Scales

I have a "good" scale. Which I only say is good because it keeps all my readings, tells me bone and fat percentages... BUT I cannot promise as to the fat percentage accuracy for this reason.

I started at 200lbs and about 40% fat.
I am currently 182lbs and 38% fat.

I know I wasn't getting quite enough protein, but those numbers don't exactly seem accurate. I was asking about the accuracy the other night, and I was given quite a few articles that inform me that scales/handhelds that tell you your body fat percentage with electrical signals can be very inaccurate. This is because the electrical signal will take the shortest path possible, thereby missing entire amounts of fat or even the upper half of your body. They may be off by I think 5-7% when comparing somebody who has been losing weight to their original numbers because of these reasons.

My scales are Salter brand, model 9102. Like all that use electrical impedance to 'measure' body composition, they are not really accurate, but are consistently inaccurate within a reasonable range, which means that while I don't trust the actual values they tell me, I can trust that the downward trend they show on body fat% approximates the truth.

I've read that impedance measures can give a reasonable estimate of body fat % in the 'middle' range (whatever that is) but are poor at estimating in the high and low ranges. Whether they are consistently inaccurate in those ranges, and can still be used to see an upward or downward trend over time, I don't know, because I'm not in either of those ranges :-)

I've measured my body composition nearly every day over the last 6 weeks and have watched my bf% measure drop from about 25% to about 19.5%. I doubt those numbers are accurate but the downward trend has been apparent and matches the observations I have made about my waistline shrinking and I like watching the numbers change (I am a data analyst and so maybe that's why find it interesting).

Actually, one thing Susieq mentioned has reminded me of something. I agree, other measures are so much more useful than Weight, and for this reason I really like the body fat estimate because it helps me keep my focus away from Weight. Losing weight is what we keep being told. You hear it all the time. Weight weight weight. Body fat is what we want to lose and an awful lot of us need to put on muscle weight. I wish everybody would say 'I want to lose some flab' or 'i want to lose some fat' or something. rant rant rant :-)

It's all good fun. What really matters is whether you LGN haha :-)

...and the best thing of all, they're both completely 100%accurate!

I started at 200lbs and about 40% fat.
I am currently 182lbs and 38% fat.
... those numbers don't exactly seem accurate

Hi Snookumss, I've looked at those numbers and yes, although they are measured using an inaccurate method, they do show some reasonable numbers that tell a story of good progress.

you said you started at 200lbs, 40% fat which is 80lbs
and are now at 182lbs, 38% fat, which is now 69lbs

you have lost 18lbs of weight and lost about 11lbs of fat

the other 7 lbs will probably be water that is no longer retained (and some variance in the fat measures).
of if you're training you may have put on some muscle mass and lost even more fluid too.

Congratulations. those numbers show some nice progress, even if they aren't completely accurate.

Yep, it sure sounds like it doesn't it. Do they do measurements at your gym?

Good plan. Let us know what you get and how it goes. I've read the calipers take a bit of training and experience to use properly/accurately but I'm thinking of getting some too.