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Are they accurate?
I've just bought a salter glass dashboard thingy, set it up for my age and height (middle aged, 6ft) and its telling me that though I only weigh 80kg my body fat is 29% which seems high. I'm a 33 inch waist and 40 inch chest and have always considered myself as having slightly above average fitness for my age. I can easily walk 20 miles or ride 50 offroad and then do it again the next day. It says 24 for BMI
Am I a fatty?
Made up number generator imo. Take it back for a refund. There are many ways to measure health and fitness, but those toys aren't one of them.
Its guessing based on IIRC electrical conductivity and maybe impedance. Proper body fat % is hard to measure - using calipers on several points on your body gives a decent measurement.
Stop eating so many pies 😉
Yes, they are very accurate and use sophisticated high end technology expertly shrunk down into a small convenient package. That's why they are so cheap.
Well this thread just confirms that people's perceptives have shifted.
6ft at 80kg could quite easy be those figures.
I'm 6ft 3 and 80kg.....I could do to lose 5 kg for performance reasons that would put me at circa 13% bf.
Im not against any of these gadgets like fitbits & body analyse scales but consider them a rough guide & do them with a bit of common sense in mind...helped me lose a stone & half last year but each to their own.
However from what you've said im surprised your body fat is 29% if your bmi is 24...when i had a bmi of 24, my scales put my body fat around 20%.
yes, I realize that its a cheap piece of equipment.
However my daughter (15, tall, thin, county swimmer) used it and after she had stopped laughing at me registered a perfect score...which rather made me want to throw it in the pond
You can be light weight but if things wabble when you run..
Best thing is look in the mirror.
Ok, try dropping the height. I did on mine and the scales claimed My body fat percentage had gone up. Which sort of proves it’s not measuring very much.
I'm 6'4" and 90kg. One of those fancy pants machines told me that even if I stripped out all my body fat the lowest I'd weigh would be 85kg. Which is bollocks. I'm not nearly that ripped nor ill.
Ok, try dropping the height. I did on mine and the scales claimed My body fat percentage had gone up. Which sort of proves it’s not measuring very much.
Makes sense.
Short height means short legs
Short legs means lower electrical resistance.
If the resistance stays the same (I.e. higher than expected) then the body fat % goes up because it can only assume the fat is the insulator as you've told it the legs are shorter.
I've got a set of scales and a set of callipers, they give pretty similar results.
You measuring your waist correctly?
It also makes a difference if you have damp or dry feet. I use mine as a guide, if it's going down I'm losing fat, if it goes up... I'm not too worried about the actual figure itself.
I guess my point is more - is fitness relative to fatness. i.e I may well have a higher than ideal fat ratio but that doesn't impact my ability to ride or walk(much). However it may well be doing my overall health no good.
I used to be uber fit doing ultra trail running and stupid cycling miles (175 miles in a day etc) but a couple of serious injuries put paid to that. Since then i've been pretty lazy by my standards but I guess I've retained a fair bit of aerobic fitness but maybe the scales have a point - I am too fat.
Hmmm
Am I a fatty?
Yes.
Blame your genes.
If it makes you feel better, I’m just under 6 foot (1.82m) and I weigh 71kg.
I have a fat layer around my stomach that I can’t budge, even when I’m down to 68 kg (I blame being 105kg at one stage). I’m also in the gym once to twice a week and can do 12 pull ups along with my other strength routine, so I’m not a Michael Rasmussen.
So, I would say you are carrying fat, unless you are very muscular, maybe.
The scale could also be including internal fat, not just the stuff under your skin, which is more dangerous.
The absolute numbers outs of these machines are notoriously bad. There has been some studies which show they can be +/- 21% compared to a pod test, but whether it estimates you over or under (or potentially the same) as the pod is very individual. As suggested above, use them to track if you go up or down rather than worry about the absolute numbers.
To give you some context, I recently used my parents similar scales and I came out as 40% fat! Ok as a women it will be higher, but I have a BMI of 24 and work out 5-6 per week (a lot of which is strength work) and a size 12. However on the % scales I am obese!
Looking in the mirror and being honest with yourself is a better measure of body fat than one of those.
Looking in the mirror and being honest with yourself is a better measure of body fat than one of those.
This .......
There are some pics showing people at different %bf as well that you can use as a guide that give you a ballpark figure.
They pop you in a pod thing to do this stuff for real.
The plastic callipers give pretty reasonable results for a few quid once you get the correct technique thou.
I've got a photo of me from a DEXA scan. Not a pretty sight, but at least it gives a fairly accurate body fat %. 16.3% in 2015, up from 8.8% in 2008.