2 Body Fat Calculations: 30% vs 20%

persilcolours
persilcolours Posts: 92 Member
edited December 17 in Fitness and Exercise
How do most of you measure your body fat? About a week ago, I was measured on one of those scales/body fat measuring machines, and it said I was 29.3% body fat.

I met with a trainer yesterday and told them I was basically 30 percent body fat, and she said, "I can tell by looking at you that that is inaccurate and it's less."

She measured my body fat using those pinchers -- measured me from various parts of body - arms, back, upper leg, stomach, waist, area where arm meets chest -- and then entered those into an equation. She measured each area three times to make sure she had the right numbers. According to her method, I'm 19.8% body fat.

So....any one else experience a big difference between these methods? Which do you use?

Which do you think is more accurate?

Replies

  • persilcolours
    persilcolours Posts: 92 Member
    Bump
  • Smuterella
    Smuterella Posts: 1,623 Member
    The calipers is a better measure but really, as long as you keep using the same method each time you will able to track loss, i think.
  • lmelangley
    lmelangley Posts: 1,039 Member
    I'd probably go by the trainer, but I really don't know. I'd be interested to hear, though...
  • knowkeys
    knowkeys Posts: 28 Member
    The Body Fat Monitor varies from type to type. The ones on the feet are different to the ones that you hold in your hands.
    They are dependent on the amount of water / fat etc in your body, body type and how dry your skin is. Use them for comparision purposes only to track loss.

    It should be about becoming healthy.

    Hope this helps
  • aggiesrar05
    aggiesrar05 Posts: 335 Member
    The BF% that is measured on the scale is measured by electrical impedance and had a huge margin of error (+ or - at least 5%). It depends on how hydrated you are at the time. Calipers are much more accurate if you get someone who is experienced to use them.

    That being said, while the BF% on my scale may be inaccurate, it is highly consistent for me. If I am a certain %total body water it is consistent on the BF%. That way I use it to measure progress. ie I know that in the morning my TBW is about 40% so my BF% would standardly be X, since I started CrossFit, I have the same TBW in the morning but my BF% has gone down. PROGRESS!!
  • msmithj
    msmithj Posts: 1
    Same thing happened to me this week at the gym. The calipers is more accurate. My trainer took an average of the 2, but they are trying to figure out how to use the new scale at the gym, so time will tell.
  • bossmodehan
    bossmodehan Posts: 210 Member
    the last time i measured my bodyfat % on a fancy scale that can tell you all those kind of stats, about 6 weeks ago, said i was at 23%. Yesterday, i used the military bodyfat calculator on fit2fat, which is just taing a couple of measurement, and i came out at 17.1%. i dont think i can have lost that much in so little time, especially when the scale isn't reading all that differently. obviously one method is far more reliable than the other, but i can't decide which! I think, as another poster said, using the same method is key here.
  • david_swinstead
    david_swinstead Posts: 271 Member
    People say that the accurracy of calipers is massively affected by the person using it.

    But I go with what someone else said: Ignore the numbers and just focus on trends, using whichever method you like (but stick to the same one).
  • bazfitness
    bazfitness Posts: 275 Member
    tbh while 30% might be a bit high. If you really have 19lbs to lose I can't imagine you being only 19.8% body fat, 19.8% body fat is quite a healthy body fat level for a woman.
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