Confused About Body Fat Percentage

This topic contains 5 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by dykask 7 years, 10 months ago.

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HealthyTanja

5:21 pm
4 Oct 16
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Hello everyone and especially UK peeps 🤗,

Do you know how or where I can get an accurate body fat percentage measurement?

Have just bought new scales and although the weight pretty much matches the BF percentage has a 6% difference 😨

One is just out of “healthy” by 0.2%, the other is right in the middle of “very high”.

My BMI is 22.22 and I wear a size 10/ 12, so both measurements are possible. Just worried that it is the higher one and I have loads of that dangerous fat around my organs…or that I just have a lot of fat in general. 😳

The new scale is cheaper but has weight, BF, water, bone mass and muscle percentage. The older scale with the higher measurement is more expensive but only does weight and BF.

Any ideas anyone? If the new scales are out by a long shot I’d like to know as soon as possible, so that I can return them…

Thank you 😊

Amazon

5:55 pm
4 Oct 16
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Hi

A pair of scales cannot accurately assess body fat percentage or any of the other things you have mentioned, it merely gives an average which is estimated by your weight, the information you have entered and using biolectrical impedance analysis which is in fact a measure of body density. It cannot tell how well hydrated (or not) you are or take things such as recent exercise into account so the measurement is no more than a calculated guess.

If your BMI is 22 it is highly unlikely that you are carrying any extra fat.

bigbooty

9:36 pm
4 Oct 16
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The BF numbers produced by the scales are almost meaningless. They rely on electrical signals passing through your body. Your hydration state and whether or not you have damp feet or not will easily change the results. Not worth the money. There are lots of algorithms to find BF. They will get you close, say plus minus 3%. Just google “how to calculate BF”. Ive used the one that the US army uses.

Minka

4:03 am
25 Oct 16
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I tested my scales against one of the web pages which uses the US army method of measuring body fat and the percentage on my scales matched the number I calculated using the US army method.

Interesting, if I weigh myself when I get up in the morning and then again after I drink a liter of water, I’ve found that yes, my hydration percentage number definitely goes up after the consumption of the water, which I expect it should.

6packsolution

7:52 pm
27 Oct 16
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Buying a set of cheap body fat calipers would be your best bet.

smotfi1

10:26 am
29 Dec 16
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There are various methods for measuring body fat, but some methods are more accurate while others are not. Methods like hydrostatic weighing and other high-tech machines are expensive and a lay person will have difficulty accessing that. There are also many hand-held devices and scales which help to measure body fat, but these are not always correct . The most accurate choice is the caliper method.

dykask

2:49 am
30 Dec 16
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If you really worried about visceral fat you should consider getting a DEXA scan. Then you will see how much fat you have and basically were it is located. It doesn’t do that great for fat packed around you organs, but you can get a good ballpark figure. It isn’t cheap but it would be safer and cheaper than a CT scan. Basically it isn’t that easy to determine exactly how much internal fat you have.

For good health it is okay to have some internal fat. If body fat is too low that runs into other issues. With a BMI of 22 it is hard to image you have too much fat packed around your organs.

The cheapest method to estimate is just to measure your waistline at your belly button. See the charts on this page: http://missinghumanmanual.com/?p=989