Measuring body fat?

Slipshoddy
Slipshoddy Posts: 9
Hello all,

Can anyone recommend a reliable weighing scale that also measures body fat.

Tia.

Comments

  • StillGoing
    StillGoing Posts: 5,211
    Tanita BC730. About £30 from Argos, possibly cheaper if you search on line.

    B3RwFmvCQAEpgPo.jpg
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  • Cheers Phil I'll have a look online.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,172
    Don't bother with those scales... I have one and the numbers it churns out are pretty much random... I can float between 23 and 25% just by having breakfast or having a poo.... besides, I don't think I am a quarter made up of fat, seeing I weigh 71 kg and I'm 5'10''

    Decent calipers are a better way to measure fat in different body parts
    left the forum March 2023
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    I'd really not bother with scales either. All over the place.
  • craigus89
    craigus89 Posts: 887
    How could scales possibly measure your body fat percentage!?
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    Craigus89 wrote:
    How could scales possibly measure your body fat percentage!?

    Badly usually.
  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    Easiest thing is look in a mirror and jump. In the words of the immortal Arnie, "If it jiggles, it's fat."
    I don't do smileys.

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  • joey54321
    joey54321 Posts: 1,297
    Yup, no reliable way really. Even DEXA scan and bod-pod things can be wrong.

    Scales measure your bio-impedance so very dependent on hydration levels, they also rely on the company 'accurately' converting this impedance in to a % of fat (another source of inaccuracy) and since electricity will take the shorter distance it will likely only measure your legs.
  • fat daddy
    fat daddy Posts: 2,605
    the scales try to work using the principle of electrical impedance analysis where an electric current flows easier through muscle rather than fat, so by sending a signal up one leg and comparing it to the signal returning down the other leg.

    An awesome principle .... but completely unreliable as temperature, hydration, how damp your skin is all skew the results.

    you are best off tracking your changes with a tape measure and a pair of calipers ..... then realise none of that even matters and just look in the mirror .... like what you see then good .... if you don't then eat better and workout more
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,437
    as above, the scales aren't much use, if you're disciplined about hydration, timing etc. you can probably use one for trending, but not accurate measurement

    looking in the mirror can give you a fair idea...

    malebodyfat11.jpg
    menbodyfat2.jpg

    ...from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/body-fat-percentage/
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  • mercia_man
    mercia_man Posts: 1,431
    I find those Tanita scales pretty good at tracking my body fat. It can occasionally give an unusually high reading but if you weigh and measure yourself at the same time each day under similar conditions, such as doing it three hours after lunch, you get consistent figures.

    For example, I am 5ft 10in and around 68 to 70kg. When I am at my fittest and lightest in early autumn I am 13 or even 12 per cent, my usual figure is 14 or 15 and I go up to 16 early in the new year.
  • Thanks for the info, i'm currently using calipers but thought scales would be alot quicker and easier. Didn't know they could be inaccurate though.
  • daniel_b
    daniel_b Posts: 11,538
    That's useful above, that would put me at about 14-20% I reckon.
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  • sungod wrote:
    as above, the scales aren't much use, if you're disciplined about hydration, timing etc. you can probably use one for trending, but not accurate measurement

    looking in the mirror can give you a fair idea...

    malebodyfat11.jpg
    menbodyfat2.jpg

    ...from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/body-fat-percentage/

    Have you got anything above 32%?

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  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,437
    you could try google image search for "chubby men" :D
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    Or better still, "fat bastards".
    I don't do smileys.

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  • ric/rstsport
    ric/rstsport Posts: 681
    edited July 2017
    Slipshoddy wrote:
    Hello all,

    Can anyone recommend a reliable weighing scale that also measures body fat.

    Tia.

    As other have mentioned scales aren't particularly useful. The gold standard used in many exercise physiology labs is done via hydrostatic weighing, but even that makes assumptions that aren't always correct.

    There is one way to measure body fat and have it dead accurate. But it isn't much use to anyone wanting to improve their fat mass ;-)

    (Edited for naff grammar, sorry folks)
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  • My Withings scale consistently indicates 22%, which is not out of line with the body image photos. Annoyingly the Withings scale has wifi and downloads measurements to my phone on which a graph tries to motivate me to eat less and ride further
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Withings-Body- ... ings+scale
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  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,467
    sungod wrote:
    as above, the scales aren't much use, if you're disciplined about hydration, timing etc. you can probably use one for trending, but not accurate measurement

    looking in the mirror can give you a fair idea...

    malebodyfat11.jpg
    menbodyfat2.jpg

    ...from https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/body-fat-percentage/
    Could maybe slightly overestimate body fat for cyclists as we don't generally have well-developed upper body musculature, especially pecs. Would be useful to get a bunch of pure cyclists of different fat percentages photographed for a similar chart!
  • StillGoing
    StillGoing Posts: 5,211
    Don't bother with those scales... I have one and the numbers it churns out are pretty much random... I can float between 23 and 25% just by having breakfast or having a poo.... besides, I don't think I am a quarter made up of fat, seeing I weigh 71 kg and I'm 5'10''

    Decent calipers are a better way to measure fat in different body parts

    I have a set gathering dust. I always found them to be variable depending on where you placed them and despite drinking so much water daily I was having headaches because of it, they still insisted I was retaining water. They're pretty quick to label you obese too for being a couple of pounds overweight.
    I ride a bike. Doesn't make me green or a tree hugger. I drive a car too.
  • If you can pinch more than an inch, you're in trouble
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