Body Fat Question

I think the only REAL way from what i heard before is a caliper. Just joined LA Fitness though and they just made me hold this electronic device in my hands.

those scales are so inaccurate, do not go by them. Buy some body fat calipers or have someone at the gym measure you with calipers.

It's not 100% accurate, but you can estimate with measurements and an online calculator. http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html is one that a lot of people seem to like.

I bought a scale that does it electronically. It works GREAT!
And it correlates well with other body measurement systems you can use.

I have just started a 12 week program that focuses less on weight loss and more on maintaining muscle and losing body fat.

I want to go from a size 36 down to 32 pants.
And I am looking to achieve a bodyfat reduction from 20% to 14%.
And yes, my weight will drop 12 lbs to 190

I see value in measuring both weight AND bodyfat, but be smart!
In addition to these standards, continue to just measure your hips, thighs and waist every week as well.

Nothing beats just a definitive measurement. GOOD LUCK!

I think the only REAL way from what i heard before is a caliper. Just joined LA Fitness though and they just made me hold this electronic device in my hands.

caliper can still have a pretty big error
Bod pod is the way to go :]

Bodpod is probably the best method.

Try going to droz. Probably has a formula

I found a BodPod in my area and did that this past summer! It only cost me $35 and it was so worth it! I figure doing it about twice a year to keep me in check. I also have a Tanita body fat scale that I have had for about 12 years! Still works great.

Omron HBF-500 that does body fat also has hand holds, so it does 3 quick checks, leg to leg, arm to arm, arms to legs.
Supposed to be more accurate that way.

If you at least have consistency between measurements, it means while not dead on, you will see direction of movement.
This scale several years ago was rated highest for that. None had great accuracy. Besides which, your choice of measurement times throws in more error than the scale.

Combine that with a Bodypod measure at some point, and now you know how far off the scale is.

Problem with the scale method, you probably couldn't do it everyday, unless you just want to see all the fluctuations that come from different hydration levels.
So do a big spin class one night and either be dehydrated or overhydrated compared to normal, and there's one value. Another day you ate something the night before that helped retain water, or shed water weight, another value.

Best to pick one morning a week, after a rest day, with normal night food/water. But once a week is fine.

It's not 100% accurate, but you can estimate with measurements and an online calculator. http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html is one that a lot of people seem to like.

whoa..went here..its pretty accurate..went to the dr and she did a bodyfat test with an impedence thingy..and she came up with 27.2% bf...so its pretty accurate..

I just recently had to do a college report on body composition and the basic conclusion is nothing except cadaver dissection can be accurate. Those online calculators are based on BMI and cannot workout how much of you is fat, water, bone, muscle etc. as these differs sig. from person to person, Calipers require rigorous training and there is so many equations that you can choose from and theres no say that where you measured represents your total body.

BIA scales probably do the better job in terms of something that most people can purchase for your home. But again its not accurate as its an indirect method.

the only way to get really accurate body composition measurements is through the scientific measurements, water displacement, bod-pod, and dexa scan, all of which are very costly and generally not accessable to the general public, they are used more for research.

Actually BodPod and Hydrostatic testing (water displacement, dunk tank) aren't that expensive and are fairly accessible. I know in my area there are about 10 places that do BodPod testing and a handful that do Hydrostatic testing. But the DEXA scan costs hundreds and it's hard to find a place that will just scan you without some sort of medical referral. OTOH, if you can get a medical referral, sometimes insurance will pay for it!

IME, I haven't found the BodPod to be that accurate. While it's average accuracy is around 3% according to some research, I read an article where a group did testing on regular intervals using a variety of methods and they found that on an individual basis, there was as much as an 15% error. They also found that it wasn't good for measuring trends -- an individual would get a higher than reality reading one time and a lower than reality reading a month later so their readings were all over the place.

I wish I had read this article before I wasted $40 on a BodPod test that gave me results that were completely ridiculous and totally unbelievable! (It claimed I've lost 10 pound of lean tissue since my last hydrostatic test when I've been doing crazy strength training and you can visible see I have more muscles.)

This same group found hydrostatic testing to be better. There was still a large margin of error on an individual basis (11%?) but results tended to be consistent over time so even if the number you get isn't really your number, if it goes down, you can be reasonably confident that your body fat really has gone down.

My scale is supposed to be super accurate when it comes to body fat (it sure was expensive enough). But all these systems use a formula and are just an estimate. For example, I told my scale I was 20 years younger than I am (if I do that on MFP, it gives me the right BMR -I've had my BMR tested so I know what it is) and it told me had 3% less body fat. Then I told it that I was my age, but a guy, and it told me that I had 10% less body fat!

Obviously, my body fat is what it is and didn't drop 10% in 5 minutes, but that shows that these scales do a lot of guessing. The "guy" number was too low but the individual segmentation numbers actually made sense. I have skinny arms and legs and most of my excess fat is in my middle. When I tell my scale I'm a woman, it tells me that all the muscles I've gained in my arms and legs are a gain in fat and that my torso is less fat than my arms and legs. My eyeballs tell me that's crazy talk! :laugh:

I'm going to get another hydrostatic test done in January or February. I found the first one I did to give believable numbers - higher than I liked, but in the ballpark of what my mirror was telling me.

Btw, I am a jogger and these online "enter your measurements" aren't very fair...
Why you ask?

Because I have a big butt.

I've never found the online formulas to be that accurate. In my case, my scale used to under-estimate (as was mentioned in the paper posted above) but now it over-estimates. But most of the BIA scales I have used have over-estimated and often by a lot. This is especially true of the hand-held ones.

My scale is like the one mentioned above the shots the electricity through your feet AND hands. But when I first got it, it claimed my body fat percentage was around 9-12% (yes, that was the normal range in a typical week) and that was pretty silly. Women have only essential body fat at around those numbers and I clearly had (and have) more than essential body fat. For one thing, I have boobs! :laugh: But also I have a butt and there is definitely excess fat in my upper thighs and torso. (Though, at the time, my torso was pretty thin.)

During that same time period calipers said I had 17% body fat which was more likely though calipers tend to over-estimate body fat in people who have lost a lot of weight because of the loose skin in the tummy area. So maybe it was slightly less. But 9-12%? No way!

Later I had hydrostatic testing done and got a reading of 18%. I had gained a bit of fat back in my torso area (thank goodness) so I found that pretty believable.

My experience is that some method work well for some people but no method works for everyone and they are all estimates.

I've come to just use my mirror. I can tell if I have too much padding in areas I don't want it by looking and how I look and feel is what matters. Not what some scale says.

The nice thing with the online formulas that use several measurements, is that it would be consistent.

More importantly, if you record those numbers, not just the end result calculated, you can happily see several of those measurements going down in time, no matter what the scale might be saying. For cases of muscle gain while fat loss.

And if the fat % calculates to 18% and it is really 16% if measured, but those jeans from high school fit again anyway, does it matter?