Riddle me this Catheites! (yet another body fat comment/info...)

amyg

amyg

Cathlete
I got my calipers in the mail yesterday!!! It's interesting- both myself and DH read the instructions and tested them out on ourselves and each other. Mine came it at 19.7% or something (high 19 is all I remember) and DH was at 13%. I'm 5'2", 133lb, and exercise 6 days a week. He's 6'2", 160lb, and exercises at work only (he's a hotel banquet mgr so he runs around all day long).

In any case, we have a scale with the BF evaluator too. My scale has consistently told me I'm 28-30% fat for the last 3+ years. (The calipers were I think the best $3 I've ever spent, LOL.)

DH measured himself with the calipers, then immediately got on the scale to see if they matched. They did!!! I was so confused how his said 13% both times and I had a 10% discrepancy after all that.

On the scale, you enter height and sex, then it calculates percentage BF from that. He did it again this morning, EXCEPT he told the scale he was female. The scale told him he was 36% fat!!!

Figure that out, and I'll be amazed. :)
 
My body fat scale tells me I have 25% body fat. Maybe it's not so bad as I thought... Be interesting to see what others say here.

Jeanette
 
The reason is that the scale does not give you a body fat measurement without mathmatically manipulating the number first using a series of algorhythms based on your sex, height and your age. The more factors taken into consideration the more removed the final answer is from the number the machine initialy picks up. Electrical impedance is the most error prone of all types of methods to determine BF%.In addition if you use a scale vs a handheld electrical impedance device, the numbers will be different because the current leaving the device takes the path of least resistance on its way back to the scale or handheld device and so you mostly measure lower body fat as opposed to total BF with the scale and you are mostly measuring upper BF with the handheld. The golden standard is underwater weighing, followed by calipers.
I posted on this subject a while ago but I'll repeat the info here. About 2 yrs ago ( I weighed about 20lbs more- then I was about 145 at 5'7") my BF% by underwater weighing was about 21%, calipers (fitness professional #1 measured me at about 16% and fitness professional #2 measured me at about 18%). Tanita scale said I was about 33% BF. Calipers tend to underestimate your BF% and electrical impedance will over estimate your BF.
This morning I did the experiment you suggested. My Tanita scale said I was 27%BF when on the female setting, my Tanita scale on the male setting said I was 14%. My omicron handheld says I am 20% on the female setting and my calipers have been giving me a reading of 12-13% lately and so I figure I am really probably about 16-17%BF based on my experience with underwater weighing. Although the scale and calipers won't give you a true absolute value (only underwater weighing can do that), it can help you keep track of gains and losses in BF with calipers being closest to your real value. Hope that helps.
 
Great explanation Cathy! Thank you.

I knew those electrical readings had to be wrong. I was 5'3", weighed 115 lbs. and was working out, and was measured twice with 2 different electrical impedance devices and each time measured 27-28%. Lisannjam, a personal trainer, told me no way was that my true reading.
 
My bodyfat scale says something absurd like 35 percent bodyfat, and my calipers say that I am around 19 percent. I am 5'2" tall, and I am a little overweight at 136 pounds, but I also exercise every day, and I am muscular. There are different protocols for measuring bodyfat sites with calipers, and the Jackson-Polluck one is for athletic people, and it will tend to give lower bodyfat percentages. However, even another protocol will not say that an athletic, muscular woman had 30 percent bodyfat. In my opinion, calipers are much more accurate than scales.
 
May I ask if there is a particular brand or type of caliper to look for when buying? I was planning on getting one and after reading all this, I am for sure.
 
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