Anyone use bodyfat scales?

Mine have gone very weird, or at least I hope they have.

Since I began training they have charted a steady course from 20% down to 16% with reasonable consistency.

In the last couple months however they have not budged, leading me to think that I am no longer losing fat.

Anyway the last two weeks my bodfat is going up!

According to my scales this morning I am now 18% fat :-\

My bodyweight has remained the same, I am exercising almost daily and eating healthily. I always take my readings on a Monday morning first thing when I wake up for consistency.

I don't believe for a second my bodyfat has increased in the laat two weeks whilst my weight hasn't.

I'm also visably in better shape than I have been for a long time, smaller waist, more muscles (well I mean I can now see something move when I flex my biceps or tense my pecs),

So I'm calling bullshit on the scales, I think their reading is wrong. But how do I now know what my real bodyfat is?

You can't really get an accurate reading from those, you need to get into one of those dunk tanks.

Ultimately though, it's just a number and not a good metric to use. Go for how you feel. You know your diet and exercise regimen why do you need a number to go along with it?

Yeah I guessed the number itself was never accurate, I just figured the changes recorded were. I didnt care if my initial say 20.5% reading was exactly right as long as the changes were plotted consistenly.

Now I don't think they are as there is no way my body composition has changed so drastically that the percentage of bodyfat has gone up to 18% in two weeks.

I think I shall try changing the batteries tonight and if that doesn't fix it I will just stop weighing myself.

Waste of time imo.

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Originally Posted by Bilbo

Yeah I guessed the number itself was never accurate, I just figured the changes recorded were. I didnt care if my initial say 20.5% reading was exactly right as long as the changes were plotted consistenly.

Now I don't think they are as there is no way my body composition has changed so drastically that the percentage of bodyfat has gone up to 18% in two weeks.

I think I shall try changing the batteries tonight and if that doesn't fix it I will just stop weighing myself.

Waste of time imo.

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It is a waste of time honestly. What you are doing is good work, doing all the right things with steady exercise and diet, you are getting good results that you notice. The only thing wrong in this equation is a piece of faulty electronics, ditch it.....problem solved.

supermodels would be my guess

bodyfat scales are generally shit.

They are inaccurate, the one I got says mine was about 10, at work when we were examined it was 15.

The ones that I use cost between £900-£1200 and even they can be off by up to 3%

Thats even assuming that you recreate identical conditions when doing the test as everything from room, your clothes, how active your metabolism is, stomach content and hydration etc will affect the impedance of the current the machine sends.

I've had readings of 3% which I know is BS... More like 7-8

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

The ones that I use cost between £900-£1200 and even they can be off by up to 3%

Thats even assuming that you recreate identical conditions when doing the test as everything from room, your clothes, how active your metabolism is, stomach content and hydration etc will affect the impedance of the current the machine sends.

I've had readings of 3% which I know is BS... More like 7-8

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So they are a waste of time pretty much?

Is there a cheap way to get an official assessment? I guess it doesn't really matter anyway, the mirror is the best test.

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Originally Posted by Bilbo

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

The ones that I use cost between £900-£1200 and even they can be off by up to 3%

Thats even assuming that you recreate identical conditions when doing the test as everything from room, your clothes, how active your metabolism is, stomach content and hydration etc will affect the impedance of the current the machine sends.

I've had readings of 3% which I know is BS... More like 7-8

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So they are a waste of time pretty much?

Is there a cheap way to get an official assessment? I guess it doesn't really matter anyway, the mirror is the best test.

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Mate you're becoming obsessed. You weigh as much as a 10 year old girl, let it go ;D

haha fair play. ;D

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

The ones that I use cost between £900-£1200 and even they can be off by up to 3%

Thats even assuming that you recreate identical conditions when doing the test as everything from room, your clothes, how active your metabolism is, stomach content and hydration etc will affect the impedance of the current the machine sends.

I've had readings of 3% which I know is BS... More like 7-8

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You are a fit lad.

Any one care for a triple layer chocolate fudge cake with sprinkles on top? ;D

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Originally Posted by Ghost

Any one care for a triple layer chocolate fudge cake with sprinkles on top? ;D

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Ive just done a 4 mile walk home, in the middle of that I had an hours tennis coaching.

Im now undoing all that and more no doubt with a kebab ;D

Damn its good

I always thought abs were a good way to tell your bodyfat, unless im completely wrong. If you can see top row of your abs your about 12 percent bodyfat, if you have a complete sixpack your just below 10 percent bodyfat.

