More out of curiosity than anything I fancy getting some of these scales that measure body fat etc. Anyone got any experience* of them? Do they actually work?

Have lost about a stone since May just eating less (crisps mainly!) and feel very pleased with myself about it but do like a gadget and just watching the “Hairy Dieters” made me wonder about my own % fat!

TIA as always.

*edit: any recommendations welcome…

load of rubbish IMO, not accurate enough to be valid.

Well done for losing the weight though, top effort!

If you can’t see your abs then your over 12%, as long as you feel better it doesn’t really matter.

If you can’t see your abs then your over 12%

Not seen those since about 1993…

😉

so sorry, that should be “you’re over 12%”

I’ve got some but they are of limited use. The problem is that their readings vary according to how much exercise you say you take. That is Ok if you regularly do 5 sessions a week of 45 mins duration for example, because you can imput it into the scales. However in my case I do no ‘training’ at all except cycling 6500 miles a year. So do I put myself down as a ‘trained athlete’ or some other figure? depending on what I put in, my bodyfat ranges between 13 & 23% on the same day.

Hmm. Guess I’ll save my money then. And buy some crisps bike bits with what I save!

They only send a circuit through your legs so aren’t that accurate, to get a fuller picture you also need sensors that go through the hands and so measure the torso / arms as well

buy a heart rate monitor and learn to use it

Would the question be whether you want an absolute value or a relative value? If you just want to see the numbers go down, they might work. If you want a real number to compare to someone else then no, not very good.

Would the question be whether you want an absolute value or a relative value?

Bit of both really – ie. “just how much of me is fat?” at first followed by “wheee! i’m becoming less fat over time!”

But think the (expected, if I’m honest) scepticism is good enough to put me off for now. Cheers all.

What about the machine at boots for 50p?

They’re utter rubbish. Get a body fat reading, drink a pint of water, get another reading 10 mins later and you’ll see a few % difference!

You will get a ball park reading by measuring several times a day over a few days and average the result.

If you are losing weight, you can pretty much confirm if its lean muscle or fat you are losing. Which is good to know.

And what pieface says ^^

The scales I have are pretty good. They don’t deviate and in relative terms are pretty accurate, as my weight has reduced my bf has reduced by the appropriate amount.

They only send a circuit through your legs so aren’t that accurate, to get a fuller picture you also need sensors that go through the hands and so measure the torso / arms as well

They don’t measure fat (no matter how many sensors they have). They measure the resistance of your body between the sensors and from this they infer the % BF. Problem is, there isn’t a direct relationship between electrical resistance and body fat so they are easily confused by hydration levels etc. They are basically guessing very crudely, about as accurate as looking in the mirror. Just because they have an LCD with a % sign after it, doesn’t mean it’s accurate!

Quite interesting opinions there. And in contrast to what the fella who wrote this says:
http://racingweight.com/

He claims they aren’t 100% accurate but aren’t far out, but are consistent. I suppose more research is required.
I was thinking of measuring BF% and weight over the off season now in an attempt to come back next season a bit leaner.

The one I had (Tanita IIRC) had to be set up for Male / Female and Athlete / Normal physique, changing any of the settings made a % change of 5-10%, so it just shows how hopeless it was, it just guessed using a pre-defined set of look up tables.

Pretty much the only way to accurately work out % BF is to do a complete body MRI.