The FastDay Forum

One of the goals for people in the HIT club can be body fat measurement.

Something i never understood. how do scales that you have at home.. the fancy ones, measure body fat

i read this http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/ ... -work.html

and one point is that it may not be accurate, the reading.

I think my scales can be switched to body fat readings


Wondered if people can share here - can you just measure at home or is there a more accurate way?

I just jump on my scales they do the work. When hubby first bought me the all singing all dancing scales, I thought they were broke as they wouldn't do a body fat score for me, but did my sons body fat score, yet he had a higher BMI than I did. It turns out that my body fat was over 50% and the scales and most others couldn't measure anything that high. Its something to do with the electrical signal not getting through at all, whereas for measurement the speed or something to do with the signal going from one foot, up the leg and down the other is how it measures body fat. Its now down to 44.7% so I'm doing something right.

I've got some Tanita ones and my body fat is around 12-14% which I think is about right as I run and have a lot more muscle than 6 months ago when it was around 19%. I don't think they are exact, but they give a good indication. As with your weight you should test your body fat at the same time of day but not first thing in the morning.

@Juliana.Rivers, I think the idea with scales that give you body fat % is that while they're not accurate, they're similarly inaccurate all the time, so the change in % can be believed (maybe not day to day, as hydration also matters, but in a trend line kind of way…). To get a better measure, body fat calipers can be used, but I think you have to know what you're doing to get a good read from those. Here's a link you might like: http://www.builtlean.com/2010/07/13/5-w ... ercentage/

@Juliana.Rivers, I think the idea with scales that give you body fat % is that while they're not accurate, they're similarly inaccurate all the time, so the change in % can be believed (maybe not day to day, as hydration also matters, but in a trend line kind of way…). To get a better measure, body fat calipers can be used, but I think you have to know what you're doing to get a good read from those. Here's a link you might like: http://www.builtlean.com/2010/07/13/5-w ... ercentage/

I like the look of those! thanks @MaryAnn

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women is quite an interesting article on body fat and gives photos too - so you know what to aim for!

I have an Onrom scale and it's currently telling me I'm 38% fat so I dutifully told my coaches at the gym and they're disagreeing!

So I've invested £1.79 in some fat calipers off ebay and I'll report the results...

Wow BBT053 - long time no see, you have done fantastically well on your weight loss, congratulations! I'm very interested to know what your calipers give as your body fat %age.

Ha, ha, I've been the same weight for ages. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a secret maintainer.

I am however a drastically different shape as the weightlifting/conditioning makes a huge difference.

My OH blanched when I told him I wanted him to measure me with calipers, I'll see how I get on and report.

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women is quite an interesting article on body fat and gives photos too - so you know what to aim for!

Great link thanks @Franglaise. Pictures are very revealing.

@BBT053 how did you get on with the calipers? I bought some Accumeasure ones and they would appear to be in agreement with my Tanita scales regarding the body fat measurement, both show 13% for me.
I was impressed! I managed to use them on my own, except for measuring the arm fat...

I did the same thing and it measured me at 35%, which is close to my Onrom scales and OH at 18%, which I think would be about right. He's not been on the scales though.

Mine were £1.79 off ebay and only did the tummy fold above the hip but I think it's not far off.

I've had mine done with a machine at the grocery store (it does blood pressure, bf % etc) and I also had an estimate done by two pro's in the body building community, that do readings for people in their MFP group (based on pictures you submit). Both of these things put me at a bf% of around 17% and that lines up with other women who look like me, with 17% bf (based on online images). This was done before my 2.5lb weight gain bounce, so that number may be a bit off right now, but I'm back at it and will be losing the extra couple pounds shortly

So… in my post above I mentioned the inaccuracy of body fat % scales. Well, in my annual health check, I had my body fat measured, unfortunately by scales. Their measure was 26% which is much better than my own scales which say somewhere around 31%. I'm not sure what to believe now! It's a bit frustrating. Maybe I should just buy some calipers...