body fat analyzers
- Thread starter vonbeck2
- Start date
I have found that the ones you hold in your hands or stand on (like a scale) are extremely INacurate 
I have a handheld one and it reads about 10% HIGHER than the machine we have at our gym.
Had a client come to me stating her body fat scale read 24%, she was actually about 18%.
Try calipers or find a more acurate machine (maybe at a local gym or hospital).
I have a handheld one and it reads about 10% HIGHER than the machine we have at our gym.
Had a client come to me stating her body fat scale read 24%, she was actually about 18%.
Try calipers or find a more acurate machine (maybe at a local gym or hospital).
I have found that the ones you hold in your hands or stand on (like a scale) are extremely INacurate
I have a handheld one and it reads about 10% HIGHER than the machine we have at our gym.
Had a client come to me stating her body fat scale read 24%, she was actually about 18%.
Try calipers or find a more acurate machine (maybe at a local gym or hospital).
I agree. My Tanita scale says I'm 23%. I'm not saying I'm single digits or anything, but if you look at my avatar (me about 3 lbs heavier than I am right now) There's no way I'm that high. Every other method I use says I'm 11-14%
Using handheld ones as a tracker I found works fine. I first purchased one and used it and it said I was about 24%. It may not be fully accurate but as my body changed and such so did the numbers and it now reads that I have 9%. Even though this may not be 100% accurate I can still see that I have lost about 15%bf.
The problem with the electrical resistance method is that bone, like fat, is more resistive than muscle. So the devices have to assume bone mass, which may be inaccurate from one person to the next. Some devices have an "athlete" mode which increases the assumed amount of bone mass, resulting in a lower body fat percentage reading, though that still may not necessarily be accurate.
Other methods can have inaccuracies as well. The skinfold pinch method finds only subcutaneous fat under the skin, not internal fat (which is more dangerous to your health). Formulas and charts based on skinfold pinches have assumptions about internal fat that may or may not be accurate for a given person.
I don't know what the deal is with me. I get really wacky results from electronic resonance scales and handgrip heart rate monitors. I stopped using the HR monitor on my elliptical when it said my HR was 116 and I took it manually in my carotid and got 144