How did this happen?

jamfe2011
jamfe2011 Posts: 3 Member
edited November 19 in Health and Weight Loss
Body fat % dropped 4% overnight according to my Smartrack scale back last October. I know these scales aren't 100% accurate but ....

Replies

  • jamfe2011
    jamfe2011 Posts: 3 Member
    but it never rebounded
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    It's water in your muscles. My scale bounces around a lot and if I'm somewhat dehydrated my bodyfat goes down.
  • jamfe2011
    jamfe2011 Posts: 3 Member
    verified the lower bf% with calipers...ordered the calipers after the drop...
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jamfe2011 wrote: »
    but it never rebounded

    An inaccurate number moved to another inaccurate number and didn't move back to the first number. It doesn't matter. Have you been waiting 8 months for a rebound?

    this !!
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    I am deeply sceptical about anything that claims to measure body fat by any means other than hydrostatic displacement, and even that is hilariously prone to error.

    Imo, estimating it by eye from one of those handy photo charts is as likely to be as accurate as any method and more accurate than most. Sure, it only gives you a range of 10 or 15%, but I feel any more precision than that is spurious.

    Unless you're going to pay for a full body MRI and an analysis based on it, of course. If not, just eyeball it and be content.

    (Source: I work in a field where we take hydrostatic measurements of mass, volume and density. You have no idea how small an error you need to turn those sorts of calculations into toilet paper. It is beyond your bathroom scales.)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories