Recommendation on machine to measure percentage fat

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[heliumduck]

16 hours ago, MikeC said:

Hi

 

Just wondering if anyone has recommendation on weighing machine with fairly accurate measurement of body percentage fat?

 

I found a 3 percentage point difference between my own stand-on weighing scale at home and those at medical institutions where you both stand on a scale and hold on to a sensor in your hands.

 

if there isn't any stand-on weighing scale that are reasonably accurate (I do not expect very accurate), how much do those machines where u both stand on and hold on to sensor in your hands cost? Any brand recommendation would be helpful.

 

thanks for any advice !

 

im under the impression that from what little of stuff  i read on the internet, calipers are the best instrument so far

Edited July 8, 2016 by heliumduck

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[xydboy]

8 hours ago, MikeC said:

 

Thanks. After reading your post, I tried to find out more a bit more from Internet and found the below article useful to understanding more the various methods of measuring percentage fat.

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/07/13/5-ways-to-measure-body-fat-percentage/

 

Will consider use of fat calipers instead of weighing scale. Thanks.

You want to clip yourself? How do you self measure then? Calipers are random + systemic error instruments. For unskilled individuals (when I refer to unskilled means no prior training, and yes, you need to go for a course to get yourself familiar with it), these error is pretty high, coupled with the instrument itself (depending on what you get, some of the low quality ones which are plenty in the market are very poor when it comes to reading) can give rise to lots of error. Any kind of instruments would have variability, even the DEXA machine (the modern gold standard), between user/machine brands, it can give from about 2-5% of variability. These machines gives systemic error, so in any case, it would still be much better as compared to random + systemic error variability. Those you have at home is the single (or double depending on how you view it) lead, whereas the one with the handles is double (or quadruple)  lead, which could be a little more sensitive. But regardless, it also depends on when you take it, what you do before you take it, how you take it, etc. So with high external influence, the measurements can differ. End of the day, ask yourself what did you do prior, did you kept the conditions the same. If you did, then such a slight difference wouldn't matter as the possibility of inter machine difference accounts for the measurement differences you observe.

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[xydboy]

50 minutes ago, MikeC said:

Yah, after giving my reply, I read in another thread in BW on fat calipers and realize that they were not very feasible for my situation.

In terms of readings, I pretty much take all my readings early in the morning after waking up - because it is the most consistent and convenient time for me for day-to-day and also minimize interference from differing food and fluid intake throughout rest of day.  

 

In terms of usage - I used readings to

 

(1) measure day to day progress - which would then mean that "absolute accuracy" not so important and which is how I use it now. 

 

(2) measure against benchmarks (% fat for average guy vs lean guy) - in which case degree of absolute accuracy would be important.

I think my current machine is on the high side in the percentage fat figure cos it was 3 percentage points higher compared to what I measured with machines with handles to hold in hands (double the leads for just stand on) - but then again it could be due to comparison being made at different times of the day.  

Since 3 percentage points is fairly significantly (can mean moving from one band into another band), I would prefer the more sensitive "double leads".

 

Appreciate if anyone can share where those scales with handles to be held in hand over and above standing on scale are sold? Price range? Thanks.

The one widely used by people is someone thing like (http://www.fishpond.com.sg/Health/Omron-HBF-510W-Total-Body-Monitoring-Scale-each/0010315328744). Can go check around. But those at the medical institutes uses things like this (http://www.thecompetitiveedge.com/shop/item/123-productId.184550551_123-catId.176160834.html), so when you said double leads, I'm not sure which kind you are looking at. Actually if you are on the high side, you could look at yourself in the mirror to gauge for a start. Cause measuring it frequently day to day) wouldn't be helpful. Assuming all else equal (diet kept the same but increase in physical activity), the change is very small and even then could only be observed after 2-3 months.

Edited July 9, 2016 by xydboy

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[xydboy]

1 hour ago, MikeC said:

 

 

Thanks... being an ordinary guy of ordinary means, mine is the widely used type.  Hmm... looking at the price of medical institutes type - unless I was handling funds for 1MDB bah.

