Help me find bathroom scale that measures body fat.

November 3, 2006 7:40 AM

Help me pick a bathroom scale - with decent BODYFAT SENSOR. Lost url of a review from about a year ago that had good info on common models. The googles do nothing for that particular review, however

I keep thinking I saw this review on Slate.com (but try as I might I can't find it). It included about 10 different models, ranging from about $29 to $150 and the 'best' one was somewhere in the middle.

I guess I don't HAVE to have find this review in particular, but I liked the style & objectivity of it. These types of scales have the metal pads that measure the resistance in your bare feet and then automagically calculate your body fat. I know this isn't the most accurate way determining body fat, but I'm not interesting dunking myself in a vat or whipping out calipers every Sunday.

So again, I'm looking for something fairly precise (consistent and repeatable) more than accurate. It doesnt have to have fancy multi-user memories or bar graphs ( but I'd love it if it did).

on the review - it was in the same style as one they had sea salt and ergonomic chairs, where at the conclusion the author lists them in ascending order of awesomeness with some mini conclusions on each model, and some arbitrary scoring system. usually these reviews involve a group of the author's friends.

posted by ernie to health (13 comments total)

Consistent and repeatable? Not happening.
posted by caddis at 8:03 AM on November 3, 2006

Consistent and repeatable? Not happening.

Y'ok, how about "as good as possible for under $100", or so damn good it's worth $250 or whatever.
posted by ernie at 8:10 AM on November 3, 2006

The body fat sensors are kind of a scam, says my registered dietician wife.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:10 AM on November 3, 2006

Caddis is right. Depending on time of day, amount of water you've drunk, the relative humidity of the soles of your feet, etc., your results will vary.

That said, I have a Tanita I like. But I ignore the bodyfat reading.
posted by bink at 8:10 AM on November 3, 2006

Why not just buy a set of calipers, and learn how to measure it the way the pros do it? Yeah, it's not as fancy, but from anybody I've talked to about this sort of thing, it seems that the scales are pretty much useless.
posted by antifuse at 8:23 AM on November 3, 2006

I'll go with "scam". I inherited a pretty decent one. Forgot the brand but it was at least $150. From reading to reading it would change by up to 4 points even though it claimed a tolerance of 0.1%. For giggles I tracked the results daily for a month when I was losing weight. It looked like noise.

I'd bet the calipers are as accurate and only cost $10.00
posted by Ookseer at 8:24 AM on November 3, 2006

Yeah, on the cycling forums where I hang out most folks talk about Tanitas. The recomendation seems to be 'get one with an 'athlete' setting' as the programs overstate body fat for people that are in shape. But, yes, your hydration level and whether or not you've just taken a shower can affect the reading. Maybe good for looking at long term trends but not too much else.
posted by fixedgear at 8:24 AM on November 3, 2006

If this helps, conventional wisdom is if you're 12% b/f or under, you will start to see delineation of the abdominal muscles (re: you'll see a trace of them). 7% b/f and under is excellent and is when the "six pack" really starts showing.
posted by dropkick at 8:26 AM on November 3, 2006

I have a Tanita and I've been very happy with it. The BF reading seems to fluctuate a lot (+ or - 5%) from day to day but obviously that reading depends on a lot of factors. I suppose if you did it the same time of day after you've consumed the same amount of water, just before you shower or whatever then it'd give a more accurate reading. The weight reading is what is important to me and it seems pretty dead on. It's nicely built too. I bought mine from Amazon about a year go on sale for around $50 - bicycle catalogs advertise the same one in the $60 to $70 range, so shop around.
posted by wfrgms at 9:08 AM on November 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

My Tanita that I bought for about $80 does well but the key is to test yourself at the same time under the same conditions. The fluctuation from how hydrated you are and the time of day moves the needle several percentage points for me. So I step on the scale at the same time, after peeing, before working out and the results are consistent each day. For the 3 seconds it takes to step on the scale, it provides a relative % for you.

It isn't perfect, but if you need perfect, you need to go to a sports medicine place that measures fat by dunking you in a tank. Caliper results can vary too based on how well the person doing it is at it. Neither of these solutions are as easy as stepping on a scale barefoot.
posted by birdherder at 10:30 AM on November 3, 2006

The trainer at my gym told me that even the $500 body fat tester they have requires you to forgo alcohol for 48 hours and food for about 5 hours to get a reading that's within 10 percent of accurate.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:30 AM on November 3, 2006

Just a counter to the above - mine seems quite consistant and repeatable, and it's a cheap one. By this I mean if you take a reading, then immediately take another, and another, they will come out the same each time - very precise. Take a reading at a different tie of day under different conditions, and you would expect the reading to be different (and it is), because YOU are different.

I don't know if the accuracy is worth a damn, but as you've already noted, the accuracy is irrelevant - you just use it to track improvement, and to do that, just like with any instrument you must take the readings under controlled conditions.

The more controlled you make the conditions, the less noise in the readings.
posted by -harlequin- at 6:07 PM on November 3, 2006

I have a Salter scale that measures body fat. When I measure at the same time each morning, it's very consistent. I don't know how accurate it is though. This scale also has a strain gauge instead of a spring to measure weight. The scale was about C$50 at Sears two years ago.
posted by blue grama at 5:54 AM on November 4, 2006