[Kraziplaya]

welll...i just started a new diet and wanted to find out my bodyfat first... has ne one bought or tried one of those electric scales that measure bodyfat?? im curious to know if they are precise as a caliper....

[Physicist]

Reading the reviews of those scales on 1fast, it seems they are horrible for figuring out your bodyfat, but might be useful for measuring if your fat is going up or down.

[Cuffs]

I don't trust those things. However, I have never used them either. If you want to measure b/f, look into some calipers. They are pretty cheap, easy to use, and much more accurate.
CLICK HERE for one type that Physical Enhancement, a board sponsor, carries. There are other less expensive types out there as well.

[EricForman]

These scales have to suck, don't they? How can a scale tell the difference between a 6ft. 240 muscle-head and a 6ft. 240
pound fat ass?????

The scale would tell our muscle bound hero that he was a pig, because all it knows is the height you enter and some goverment approved weight for that size.

[GTOman]

I have one (Tatiana) and I opt to use the AcuMeasure calipers instead. The BF readings on the scale vary alot. For example, in the morning before a shower I'll get a reading of 12%, after the shower I get a reading of 10%. In the evening it might read 13%-14%. Morning to morning under the same conditions (after a shower) could vary 1%-2% or more.

I just got frustrated with the whole thing and rely on the weight reading (which is very good and accurate to 0.1 lbs) and the calipers.


GTOMan

[your2slow]

I bought one of the bodyfat scales when I was 265. The scale said I was 33% bodyfat. Now I weigh 217 and have gained muscle, but the scale says I'm 31% bodyfat. I read about one scale in Men's Health that according to their review was within 1% of water tank tests they had done. I can't remember the name of the scale, but I do remember the msrp was about $110.

[5111]

I have one of those scales and it has seemed pretty accurate to me if you follow certain restrictions.

The most accurate reading comes when you have not exercised or drank any water in the past 4 hours and right after you have urinated. So I just do it first thing in the morning. I get up, pee, and then weigh myself. The scale has been extremely consistant like that. If you do not follow those requirements it will vary greatly.

BTW, you have to input your height, age, and gender for the scale to take the BF measurement.

[littlemark]

Bah, these things are crap. During my cutting cycle I used the one at the gym for the first little while. It would tell me I lost 3 lbs in a week, all muscle and gained 4 lbs of fat during a cutting cycle. At best it dropped me from an alleged 24% to 20% in only 6 days.

I should confess that I didn't follow any of the guidelines posted earlier, so maybe that explains my variations. I do suspect that many people would fall into the same circumstances that I do (not owning one at home), rendering the scale virtually useless. $110 bucks is a pretty big gamble.

[Irongame]

To clear this up a little...
The tinita body fat scales are based upon a body composition assessment tool called Biometric Impedence Analysis. In simpleist terms: fat mass, body water, and fat free mass transmit electrical impulses differently. BIA uses this variable, as well as weight and other factors, and plugs these variables into prediction equations based upon other standard measures of body comp (ie. hydrodensitometry). The scale computes this and spits out an estimation of body fat percentage. BIA can be used with RELATIVE accuracy (~5%) but the version that has been made available for us, the consumer, is not what I would call the best quality item; its relative accuracy is plus or minus 10% bf!! My suggestion is to buy a quality set of calipers and use them as a reference. Have someone take biceps, abdominal, suprailiac, and subscapular skin folds, and compare these week to week. If done properly, these numbers will show you without a doubt if you are loosing or gaining fat. Any other questions on assessing body comp...just shoot.

Originally Posted by littlemark

Bah, these things are crap. During my cutting cycle I used the one at the gym for the first little while. It would tell me I lost 3 lbs in a week, all muscle and gained 4 lbs of fat during a cutting cycle. At best it dropped me from an alleged 24% to 20% in only 6 days.

I should confess that I didn't follow any of the guidelines posted earlier, so maybe that explains my variations. I do suspect that many people would fall into the same circumstances that I do (not owning one at home), rendering the scale virtually useless. $110 bucks is a pretty big gamble.

I have the Accumeasure calipers and was wondering if there is are other sites to measure at other than the suprailiac. I would like to measure at the sites you said but is there a chart I would need in order to convert the numbers I get from those sites into my BF%. Even the electrical Calipers offered by Accumeasure measures in three sites instead of one. Plus, are you supposed to tug at your skin for dear life or just lightly pinch the areas? I always feel like I have more BF than want the calipers are telling me. thanks.

BUMP

[Irongame]

Originally Posted by MaNiaK1027

BUMP

Getting accurate body fat measures is a very precise science. In order to get the proper skinfold you first must mark the site on your body with a pen; you should be taking 3 measurements and averaging them to get a better reading, so you'll need to know exactley where you measured. Take an approximately 8 cm pinch of skin just above the mark you have made, making sure you did not grab the underlying muscle. Apply the calipers at 1cm below your pinching fingers, and make sure the calipers are at the middle of the fold, not at the base and not at the top where they might slip off. Record the meaure to the nearest .5mm at exactley 2 seconds after applying the caliper (adipose tissue will compress considerably, and it is considered standard to take the measure at 2 seconds.) What you need to understand is that skinfold techniques are plugged into the appropriate equations which give you BODY DENSITY, body fat is then predicted from body density using yet another formula. I can give you both if you wish, and the equation I use is derived from the sum of 7 skinfolds, which is arguably much more accurate than the standard 3 site method. It uses, chest, midaxillary, supscapular, suprailiac, abdominal, front thigh, and tricep site, and very specific attention must be made to exactley how to landmark these sites.

[Irongame]

As well, if you need help identifying the sites, I can help you there too, but you will need another person to do them...body fat testing by SKF calipers is impossible alone.