BMI Scales

there are free scales online, I just type in BMI caculator and several come up!

Scales that tell you BMI or body fat are generlly off by alot. Go by Body Fat vs BMI. It needs to be tested by a professional.

Surely BMI scales (at least the ones I've used) are accurate, because you input your height yourself, and then it weighs you and simply does the BMI calculation for you. Or rather, they're as accurate as the scale weighing you - if it's weighing you up/down a lb or two then it's not going to be entirely accurate, but just as accurate as if you'd taken that number and calculated the BMI using the formula.

I have scales that do my body fat, but I'm more into reading the incremental change than the actual figure (otherwise I'd be hanging myself because it's telling me I'm fatter than when I started exercising last year and did a body fat test on the gym's handheld fat monitor!) When I get close to goal I think I'll have one of those flotation-type tests done

Can you tell us its make, or any other details?

Mine isnt the same model, but it works the same way, and measures the same things.

As I said, I can see my bmi coming down - 26.6 this morning which considering it was over 30 last year is fantastic!

And I always note my water % - try to keep it in the high 40s.

I have just started monitoring my body fat % - it's in the low 30s which I know is too high, so I'm going to focus on bringing that down to 20 something. Even if it's not a very accurate number, I figure using the same scale each time I should at least be able to track progress.

BMI, how I hate those 3 letters and they are probably one of the worst means of accurately measuring ones health. Its worst than one of those scales that I call the greasy car salesman of the weight loss world. BMI takes nothing into account for muscle mass or bodyfat, so its a piss poor model to use.

Agreed - it's not perfect, and I wouldn't use it in isolation, but it's one of a set of measurements that I keep track of.

You'll be under 30 soon, Debbie!

I sure can! It's an Omron HBF-400 and it's reasonably priced on amazon.com with decent reviews.

It claims to do this:

What is the Bioelectrical Impedance Method?
Bioelectrical Impedance (BI) is considered one of the most accurate and accessible methods of screening body fat. Muscles, blood vessels and bones are body tissues having a high water content that conduct electricity easily. Body fat is tissue that has little electric conductivity. The monitor sends an extremely weak electrical current through your body to determine the amount of fat tissue. The weak electrical current is not felt while operating the Body Fat Analyzer. The monitor is calculated by a formula that includes five factors; electric resistance, height, weight, age and gender.

Debbie

This isn't BMI it's an estimate of Body Fat %. First things first, in order for measurements to be accurate to compare to each other, you have to weigh at the same time of day in similar clothing (or preferably naked since you are doing it at home) and during the same time of the month (not during your period!), and with similar water levels. If any of those things are off, then you will get a reading that isn't accurate in comparison to the previous reading. Second, if you are doing all those things to make it an accurate reading to compare with a previous reading and you are seeing big drops on the scale and not in the body fat %, then you are losing muscle and not as much fat. My suggestion would be to increase your resistance training to prevent some of the muscle loss.