Body Fat Scales - Which one?

[mugzy]

Im starting a new diet and workout regimine today and decided I would like to buy a nice new scale that also does bodyfat percentage. Im curious what is a good Bodyfat scale and what do you use or recommend.

Im not one to wait for anything so its likely I will buy it at Dick's sporting goods today.

 

[MAYO]

Tanita and Taylor both have good models. All the scales are going to measure through 2 avenues. 1.) electric impedance and 2.) pre-programmed body types. With electric impedance you want to make sure that you measure at the exact same point in your day. By 'point' I mean say, after 2 meals and your shower. The electric impedance is going to be affected by skin moisture, ie shower, sweat, pee running down ur leg etc. and will also be affected by blood flow ie, hydrated after a meal or dry upon waking. The pre-programmed body types allow the more advanced models to interpret the results more accurately. My Tanita has 'athletic' signified by a running figure, 'overweight' signified by a round figure, and 'average' signified by a normal looking figure, along with age, sex and height. I found it reasonably accurate down to maybe 10% but when cutting for my show I was getting addbal readings in the final week. At 5% I was getting 18%-20%. Could have been the water depletion throwing it off. If you get one of these scales, take it with a grain of salt. Weight will be accurate, but bf is going to to be a crap shoot. Just remember....The mirror never lies.

 

[Ogre717]

Tanita and Taylor both have good models. All the scales are going to measure through 2 avenues. 1.) electric impedance and 2.) pre-programmed body types. With electric impedance you want to make sure that you measure at the exact same point in your day. By 'point' I mean say, after 2 meals and your shower. The electric impedance is going to be affected by skin moisture, ie shower, sweat, pee running down ur leg etc. and will also be affected by blood flow ie, hydrated after a meal or dry upon waking. The pre-programmed body types allow the more advanced models to interpret the results more accurately. My Tanita has 'athletic' signified by a running figure, 'overweight' signified by a round figure, and 'average' signified by a normal looking figure, along with age, sex and height. I found it reasonably accurate down to maybe 10% but when cutting for my show I was getting addbal readings in the final week. At 5% I was getting 18%-20%. Could have been the water depletion throwing it off. If you get one of these scales, take it with a grain of salt. Weight will be accurate, but bf is going to to be a crap shoot. Just remember....The mirror never lies.

doesnt get any more true than this right here. I have tried to use several types of these scales to measure my BF. even keeping in mind the points MAYO listed with timing, meals consumed, sweat/hydration etc, I still would vary +/- 3-5% in both directions.

 

[JackD]

I agree with mayo on this one, I have a BF scale at home given as a gift, I never use the BF tester on there, always wrong by about 10%. But the scale works awesome.

I've had my BF tested by this method Amazon.com: Omron Body Fat Analyzer (Black): Sports & Outdoors

And this electronic device came within 1% accuracy of the standard caliper method.

Just saying, buy a scale, then buy this, much more accurate and it will last longer than the scale.

 

[Ms.Wetback]

I dont think any of them are really truly accurate. But it is a good tool to use to measure loss or gain, just not actual bf %.

 

[mugzy]

I agree with mayo on this one, I have a BF scale at home given as a gift, I never use the BF tester on there, always wrong by about 10%. But the scale works awesome.

I've had my BF tested by this method Amazon.com: Omron Body Fat Analyzer (Black): Sports & Outdoors

And this electronic device came within 1% accuracy of the standard caliper method.

Just saying, buy a scale, then buy this, much more accurate and it will last longer than the scale.

JackD I have the Omron BF Analyzer. It works great I was just thinking of cutting it to one step. Im always thinking of efficiency however its no more than 30 seconds to use the Omron. Good info.....

Good to hear you feel its pretty accurate I wasn't sure as I had nothing to compare it to or calibrate it with.

 

[AllTheWay]

scales are EVIL!

 

[darksidefitness]

Probably a manual caliper will work better...and cheaper!

 

[goldy]

I bought a fancy tanita BF scale, it was COMPLETE SHIT. there is no way you can see your abs and be 20% BF

 

[69nites]

cheap scale and a nice caliper.

 

[MAYO]

I agree with mayo on this one, I have a BF scale at home given as a gift, I never use the BF tester on there, always wrong by about 10%. But the scale works awesome.

I've had my BF tested by this method Amazon.com: Omron Body Fat Analyzer (Black): Sports & Outdoors

And this electronic device came within 1% accuracy of the standard caliper method.

Just saying, buy a scale, then buy this, much more accurate and it will last longer than the scale.

One alibi...I have heavily calloused hands b/c of my trade. Omron couldn't give me the same reading twice in a row; not even close. Variance was huge. I would take that into consideration with this device.

 

[Gstacker]

I have the omron hand held also and it's not really that far off but when I'm serious there's a water tank I have access to in my area..... If I were to buy a scale the bf part of it would be just a slight bonus, I'd still want to get tested before after and maybe during dieting by better means to see how much muscle Im loosing.