So I wonder how accurate those body fat scales are...

[BORN2LOSE]

I have had one for a long time and every morning when I get out of the shower with my feet a little wet I check my bodyfat/weight. Its pretty consistant however I know its a little off as far as true BF. Its says I am 16% now which I know that I am not. I think I am closer to 11 or 12. My abs are starting to show on the top 4. I was stuck at 18% for the longest time but the past two months I added more healthy fats to my diet and my BF has gone down to 16% while my scale weight hasn't changed much. Maybe 1.5 pounds to 156. I know these aren't accurate in showing true body fat levels or don't seem to be but its seems like it is accurate as far as an indication of whether my BF is increasing or decreasing. I know that hydration and whether or not you have food in your stomach affects the levels on these scales but I drink damn near the same amount of water everyday and my stomach is obviously empty in the morning. So am I the only one that uses these things? Is anyone else on a cutting diet that you don't count calories? I think I am finally figuring this **** out.

[chrispure]

lol i have the heath o meter one and its telling me im 23% BF when im really 12%

And its configured perfectly. So you can do the math (and no the one i have doesnt even reflect changes correctly it goes up or down pretty much random. And i weight my self every day at the same time just and use the BF% part just because it saves my previous weight so i can see if i lost or gained)

[segment]

I have a taylor digital scale and BF reader. Mine is pretty steady everyday. You should not have wet feet while using these scales unless your specific scale instructions tell you to have your feet wet.

Your skin normally is about 200-300omhs depending on your skin's hydration. If your feet are wet, your skin can go down to almost 50ohms and really screw the reading up.

Remember, these things use resistance to measure your BF%. Water = less resistance = lower BF%.

Why is this? Because muscle contains like 75% water and fat hardly contains any water.

[trebby°]

I have a taylor digital scale and BF reader. Mine is pretty steady everyday. You should not have wet feet while using these scales unless your specific scale instructions tell you to have your feet wet.

Your skin normally is about 200-300omhs depending on your skin's hydration. If your feet are wet, your skin can go down to almost 50ohms and really screw the reading up.

Remember, these things use resistance to measure your BF%. Water = less resistance = lower BF%.

Why is this? Because muscle contains like 75% water and fat hardly contains any water.

like he said its way off anyway, he allways has his feet wet, it means it's going to show him if its increasing or decreasing which was the point anyway

[Points]

they are not accurate, but if used under similar conditions each weighing they have precision.

[ratmonkey]

even having a different amount of water before checking your bodyfat on one of those can throw it off. they are unreliable at best and flat out garbage most of the time.

[kliplemet]

my body fat scale says i'm 16%, while my caliper says i'm 10%

i should stay between 10 and 15% during bulking phases, but now i'm wondering wether i should be bulking or cutting...

[Aquilius]

My experience is also not so good. Scale consistently shows roughly the same % of BF, hovering at +/- 1,5% of always the same value.

However, other methods (Navy circumference, YMCA) show consistently 1. change and 2. currently about 7% less than the scale. If you lose 2" from your belly and 3" from your chest and the scale shows nothing, then what's it good for?

I actually don't use it anymore. Those seem to convey some exactitude they simply don't posess (at least mine doesn't).

However, some people seem to get better results than I did. This may depend on the brand of scale, manufacturing tolerance, or whatever.

Regards,
Aquilius

[DJohnson]

Back in Feb. I was calipering on an Accu-Measure at around 8%. I was using Tom Venuto's extended table and his specific instructions. I am 100% sure I was using it properly and was very consistant after weekly measurements for 10 months.

My "piece of crap" scale was telling me I was at 20% so I laughed at it because I could see my "top 4 abs".

I went and got hydrostatically tested, thinking I'd be around 13. Nope, bam, 20%, bio-impedence scale was dead on. The hydrostatic test was done in a lab by a grad student with lung capacity measurement and any other little accuracy correction they could use.

Something to think about for those who think they're much leaner than their bio-impedence scale tells them.

[ratmonkey]

even the manuals on those bio-impedence scales acknowledge up to 10%+/- in accuracy.

btw, your top four abdominal cuts would never show above 15%, unless you have a ****load of visceral fat. which would make a rather prominent distended belly.