Training & Nutrition - tanita body fat scale = depressed 36yr old

Ok - just how accurate is the Tanita? I'm in good health, have never been overweight and have exercised all my life. I would be considered muscular, 5'10" 178 and am in my 3rd year of riding. My waist is about a 33 and I'm 36. The Tanita scale today (I just did this for the first time) said my body fat was 17% !! I've got some rope and sharp instruments at the ready - HELP !

They're not accurate.

Not very accurate. But your bf may be realistic, if maybe a little over the actual percentage. Depends on just how muscular you are. (ripped?)

I'm 6'1, 150, 30" waist, and it shows me 9-10%.

Mine says I am at 30%...Ha
I lift large amounts of iron when not cycling.
Here is a better way to guage your 'shape'
http://pages.zdnet.com/bodybuilder/id20.html

Enjoy

Ok - just how accurate is the Tanita? I'm in good health, have never been overweight and have exercised all my life. I would be considered muscular, 5'10" 178 and am in my 3rd year of riding. My waist is about a 33 and I'm 36. The Tanita scale today (I just did this for the first time) said my body fat was 17% !! I've got some rope and sharp instruments at the ready - HELP !
they are not accurate.

NEWSFLASH: you could very well be 17% or more. did you think you were much lower?? people tend to lie or incorporate wishful thinking in their percent body fat that they report to others. so whatever you have heard from friends, family, and acquaintances is most likely not accurate. i see it all the time!!

so what were you hoping for? 17% is nothing to be ashamed of.


also, you might want to do a search, a bunch of us just wrote about tanitas, bioimpedence, etc like a couple days ago

I have one and it says (usually) around 21 or 22% about 3 weeks ago. At this time I also got my body composition measured at a lab using calipers and underwater weighing. The calipers resulted in 17.5 and underwater weighing resulted in 16.5. Now I've lost some fat in the past three weeks and it is reading 20% or 19%.

It really isn't that accurite. I'm thinking of just getting some calipers as they seem to be more acurite.

i'll be 36, 32" waist, 148 lbs. my tanita says 9% body fat. don't worry, 17% doesn't mean you're fat.

Thanks, all. I wanted to be lower - i think I was around 10-11% in college and I feel like I'm in better shape now than 15 yrs ago. Maybe being poor in college helped me eat like....nothing ! Anyway, sounds like the Tanita is off and either way I'm riding !! :D

Thanks, all. I wanted to be lower - i think I was around 10-11% in college and I feel like I'm in better shape now than 15 yrs ago. Maybe being poor in college helped me eat like....nothing ! Anyway, sounds like the Tanita is off and either way I'm riding !! :D
yes but you very well could have been higher in college too. these numbers get magically depressed anologous to people's true height. unless you were really trying in college, i would be skeptical of those numbers anyway.

:)