weight scale

[hoshin]

i have a question....i just bought a weight scale to keep track of those extra pounds i seem to be accumulating with age. however the new scales out there claim to be able to measure your body fat content and water percentage. this is a cheep scale from walmart , about $34 how accurate can this really measure your fat and water content?

steve

[Bill Glasheen]

how accurate can this really measure your fat and water content?

steve

Not very.

The devices measure the resistance in-between your feet. The resistance to current flow is proportional to body fat content. Unfortunately it's also affected by many other factors.

The "easy" way to get percent body fat is to do skin caliper measurements at several key locations on the body. (Skin of arm, skin at waist, etc.) The thickness of your skin at places where you typically store fat - if measured accurately - can tell a lot about your body fat content. It's a very imprecise measurement, but again it's easy. The gold standard is immersion in a fluid tank. That's only used in a research setting.

Here's the thing, Steve. Total fat content isn't the only thing that tells you about your risk for various diseases. Where you store that fat is very telling. Fat around the booty isn't so bad. Fat in the midsection is bad news. Consequently a relatively easy measurement is to do the waist-to-hip ratio. A simple tape measure can easily get you this statistic. This is IMO superior to a standard used by clinical medicine today - BMI. That's a function of your height and weight. For an athlete, BMI is totally bogus.

Hope that helps.

Go ahead and use the measurement on your scale. If you notice changes under identical conditions, that can tell you something. But don't put much faith in the absolute measurement. You're a lot better off keeping track of the easy-to-measure waist-to-hip ratio.

- Bill

[IJ]

I cannot imagine, even if one had an accurate fat measuring scale, that it could possibly provide that much meaningful information that the user didn't already have at least subconsciously by noticing the fit of their clothes or the appearance of their body. Some people are very motivated by numbers and goals, and that may justify a home for such a scale,* but I don't think the information is a secret to anyone. That is, unless its hard to notice subtle changes in a large body (eg, women who don't notice they're pregnant, etc), but, isn't the best response to the situation always evident?

*Admittedly, I LOVE racing prior records on my exercise bike, as measured by calories, and this is despite my knowing that 1094 calories is essentially the same as 1065 calories, and that there's no way I biked off half a days food, 30 minutes of furious pedaling or no.

[hoshin]

thanks Bill this is as i thought. i just wasnt sure if i was behind the times on new technology.

IJ as Bill said its the fat around the mid section that is dangerous. which i belive the dangerous part is the fat within , around the organs. you really cant tell how much internal fat you have just by looking in the mirror. but it might be a 50 / 50 ratio, internal VS within the skin , i am not sure.

[TSDguy]

knowing that 1094 calories is essentially the same as 1065 calories, and that there's no way I biked off half a days food, 30 minutes of furious pedaling or no.

Half a day?! I recently took a cue from all-time most winning olympic athlete Michael Phelps and have been eating 12,000+ calories a day. I'll be in gold-medal-shape in no time!

[Van Canna]

Your weight multiplied by 12 is supposedly the number of calories you must not exceed in a day.

So lets talk about a typical eating day

[Shana Moore]

hoshin, I have one of those scales and don't really count on it being accurate, but I use it like Bill suggested. It provides a baseline that helps me get a general idea on if I'm "heading in the right direction" with my workouts, etc.

I would recommend weighing at the same time/conditions each time, as I believe hydration and conditions also significantly affect this type of measurement.

While I'm not using that function right now, as I don't think it would provide any meaningful data while I'm pregnant, I would typcally measure at least 2x/week, first thing in the am, same days of the week. It, like taking measurements, was just an indicator to keep doing what i was doing or change something up.

hope that's helpful.

[Van Canna]

I threw my scale in the trash eons ago` From that point on my weight normalized

[Mary S]

I live by the "It's not what you weigh, it's what and how you eat" adage.

I only use my scales to weigh my 16.6 lb. cat.

[Shana Moore]

I live by the "It's not what you weigh, it's what and how you eat" adage.

I only use my scales to weigh my 16.6 lb. cat.

WOW! That's sum cat!...er..sumo cat?

I don't pay a great deal of attention to the scale, but when I 'm trying to lose weight and get (back) into shape after I deliver...it's helpful to have something to measure progress by. Typically, I weigh/measure/do the fat ratio and look for progress..trying not to focus on the numbers as much as making progress toward where I want to be.....

so I try not to use it as a whip, but as a progress measure..does that make sense?

[IJ]

I wouldn't use weight x 12 as a calorie guide. What if you weigh 300 pounds?

A scale as an encouragement tool isn't a bad idea, but you have to know the fat % is unreliable and that day to day fluctuations don't matter. You're looking for a trend, we usually say a pound or two a week. And we know there are good reasons not to check your stocks every day.

As for visceral fat, yeah, you can tell by looking in the mirror. I'm 6'3 and 165-168 and thus I'm not particularly worried I have any. If my belly grows, I may not know whether I gained deep visceral fat or a beer belly, but I won't care--the action plan is the same. Eat less. Eat better, including wrt timing, eg, don't skip breakfast, don't gorge at night. Exercise more. End. I can keep myself where I want to be without a scale or a fat percent thing, by following my fitness (one measure being my admittedly inaccurate kcal output on the bike), and my waist. For people in whom its a little less clear, a W-H ratio isn't a bad idea. Still, walk out of Auschwitz with a "healthy" WR ratio and see how far that gets you in life... there has to be a fitness measure. An ACCURATE fat measure isn't a bad idea, but bad data may be worse than none if if creates false confidance.

Plus, a lot of what passes for normal, average, or goal in the USA is no prize, you know?

[hoshin]

i dont get caught up it the day to day weight. i like to measure at the end of the week tho. i like to keep track of my weight and how much i am lifting at the gym. helps the progress i think. problem was i had not weighted myself in at least 7 years and it got away from me a little. ( im only 163 now but my old prefered fighting weight was 145) ) but i would like to know that any weight i gain is muscle not fat.

steve

[IJ]

Precisely--why a functional measure, such as weight lifted or reps, and why the mirror test, is going to give you better data than a single weight, or a sketchy % fat.

[Bill Glasheen]

Umm... I happen to be one of those people who usually worries about losing weight. Stress does that to me. I burn calories worrying about life, and neglect to eat as many calories as I am burning.

Watching the scale (with a tolerance for the daily fluctuations of water weight) helps me understand when I'm not treating myself right.

I'm probably a couple of pounds lighter now than I'd like to be. Damned stress... I'm thankful the scale was there to remind me.

- Bill

[TSDguy]

Good lord you are tiny, IJ! I'm advancing on 100 pounds over you at a similar height.

I once read that men don't hit their strength peak until age 30. ? I've been going up in weight a LOT since college, and I'm not fat.