How to measure body fat?
 

I’ve tried three ways of measuring body fat:

1. I got new scales for Christmas which should do it. They seem to measure how damp your feet are however! They read 28 (just out the bath and so still damp) or 31 (dead dry).

2. I’ve visited on line sites that measure your B.M.I. based on your height and weight. I come out as 31.8 – obese – boohoo – well I did know it.

3. This morning I went to www.mybodycomp.com where you take loads of measurements of different parts of your body and feed them in. It produced a figure which showed my body was made up of 25.89% fat.

Which would you trust, and which do you use?

All three are wildly inaccurate, but at least the scale (electrical bioimpedance) is consistant, so you can track changes. Yes, be consistant in how you do it and what time of day etc, just get on it 3-5 times and do an average.

I use a hand model myself and are happy with the results.

RC, this is so hard. I've been trying to get an accurate measure of my bf for months. What I'd suggest is to use the same type of measurement--e.g., body fat scale, bioelectrical impedance, manual measurement--and compare the results over time. Every single style of measurement, with the possible exception of immersion in water which is very expensive--has a large margin of error. So you can't get a really trustworthy absolute measure, only a comparative one over time.

BTW, body mass index and percentage BF are two completely different standards and you really can't make much out of one standard alone. An athlete who's very muscular could have a high BMI but a very low BF%.

Another way of "ballparking" the BF stuff is just to notice how differently your clothes are fitting over time, as you lose fat and gain muscle.

HTH! :)

I use the bodyfat monitor scale. Which, BTW says in the directions that your feet should be dry....

I use the scale, but I don't think they are that accurate, at least at higher body fat percentages. I would test my BF at night and get at times as much as 7% difference. One night I checked once, then went and watched a movie, eating nothing and just drinking water. I checked after the movie and found I'd lost 2 pounds but gained 1% BF according to the scale:P

I like the mybodycomp because it takes into effect so many different measurements instead of just hip to waist.

The only way to test for sure would be one of those water tests and that would be expencive. Just pick a method you like and stick to it. Look for drops in the number more then the number.

The measurements aren't always that accurate if you have an abnormal body type or shape -- really short/long waisted, very muscular, unusually tall or short, etc. Sometimes you kind of have to pick the right method for you based on intuition about your body type and general toned-ness. MyBodyComp puts my LBM ~8.5 lbs lower, and my body fat 7.5% higher, than the handheld measurement gadget at the gym; but based on my general proportions, I think the lower body % is probably the right one.

I have been using MyBodyComp since I began low carbing in August. One disappointment though. I began using this site thinking that it had to be very accurate because they required so many measurements from different body areas. Over time I noticed that some measurements made no difference in the BF calculations. In fact, height, weight, abdomen, waist, hip and knee are the only measurements required. The others are used in plotting your strong/weak points. Still, this is more than most sites use for their calculations.

Johnie