Karma007

Does anyone here track theirs? Do you have an @ home scale? Do you think it's fairly accurate? Did you break down and cry the first time you saw your body fat percentage?]

Okay, So technically I'm not an Athena, but I'm close enough to post here. fairly fit, but need to lose a few. I just bought a body fat scale. I'm not amused.

BigHuf

I go by waistline and photos and normal scale LAST. body fat scales are evil, they assume a standardized height to muscle mass ratio, and if you are a certain height you are supposed to be a certain weight, period, if you are truly fit, muscular or toned, they are off. you should before taking it too seriously see someone about getting a more accurate accounting of your current weights BFI, and then consider the difference an offset. you will know you fall in that category when you work out all day and the percentage either doesn't move or usually goes up. you can end up in a muscle mag but you'll still be numerically obese, stop fixating on the numbers and fix the bits your not happy with.

Karma007

Thank you. It's kind of what I was thinking. After owning it an entire 24 hours, I'm thinking I don't need another thing to worry about.

merlin55

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No

Buy some cheap body fat calipers for $10, and learn how to use them correctly...it will be much more accurate than the scale

BigHuf

well hell take the thing back and resist the temptation to damage your progress with it.

Mr Sinister

With those things along with a BMI they both assume everyone should be a certain weight for a certain height. Just think of how many bodybuilders, and fitness models are fat by those standards. Not calling them fat, trying to make a point, as they have almost no body fat.

Anything that has a set weight to height ratio is no good for really measuring body fat. Its stupid, don't worry about those damn things, too much.

CliftonGK1

Impedence fat meters use height/weight averages to calculate your BMI, but the actual fat reading is done on electrical impedence. The problem with this, like with BMI, is also inaccuracy. Impedence will differ based on hydration levels, and you can swing +/- 4% in a day. Most meters only claim 3% accuracy, which might sound good on a marketing paper. From a statistical standpoint it's crap (for a single point reading.) That 19% might be 16%. It could be 22%, for that matter!

That said, I use an Omron handheld on a weekly basis for tracking purposes. I try to take 2x weekly readings at the same time of day just to get an overall trending look at things. Toss the outlier data. So far I've seen nearly a 4% decrease in bodyfat percentage since the beginning of the year.

Saltybeagle

I weigh every day, take full reading one day a week before dinner. Document on calender only for trend, I find the information useful, not worried about accuracy. I have a tanita.

CraigB

My home scale has an impedance body fat meter, and it's hugely inaccurate. I can get wildly different readings just stepping on, stepping off, and stepping back on again. Consequently what I thought initially to be an interesting measure of my improvement is now simply ignored. It's really nothing more to me than a nuisance I have to wait on before the display cycles back to my weight.

billyymc

Maybe your scale thinks you're shorter than you are. Try standing on your tiptoes.

michaelnel

I agree with Craig, my Tanita impedance type scale is crazy. It varies even with how much moisture is on my feet... if they are bone dry I get one reading, if I have just stepped out of the shower (but have dried my feet), it will be wildly different. Agree to about it just being an annoyance I have to wait through before getting to the weight data.

I ignore it, and I go by how my clothes fit. Yesterday I had to punch two new holes in my belt so I could tighten it more. I can't use the second (tightest) hole yet, but the other one I punched is in use and it's not snug. Those two new holes are about 1.5" apart.

Agave

What you don't know may kill you.

sstorkel

Mine seems to be pretty consistent, if not necessarily accurate. I can do 2-3 readings in a row and the numbers are always the same. If I weigh myself first thing in the morning, the numbers from day to day are also pretty consistent; at other times of day all bets are off.

I watch the direction the numbers are moving, without getting too hung up on the actual value itself. For that purpose, the scale works fine and seems to be a somewhat useful tool...

RVH

Twenty years ago, when I had knees and ran four or five marathons a year, I couldn't understand why I couldn't get below 215 lbs even though I was running 60-80 miles a week. I'm 6'3". So, I had my body fat tested by a professional, where they weigh you in a tank of water. It turns out that my zero percent body fat weight (i.e. the weight where my body fat would be zero and I'd die) was 192. So, at 215 I was just about 12% body fat and that is really good for a "big-boned" guy like me. I did manage to get to 210 but it was hell.

CliftonGK1

The wet feet vs. dry feet thing will make a big difference in readings, that's why I'm not a fan of the built-ins on scales and prefer to use my handheld meter. (My hands are more consistent as far as humidity levels go.)

It's similar to the issues with HRC pads on sports equipment. I work support for an equipment manufacturer, and holy cow you can't imagine how many people call up with issues regarding HR problems during the winter! Forced air heating, no humidity, dry hands, etc. and they wonder why the machine can't read a transdermal nanocharge. (Gyms/clubs with the AC on full blast in the summer have similar issues.)