awwRight, I'M confused!

[wlmcrae]

I've been holding off starting a log until I had stats - now I've got stats and I'm CONFUSED! Have a Body Fat Scale - which says I'm around 28%BF but when I had a skinfold series done, the tables said 19.5%?! No WAY I'm that lean . . I think! Here's what I have:

Ht 5'6", wt 136.5, waist 29".
Skinfolds Tri 14.0, Bi 5.0, Subscap 13.0, Iliac cr 12.0, Med calf 12.0 (all in mm)

How should I treat this?

 

[Sassy69]

Bodyfat scale - do you mean like a tanita scale - determines your bodyfat via body impedance? If yes, those tend to read higher than a skinfold because skinfold test only measures the subcutaneous fat & water. The tanita will measure your internal bodyfat as well. Additionally, it can be affected by how recently you drank water, your electrolyte levels, etc. They just measure different things. Also skinfold can be up to a +/-4% error (or soemthing like that).

The better thing to do instead of looking at the absolute measurement is track the CHANGE IN MEASUREMENT at regular intervals, making sure that your measurement method is pretty much the same (e.g. if skinfold, try to have the same person do it in the same points all the time. Also try to get the measurements done 3x at each point and take the avg of those for each time you do the measurement.

 

[wlmcrae]

Thanks Sassy - I'll focus on the changes in the numbers, not the 'number', and my clothing size ( ) and lifting ability.