 

Ok, I will just try different widely used brands at physical stores until I find a brand that gives the closest reading to what I get at medical institutes (at least not the 3 point percentage difference) like my machine now.

Yah agree with u about no significant change day to day - but since no hassle to also just step on my weighing scale every morning, I just do it as habit.

The ones widely available cannot be compared to the ones offered by medical institutes mainly because of the algorithm and the kind of machine that is used (some medical instruments especially the gold standard uses x ray). I would say just take the measurements with a pinch of salt. Most importantly is not to just look at the measurements but what you going to do about it. You might be 3% short of healthy range, so what? as long as you are doing something about it, it is already better than not doing anything at all. Fitness, not fatness, determines the mortality rates, not the fat percentage number you see there. Numbers mean little when your actions are there to keep you fit.

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[xydboy]

3 hours ago, MikeC said:

 

Yup yup... data is useful only if we make use of them.  

While I also agree we should not live our lives based on figures (a lot of us already do in Singapore, comparing income figure, weight, PSLE scores, length of our brother lol), I feel "numbers" do provide some sort of guidelines and something more tangible to work towards, but without being overly fanatic about them.

 

btw did some online shopping. Just to share, Omron apparently has different models for US market and Asia Pacific (including Singapore market).

Both models can be bought online although the US model HBF 514C is much cheaper than the Asia Pacific model HBF 375.  The good thing abt the Omron body composition measure is that it has 7 measures and 2 that caught my eye besides the body fat composition are visceral fat and subcutaneous fat.  Visceral fat is also linked to health issues and diseases in males. Subcutaneous fat (beneath the skin) I guess would relate more to aesthetics.  Quite excited about this.

Anyway, I am waiting for response from Omron on whether both models are similar before making my purchase.

Omron is a popular brand locally next to Tanita. I have come across the visceral and subcutaneous fat. My lecturers when going through these instruments usually take those figures by a pinch of salt because they aren't very accurate by nature. Refer to references: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/1/74.full and http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2003.199/full for measurements on body fat and visceral fat comparison across different instruments respectively. Further information on the different instruments can be found here: http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC3473928/

Edited July 9, 2016 by xydboy

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[Chris Low]

pretty sure digital scales aren't accurate at all. so it can say you are x% cos you just drank tons of water and soaking wet from the steam room..

 

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body_fat_tests.htm

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/GuessMyBF

https://bodywhat.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xydboy]

6 hours ago, Chris Low said:

pretty sure digital scales aren't accurate at all. so it can say you are x% cos you just drank tons of water and soaking wet from the steam room..

 

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body_fat_tests.htm

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/GuessMyBF

https://bodywhat.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is why I mentioned that it is important to take the measurements at appropriate timing and standardised it across the different check points to ensure maximal validity

[MikeC]

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Edited October 27, 2023 by MikeC

[xydboy]

3 hours ago, MikeC said:

Just got my Omron HBF 514C online. Pretty happy with it, cos its more accurate than my current one (current only has stand-on leads) and gives the same readings as the those I obtained from the medical institutes (both hand-held leads and stand-on leads)

 

It provides 7 types of readings -

weight, BMI (this we can easily calculate ourselves), % fat, visceral fat, skeletal muscle %, resting metabolic rate and "body age".  Up to 90 day history for up to 4 people profiles.

 

The visceral fat indicator is useful for health purpose.  Resting metabolic rate also useful for calorie allowance.

As for accuracy of figures - well if the figures are good for medical institutes, they r good enough for me. Also my %fat matches what I observe about my figure now - so I am pretty comfortable about the validity of the readings.  Finally readings are useful for monitoring progress as long as I continue to take them at the same time every day (usually after waking up and without drinking any fluids yet).

 

That's great. Just to note that the visceral fat indicator is just a rating score and its based on the algorithm planted in the device. No where in any published norms (to the best of my knowledge) have documented the visceral fat indicators and health outcomes. So just take it with a pinch of salt. We usually just measure body fat percentages as there are norms present for it.

Edited July 15, 2016 by xydboy