How accurate are the scales that give you body fat percentag

jakecan4sure
jakecan4sure Posts: 36
edited October 2 in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone out there know if these things are accurate. I have one that tells me my weight, water percentage, and body fat percentage. I just need to enter my age, height, and whether I'm male or female.

Replies

  • 8rules
    8rules Posts: 169
    Not very, they are greatly affected by your hydration level as they depend on the fact that muscles hold more water than fat, so conduct current at a different rate.

    They will give you a ball park.

    Better to get a skilled users of calipers, and once you get below 8% you usually need a dunk tank to be accurate.
  • summerkissed
    summerkissed Posts: 730 Member
    They are not at all accurate!!! Mine say im 20.1% Body Fat.....but im only 12% Body Fat by a 9 spot pinch test (very accurate) and I have a good quality set! Problem is they send a electrical impulse through your body, I can check my levels then go eat and they go up by a percent or 2, or go to the toilet and they change heaps again!
  • chic_mama_25
    chic_mama_25 Posts: 90
    They are terribly inaccurate. Mine said 18% one day and 26% the next! Ballpark is the best you'll get, I dunno, my bf always gets 5-7% reading when he uses them.
  • jakecan4sure
    jakecan4sure Posts: 36
    Thanks for the info, all. I guess I'll track someone down that knows how to use them. I just hate to get charged for something that will take 10 minutes to do...lol
  • olyrose
    olyrose Posts: 569 Member
    Mine seems to be consistent, but has gone up as I've lost weight, which leads me to think it's soooo wrong.
  • outdoorrecrocks
    outdoorrecrocks Posts: 12 Member
    While the scales aren't accurate, what they do effectively is measure a change in body fat. So you can determine whether you're going up or down. You do need to measure regularly to determine your base. Usually the instruction manual will describe how to do that and point out that large variations usually have to do with hydration levels.
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