Tonight was my first night working at the Y and after my shift was over I found myself in the back playing with the Tanita TBF-300 (supposively extremely expensive top notch scale). It has age, weight, athleticism, gender, and clothes weight inputs. I was excited as this scale is way nicer than mine at home I have been using. Well I hopped on bare foot and typed all the correct info in and went at it, then i double checked again, yep, it reads 8.7% body fat. My scale at home reads 15% body fat. Using mybodycomp.com and measuring tape I read about 13% body fat. What gives.
I'm really thinking about taking a pic of myself and posting it here so I can have some of you guys give your best guestimate, those of you that have been around this a while and can get a good idea by just looking. I was really taken back by the results on the scale as the scale is a way nicer than mine and their is such a varience, and there is no way I can believe I am 8.7% body fat I have no detailed abdominals showing. My best guess is the cheaper scale I have at home is more accurate...I have no idea how that could be but I believe I am 15% over 8.7% any day. I'll try to get a pic up in this thread.
I have the same problem man omron digital scale gives me 10%, Mybodycomp says 9% and fattrack digital says 8%. I've been hitting my abs really hard lately but still can't see them that good ..
This is just a guess since I don't know what you do at your job or what you ate during your shift, but if you were constantly moving, or if you didn't eat a lot or if your water intake was different, it could throw the scale off that much. Unless you took both measurements (using the scale at home and using the scale at your work) under the same circumstances, you can't compare the two.
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I was just reading an article over at tnation, and it was about BF% and pretty much exactly what you're talking about. How body fat% can vary depending on what method or machinery you're using...
The scales that shoot electricity through you are pretty unreliable when it comes to BF%. The most accurate way to find out your BF is the water tank test, followed by calipers, then all of those scales/machines you see.
For the most part those machines should just be used as directional indicators with calipers being used at home for true BF%.
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Actually, to be techinically precise, the most accurate way is DEXA, dual energy x-ray absorpiometry, but it is not readily available to the public. And calipers are only as accurate as the operator is skilled....it is just as possible that you can have a reading off of 'true' BF% levels with calipers as it can with any other measuring method.
Rev, the key is consistency. Unless you want to know your absolute level for bragging rights (I mean, if you can see your 6-pack, do you really care if you are at 12% or 9%?), use the same method and look for trends up or down. Unless you have access to a cheap repeatable dunk test, which also can vary in results, or the BodPod , which is about as accurate as immersion tests, then take your method and look at trend (up or down) without worrying about absolute numbers, as ECS noted.
Of note, without actual vivisection, there is no way to determine 'true' BF% - at least that is what I read - because each method has its descriptive shortcomings and outliers.
Thanks for the excellent feedback guys. Kaiser the number one reason I was caring about the actual number is because that number dictates what my goals are.
For instance, I would like to stay 10-15% bf, when 10% is reached, I bulk bulk and bulk some more. After a while I will have accumulated some fat, not letting my % get past 15 I would know when to begin cut phase again. Seems as though I will never know the exact measurement here unless I can track down a hydro testing tank.
I took a look at Johnka's progress photo's he posted in mid December, he said he was 6% body fat in the end result picture, he's COMPLETELY ripped to shreds. I don't come close to how he looks, I'm a very faded and washed version. F it I have no idea where my bf is at. I'm still going to take a picture today and try to post it just for the hell of it.
If you wanna judge your progress my goal setting then stick with one method of bf% testing and make sure it is getting lower. Does not matter if that method says you started off at 30% bf, as long as a few months from now the same method tells you that you are 24% bf....you would be making progress.
BTW, yea the pics are't great but 13-15% would be my "educated" guess.
I know, go by one method, doesnt matter what the number is, all you look for is progress. That is a good way to go except for when you are looking for an accurate specific number. I need to know when to stop cutting. I wanted to stop cutting at 10%...basically I don't know when to stop since every measurement tool is drastically different. I will just have to randomly choose to stop cutting and go into bulking phase eventually?
nah i just took it down because I feel like I have an idea where I am at (13-15%) and I'm just going to go by my home scale anyways. I do know this and its pure physical evidence, I've lost 4 inches off my abdominals in 70 days, was 19.5% body fat on my scale starting off and now on the same scale it reads 15%, retained my lbm, strength keeps climbing rep by rep and plate by plate, so I'm just going to keep plugging away for a while. Thanks guys.
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