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Originally Posted by Ghost

Any one care for a triple layer chocolate fudge cake with sprinkles on top? ;D

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Master does by the look of his post above yours.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ghost

Any one care for a triple layer chocolate fudge cake with sprinkles on top? ;D

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Ditch the sprinkles and put some deep fried snickers and you're on! ;D

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Originally Posted by Master

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

The ones that I use cost between £900-£1200 and even they can be off by up to 3%

Thats even assuming that you recreate identical conditions when doing the test as everything from room, your clothes, how active your metabolism is, stomach content and hydration etc will affect the impedance of the current the machine sends.

I've had readings of 3% which I know is BS... More like 7-8

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You are a fit lad.

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Heh, thanks mate... don't think I'm anything special mind... just goes with the territory.

Bilbo I don't think your problem is an abundance of fat... just focus on gaining more muscle!

My body fat went up 2% in a week when I was ill... I couldn't eat and could hardly drink for a week and had a really high fever. I lost over half a stone... most of it water weight.

Was making sure the scales at work worked properly when I got back and my body fat was 2% higher. Clearly I couldn't have gained any fat as I couldn't bloody eat (if anything I looked leaner... but skinnier too)... but seeing as there was 7lbs less of me... the few pounds of fat that I did have on my body now accounted for a higher % of my total weight.

The fact is that I wasn't fatter. It's just a number and unless you're a serious athlete, model or whatever then I wouldn't worry too much... it's nice to see big results, if you were 25% at the start of the year and got to 16% then that's progress... but if you gain or lose 1-2%? As long as you feel and look better don't sweat th small stuff! ;)

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Originally Posted by ICB

I always thought abs were a good way to tell your bodyfat, unless im completely wrong. If you can see top row of your abs your about 12 percent bodyfat, if you have a complete sixpack your just below 10 percent bodyfat.

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And if you haven't seen any sign of your abs for 15 years...................you're a lard arse. (like me)

What the heck is a bodyfat scale? Just sounds weird to me.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

Bioelectrical impedance analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Cheers for that. I guess I am just ignorant about this stuff. Bilbo seems obsessed with all this weight stuff these days. I am just thankful for having enough skin to cover my bones. That's quite enough for me.

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

Bioelectrical impedance analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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What is your heart rate per minute AdamGB?

It's fairly low mate, nothing outstanding by any means... not for somebody who boxes as a hobbie and basically worksout for a living :)

Don't really monitor it a lot... I took it in the morning a while ago and I think it was about 53... it was toward 50 anyway. Loads of things can have an affect on it so it could be lower at the moment or higher, I haven't checked.

Like your body fat it's not the be all and end all of fitness, not even cardiovascular fitness. It's obviously the sign of a stronger heart but there are some factors to take into account to... gender and age etc.

Women for example tend to be lower than men on average. because they have less muscle to have to pump oxygen to and lower metabolisms etc.

I know women who's resting heart rate is similar to mine, some a touch lower who I will leave for dead in any cardiovascular fitness test.

If I've had a heavy few weeks training then my heart rate will probably be higher at rest than some other people's... even if I'm fitter... my body is repeairing and growing cells, pumping waste products around, replenishing nutrients/fluids etc... If you train the way I do then your body doesn't stop right when the workout does.

It's 24/7 think that's one of the reasons you become over trained if you don't periodise your training... (something I've only just became disciplined enough to do! I can't stop myself or step back and have lighter weeks! gotta practice it and preach it! ;))

I tend to just go off performance and wellbeing rather than getting heavily in to stats when training people. If you look better, feel better and perform better than you're doing something right! ;)

If a client wants to see the numbers I'll test them... some people thrive off analytical results and numerical proof but a lot don't need it.

I had a guy who went from 100kg to 98kg in 6 weeks... not a tonne of weight lost but we took some tests (repeated them thrice to make sure as always) and I forget the exact numbers but he's went from over 30% body fat down to something like 23% body fat and gained something like 6kg of muscle.

I could pretty much tell him all of this based on what we'd been doing, how he'd been performing and how he looked (it's not rocket science, his strength shot up, he looked thinner, he was 100% more active but not eating any more and he looked slimmer!) but could tell he still had doubts... and you've got to have faith in what you're doing to see it through... so I got it on paper for him.

This guy is trying to drop from about 100kg to about 80kg lean (again we had to work this out, great client... but very number driven, again some people work better that way... at least it gives him a goal) so I understand that with that much weight to drop, he wants to make sure what he's doing is working.

Bilbo on the other hand... being 140 or sometimes 143:o... just needs to get on with it and pump that iron! :p

Eat well, train hard and take your vitamins BRUTHA

http://wwfhasbro.prowrestlingoutside...nia-712484.jpg

I have got mines down to 48 but that was long ago but it is not far off that but the way you put it, it does not matter that much. I know Henry Armstorng was in the 30's and had to really warm up to get going before he entered the ring, so it does have it advantages as he could punch for fun for ages.