Should I get a scale with a body fat calculator? (Read 960 times)

I constantly watch my scale, thinking I should have one with a body fat perc. calculator. Opinions?

If you don't want to go to the gym, you can also buy fat calipers and then by measuring yourself at 3 or 7 different places calculate your body fat from that. There are some online calculators that can do the calculations for you. http://www.rustyiron.net/bodyfat.htm is one. I agree with Trent that the scales aren't the best, so much of it will depend on fluid that you won't get a realistic idea of your true body fat. Having said that, calipers will have their own inaccuracies, you need to meaure the same place etc, I'd buy calipers that 'click' when the right pressure is being applied, this way you remove the variation in measurements that is caused by squeezing too little or too much!

Don't waste your money on a scale....I have one and the percentages it gives me are completely worthless.

ditto

slosh252, Because I am 5 pounds heavier than that picture, but am also doing different sports, and it'd be nice to know what the 5 pounds extra is. I think I will start logging what jeans I am wearing.

I have one and I like it. It wasn't all that much money and it lets me keep track of myself. I don't necessarily take the numbers as gospel though. In my case, they certainly don't jive with body mass numbers. I'm 5'8" and today the scale had me at about 153 pounds and 15.something% fat. BMI calculator (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/adult_BMI/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.htm) put that at @ 23. 18.5–24.9 is quote Normal. Maybe scale to calculator is apples to oranges, but there seems to be a sizeable disconnect. I may have a few more pounds to lose (not according to the wife, though) but I surely don't feel I am butting up agains the overweight category.

I never bothered getting one because it would be worthless for me. Those only work at all reliably if your body fat is 12%-15% or more. I get mine checked out every 4 or 5 years just as a curiosity factor rather than for a useful number.

I have a Tanita scale and when it comes to telling me my bf% it is a LIAR!!!! It says I'm something like 45% bf so I quit listening to it. Our local university has a Human Performance lab and they have a Bod Pod and they do bf testing for $10 and it is more accurate than the dunk test. If you live close to a university, see if they've got a method they use. Totally cool to work with the students too!

ah i see. i wondered if that was what you were thinking. BMI and body fat are totally different things. they won't necessarily be similar numbers. BMI is a purely height to weight scale. weight in kgs/(height in meters squared) gives BMI. it tells you exactly nothing about your body fat. take two men. both 5ft 8 (1.73m) and both 150lbs (68kg). They both have a BMI of a bit under 23. but one has 12% body fat and the other 25% body fat. assuming they are roughly the same overall build then the first guy has about 20lbs more muscle and 20lbs less fat than the second guy. given how much bigger a lb of fat is than a lb of muscle (see picture) then the second guy will look significantly more overweight than the first. so its quite possible that you are BMI 23 and body fat 15%. people who carry a lot of muscle are often in the higher end of the BMI scale - its one of the most often quoted reasons why BMI is not a very good measure of the overall healthiness of athletes. 15% is at the lower end of the "normal" body fat for men. sounds about right for how you are describing yourself. hope that helps Mandy