tried one for first time yesterday

standard setting – 20% fat
athlete setting – 10% (I sort of meet the criteria, I think, but a bit arbitrary)

think answer is somewhere in the middle, but with such a discrepancy must be an arbitrary load of tosh?

At my last work medical the Dr hooked me up to one that sticks on your hand and foot. After it did its thing he looked a bit vexed. “It says your bodyfat is 6%”. 🙂 thought I. Then looking at me over his spectacles “and that is clearly not the case”. 🙁 “But that’s the machine they give me so that’s what’ll go on the form. You would benefit from losing a couple of stone though”. Thanks Doc.

So yeah, they’re bollocks.

Kinda, but then people will tell you in a minute that callipers are brilliant. Except event he experts can’t agree on which formula to use to convert the measurements to a %age. Then there are displacement based methods, but they rely on you being able to breath out 100% of the air in your lungs and having exactly the right ammount of bone. etc etc.

i find that standing naked in front of a mirror, clenching your muscles and jumping up and down is quite effective at giving you an indication of body fat levels.

Yup, Each tim I see ripples rolling up me similar to those on an Elephant Seal lumbering up a beach, I know it’s time to eat a little less.

but if you use the same machine all the time you can at least see a trend emerging regardless of whether or not the figure is correct.

you know it is getting bad when the fat on the front of your belly is colder than the rest of your body!

If you have a six pack, keep doing what your doing.

If you don’t, eat less and move more fat boy*!

That will be £200 thank you please.

*Or girl

but if you use the same machine all the time you can at least see a trend emerging regardless of whether or not the figure is correct.

Maybe, if you can guarantee your hydration levels are also consistent…

Bodyfat % measurement is a crock of shit.

Do as iDave says or alternatively post a picture on here and I’ll tell you if you’re a bloater or not…

Completely free of charge.

Whilst looking for a suitable picture of an elephant seal I came across this vid –
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU4xW79ASsg[/video]

No idea what it’s like with sound, but with the sound off, I couldn’t help thinking of STW big hitters doing battle 😀

I use both the scales and the jumping method 🙂

I think you need to follow the protocol about hydration and stuff to get anything close to accurate and then I think their use is more to track changes than it is to give an absolute method.

Athlete setting on my scales give me 9%.
Normal setting tells me I am 15% at the appropriate time of day. When I get out of bed it is about 18%
Jumping up and down in front or a mirror suggests otherwise

How do I qualify to be an athlete? Mine says 18% and I’d like to be able to chop that number in half if you tell me it’s ok?

I got a Tanita one from years ago when I was into the weights – figured if I was putting on weight and the bodyfat didn’t increase that would be OK. I didn’t get one with an athlete setting as that seemed silly as indicated above. So no idea how accurate it is but relative figures have seemed sensible over the years. Now it tells me I’m about 14% which as I’m leanish seems about right.

Bodyfat % measurement is a crock of shit.

Do as iDave says or alternatively post a picture on here and I’ll tell you if you’re a bloater or not…

Completely free of charge.

This is one thread that is 100% just fine without pics thanks.

Reading the manual for mine, “Athlete” (1 out of 3 settings) seems to require you to have been training multiple times a day for several months.

How many STW’ers does this actualy apply to?

*Cough*

Mine, set on 2, gives a reading that seems to agree with readings from other places and approximately seems right for my size. But it’s a comparative tool, rather than absolute.