Body Fat Scales...

[T-Rage]

Hi. I'm new to the board. I am dieting down over the next 2 months. I don't want to lose the weight too quickly and end up losing more muscle than fat. I've been checking out the scales from Tanita that measure your bodyfat. Are these scales accurate?

 

[Baby Gorilla]

Don't bother....

I checked into them.

They are "ballpark" accruate for ordinary people. The better ones have an athletic mode to compensate for people with denser muscles, but it still gets thrown off by a bodybuilder.

Might as well use calipers for keeping an idea of if your BF goes up or down and try to get hydrostatically weighed once in a while. If they difference between caliper and hydrostatic remains a consistent number, you can use calipers and do the math.

 

[FarBeyondDriven]

I use one by Taylor. It may not be exactly precise with the total. But in my opinion when the BF% it has been giving me drops that I have lost. So it is a good gauge in my mind. If I wanted to know my exact BF I would go have a water displacement test done, but for now when it tells me I have lost I believe it.

 

[MrMakaveli]

I used to worry about exact body-fat and all but here is what I've found: The begining body-fat doesnt have to be right, lets say you measure wrong. If you measure wrong every time but see progress, your still making progress because the error is there EVERY TIME.

From what I've heard the body-fat scales are very very inaccurate.

 

[javaguru]

You're better off using calipers. The problem with the scales is that the time of day and hydration status will dramatically effect results.