The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
On these body fat measuring things, what is the difference in the settings that are for "normal" vs. "athlete?"
If I put it on "normal" my bodyfat is much much higher, if I use "athlete" it's lower.
So that means it's not actually measuring my body fat based on what it is.
And yes I know not to depend on them for accuracy, I'm just wanting a new number to plug into my chart and see it go down.
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note: I just went to check the difference on the Omron, and didn't realize I had it set to "normal" and not "athlete." On "athlete" it measured 27.9 and "normal" it measured 30.7.
My tanita is set at "athlete" and I'm not changing that because I don't remember how. Today I measured 28.1% on "athlete."
total "'a" girl all the way. I bought mine back when I was doing more triathlons, somewhere on the site is the definition of athlete, and I met it, no problem.
So that means it's not actually measuring my body fat based on what it is.
Of course it isn't *measuring" BF (and you already know it isn't) - it is measuring electrical signals or impedance or something along those lines and applying a formula to those measurements in concert with the weight to derive something approximating BF%.
Given that, it may have a different formula to use for those with lower actual BF (the athlete setting) in order to get close to normalized BF%.
So formula A is a close approximation for those over some % but when you get lower formula B is a better approximation - like that.
The athlete setting is for those with a resting heartrate of less than 60 BPM.
My resting HR is 52 or 55 and no way would I consider myself an "athlete" ... as you said, the point is consistency to watch the number go down whichever number you start with.
Say you start at the lower number 28, and go down to 23, and then you post a photo for Leigh and she says, "non-athlete you, your BF is now 25" won't you be disappointed? But if you start at 30, you'd be totally accurate..
This should answer the question about athlete mode (taken from Tanita web page).
Q: Why is there an "Athlete Mode"? A:The Athlete mode was developed to provide a more accurate reading for athletic body types. Athletic body types are physiologically different than standard adult body types, due to muscle mass and hydration level differences. Athletes tend to have greater muscle mass and tend to be more dehydrated. These differences would skew the body fat reading high, when taken with the standard Adult mode.
Tanita defines "athlete" as a person involved in intense physical activity of approximately 10 hours per week and who has a resting heart rate of approximately 60 beats per minute or less.
Tanita's athlete definition includes "lifetime of fitness" individuals who have been fit for years but currently exercise less than 10 hours per week. Tanita's athlete definition does not include "enthusiastic beginners" who are making a real commitment to exercising at least 10 hours per week but whose bodies have not yet changed to require the Athlete mode.
Yea, I finally found that information after looking around a bit. Silly me hadn't thought to do that first. Sometimes I forget you can find just about anything online.
My RHR has never been incredibly low. I'm usually around 60. My late husband had one of those freakingly low ones down in the 30's and the doctors always spazzed out about it.
I did reset both my Tanita scale and Omron handheld and measured this morning. Yea, I do the morning measure and don't worry about the hydration issue. I'm kinda just going by the numbers to see them drop.
I got 34% on the Tanita, and 30% on the handheld, so I'm using the average. That only puts me about 2% higher than on the athlete numbers, so not much of a difference actually. I'm cool with it.
Best thing though is that I got a full length mirror finally put up in my bedroom so I can admire my ever shrinking and muscle growing body in the nude each day. Nothing more fun than a little flexing after a hard workout.
Not really buying the low RHR & definition of an athlete either.. mine has always been really low at or below 40bpm, even when I never did more than 2-3 hr of exercise a week (functional cycling was all I did). Some people just won't fit into that category. Vice versa, a friend of mine spends well over 10 up to 30 hrs every week on cycling and/or skating and has a RHR over 60bpm.
And yes I know not to depend on them for accuracy, I'm just wanting a new number to plug into my chart and see it go down.
They are also not very precise (at least mine isn't). I have been taking measurements for 6 weeks and day to day the fluctuations can be 3%. It took me 5 weeks to see a real trend.
Each horizontal line is 1%.
Blue are daily measurements
red is the average of the last 7 days
and black is the trend
I agree, Tanita BF readings are more in the realm of a WAG and entertainment value. Tracking and seeing a trend is hopefully of some value-- that's what I do.
My BF reading yesterday was 4% higher than it was today at the same time and eating virtually an identical diet. The BF reading is always about 7-8% higher in the morning than in the afternoon. Wish someone could come up with a more sensitive instrument, but until then, photos, measurements and my ugly jeans from 6 years ago will have to be my guide.
I've always had quite reliable feedback from the Omron, as long as the data came from rolling 30-day averages, excluding hormonal 'follies'. Lately though , a wrench was thrown in by starting on creatine & all of a sudden bf% readings went way up.
It startled me quite a bit at the time, but I've come to the conclusion creatine makes you retain a bit more fluids in the skin as well, which will change conductivity in the skin.
The only real problem is that I'm not consistently using creatine, so that makes the readouts (even the 30d avg) a lot less reliable.
yep, that is the definition. on my tanita, the athlete mode is closest to calipers and dexa. it is a percentage point or two lower but close. the normal mode for me is super duper too high. my tanita has a percent water calculation, which helps me know when I am retaining creatine fluid, repair fluid from a long run. etc.
yep, that is the definition. on my tanita, the athlete mode is closest to calipers and dexa. it is a percentage point or two lower but close. the normal mode for me is super duper too high. my tanita has a percent water calculation, which helps me know when I am retaining creatine fluid, repair fluid from a long run. etc.
I use the Ironman Tanita (ie measure lower and upper body fat) and have run a few marathons/triathlons the past few years as well as lifting heavy, but don't put mine on athlete mode as it puts me around 12/13% which is way off. Normal mode for me fluctuates between 16 and 19% which is probably still too low
Those gigantic differences are probably due to different types of water retention under the skin?
For me, it's not so much that the actual bf% is of huge importance, but it does piss me off to see how even a rolling average of 30 days totally goes into the gutter from using creatine. Mine is even one that doesn't make you retain a lot of fluid = CEE. Apparently it still influences conductivity.. I've not really noticed a lot of retention at all.
My Omron is a very old one that doesn't give hydration levels .. maybe time for a more sophisticated type like Jedi's?
To show how different values can be, another person I know has 12% on Tanita, 25% on my Omron & 18% in the Dexa. Take your pick!
yeah, when I look at leigh's pictures, I really believe my actual is close to what the calipers say, which correlated really well with my dexa. 24.3%. in the end, I don't really care about the actual number. but the tanita is wonderful at telling me my hydration status.
Tanita/Omron - question about settings
Linear Mode
