Do Tanita scales become less accurate over time?

[limniade]

I've got a 7-year-old Tanita and despite working out regularly and doing okay on the diet, my body fat hasn't fluctuated significantly overall on the scale even though I can see I'm at least a little leaner. And on the one hand, I'm thinking, "Well, the scale is 7 years old, maybe it's time for a new one," and then the rest of me thinks, "Um, it probably IS right and you just haven't lost any body fat, loser. Clean up your diet." And I don't necessarily want to spend another $50 or so to figure out which argument is correct, you know?

[SophieM]

My Tanita never changes even though the calipers do. I stopped using for BF% almost the day I got it. Waste of $$ to me.

[bluescorpion]

I have not found the Tanita measurements to be reliable from the start, so I just look at them out of curiosity. Especially the "actual age" one lol.

[Lilbitt]

I have a Tanita digital scale but I would never use the bf% part. This is absolutely innaccurate which renders it useless.

[limniade]

But do they start out MORE accurate and then lose their accuracy over time? I mean, we all know bioimpedence machines of any kind are inaccurate to begin with, but one of the ways a Tanita is handy is that they're good for tracking changes, or so I thought.

And when I first bought this scale in 2000, it *was* good about that, but now it just doesn't seem to change no matter what, and I'm wondering if it's because the SCALE is inaccurate or if I'm just not losing body fat. (I guess I could go get a caliper test to see, but the trainers at my gym all use the Omrons anyway.)

SophieM's answer was pretty enlightening, and I'm wondering if others have noticed the same experience.

[bttrthnb4]

What is a Tanita scale? I've never heard of them...

[user23960508710783]

I've got a 7-year-old Tanita and despite working out regularly and doing okay on the diet, my body fat hasn't fluctuated significantly overall on the scale even though I can see I'm at least a little leaner. And on the one hand, I'm thinking, "Well, the scale is 7 years old, maybe it's time for a new one," and then the rest of me thinks, "Um, it probably IS right and you just haven't lost any body fat, loser. Clean up your diet." And I don't necessarily want to spend another $50 or so to figure out which argument is correct, you know?

It is possible that your scale is getting old and not functioning as well as it should -- that is a possibility for any electronic device.