Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Guest
02-02-03, 12:51 PM
Measuring % bodyfat by any technical method is better than not bothering at all! So it's good to recognize that the old bathroom scale method will not necessarily give you all the information you need when you're working on trimming down.
Having said that, from what I remember about those scales is that when you stand on the scale, there is a small current sent from the scale through the body. The amount of time it takes for the current to run through your body is then calculated and converted to what the scale thinks your percent bodyfat should be.
The scale can be inaccurate- for instance, if you retain a lot of water, the current will take longer to travel through your body, and the result will be a higher reading than what your bodyfat could actually be.
The same is said if you have excessive muscle. The more muscle you have, the longer it will take for that current to run through you, also resulting in an inaccurate number- higher than your true bodyfat weight.
There's your caveat. If you do plan on using the scale just to monitor your changes in bodyfat, if you are also working to increase your muscle, you may end up inadvertantly increasing the % readout, and you'll be wondering how you got fatter when you were doing everything right. I've seen people banging their heads against a wall because they are lifting and increasing their lean bodyweight but at the same time getting higher readings- and getting frustrated.
Who's the scale good for, in my opinion? People with very little lean weight (muscle) and don't retain water. Models maybe? ;)
Calipers seem to be a bit more accurate. If you can go for that, do- but it will also be off if you're retaining water. The good news about this method is that it won't take extra muscle into account and give you higher fat readings like the scale has a tendancy to. The bad news about the calipers is that sometimes if you have bodyfat in irregular places, it doesn't tell the true story. I took my skinfold calipers out to the suburbs yesterday to give my brother and his wife their fat readings and put together a fitness program. My brother is very muscular, but he carries A LOT of abdominal fat. His fat percent was 14.5%, which puts him in the lean category, but damn! He takes off his shirt and his belly pops out like a jack-in-the-box. And abdominal fat is the worst kind of fat- it's a strong indicator of heart disease later in life, so it's important for him to take that fat off now while he's young. If he went by the results of the calipers all by itself without taking his low fitness level into account, he'd be classified as fit and healthy. But my brother knew better, luckily, and I was able to put together a nice program for him and his wife.
The best way to probably keep track of your bodyfat is by using calipers and a tape measure. The tape measure doesn't lie. It will show when you've lost inches (or mm if that's your unit of measurement). With the tape measure, you're able to measure the circumference of body areas and see how they've reduced in size over time. As muscle tones the body, and your bodyfat decreases, you'll see the difference in inches. Then you can use the calipers to get a ballpark figure of what your bodyfat is.
The most accurate method is hydrostatic weighing- underwater weighing test. That, along with a bone density test is probably your best indicator of what percent bodyfat you truly are. I was shocked to see when I had all the tests done on me (underwater, tape measure, bone density, skinfold calipers) in one session that the % bodyfat between each result varied A LOT.... and my underwater weight was the true bodyfat % (which was heavier than the other methods).
If you're interested in being more accurate, I am a big advocate of being the local university's lab rat. If they are doing bone density tests, underwater weighing tests, etc, they'll do these ridiculously expensive tests on you for free if you meet the requirements of their study. The bigger the university, the more likely they'll be looking for lab rats. Some of these places will even PAY you money to be in their tests! The fools! So call the universities in your area and find out if they have a phys. ed, human physiology, kinesiology, or sports science department. Then call those departments and see if they're looking for test subjects for fitness tests. If they aren't doing the tests, maybe they know of some other college or university that's running the tests.
Long post, but I'm long winded....
Koffee
Having said that, from what I remember about those scales is that when you stand on the scale, there is a small current sent from the scale through the body. The amount of time it takes for the current to run through your body is then calculated and converted to what the scale thinks your percent bodyfat should be.
The scale can be inaccurate- for instance, if you retain a lot of water, the current will take longer to travel through your body, and the result will be a higher reading than what your bodyfat could actually be.
The same is said if you have excessive muscle. The more muscle you have, the longer it will take for that current to run through you, also resulting in an inaccurate number- higher than your true bodyfat weight.
There's your caveat. If you do plan on using the scale just to monitor your changes in bodyfat, if you are also working to increase your muscle, you may end up inadvertantly increasing the % readout, and you'll be wondering how you got fatter when you were doing everything right. I've seen people banging their heads against a wall because they are lifting and increasing their lean bodyweight but at the same time getting higher readings- and getting frustrated.
Who's the scale good for, in my opinion? People with very little lean weight (muscle) and don't retain water. Models maybe? ;)
Calipers seem to be a bit more accurate. If you can go for that, do- but it will also be off if you're retaining water. The good news about this method is that it won't take extra muscle into account and give you higher fat readings like the scale has a tendancy to. The bad news about the calipers is that sometimes if you have bodyfat in irregular places, it doesn't tell the true story. I took my skinfold calipers out to the suburbs yesterday to give my brother and his wife their fat readings and put together a fitness program. My brother is very muscular, but he carries A LOT of abdominal fat. His fat percent was 14.5%, which puts him in the lean category, but damn! He takes off his shirt and his belly pops out like a jack-in-the-box. And abdominal fat is the worst kind of fat- it's a strong indicator of heart disease later in life, so it's important for him to take that fat off now while he's young. If he went by the results of the calipers all by itself without taking his low fitness level into account, he'd be classified as fit and healthy. But my brother knew better, luckily, and I was able to put together a nice program for him and his wife.
The best way to probably keep track of your bodyfat is by using calipers and a tape measure. The tape measure doesn't lie. It will show when you've lost inches (or mm if that's your unit of measurement). With the tape measure, you're able to measure the circumference of body areas and see how they've reduced in size over time. As muscle tones the body, and your bodyfat decreases, you'll see the difference in inches. Then you can use the calipers to get a ballpark figure of what your bodyfat is.
The most accurate method is hydrostatic weighing- underwater weighing test. That, along with a bone density test is probably your best indicator of what percent bodyfat you truly are. I was shocked to see when I had all the tests done on me (underwater, tape measure, bone density, skinfold calipers) in one session that the % bodyfat between each result varied A LOT.... and my underwater weight was the true bodyfat % (which was heavier than the other methods).
If you're interested in being more accurate, I am a big advocate of being the local university's lab rat. If they are doing bone density tests, underwater weighing tests, etc, they'll do these ridiculously expensive tests on you for free if you meet the requirements of their study. The bigger the university, the more likely they'll be looking for lab rats. Some of these places will even PAY you money to be in their tests! The fools! So call the universities in your area and find out if they have a phys. ed, human physiology, kinesiology, or sports science department. Then call those departments and see if they're looking for test subjects for fitness tests. If they aren't doing the tests, maybe they know of some other college or university that's running the tests.
Long post, but I'm long winded....
Koffee