-Tester-Accu-Measure-/310288265861?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483e9f3285#ht_2791wt_1117

    Ok thank you so much!
  • chuckanderson
    chuckanderson Posts: 97
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    If you're a college student you can get Amazon Prime for free - free 2 day shipping on anything Amazon keeps in their warehouse. They have the Accu-measure calipers for 3.99.

    The UPS man hates me.

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