Hi

I have been looking on amazon and argos for some bathroom scales that measure body fat % as well as weight, and there seems to be loads of mixed reviews for them - can anyone recommend a good 'make' - cost can be anywhere under £50.00.... I am in the Uk..

Thanks

The mechanism that home scales use to measure body fat is pretty dodgy. They send a tiny electrical current through parts of your body (you won't feel it), and that current is strongly affected by how much water you have in your body. The more water you have, the higher the body fat reading on the scale. Also, many scales send the current through only the lower part of your body (up one leg and down the other), further limiting their accuracy. The general rule of thumb is that home scales are accurate to only within 3%, meaning you could be anywhere in a 6% range.

That said, Tanita now makes a model that includes a foot and hand-held sensor that should, in theory, be more accurate than a foot-only sensor, though I don't know what Tanita claims or independent tests (if any) have shown.

Many thanks for your reply - daft question - how are people calculating their body fat when putting it on the stats ta

Probably using an online calculator like this:

http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Healt...calculator.aspx

Not sure how you use them or how accurate they are but you can buy 'bodyfat calipers' on Amazon really cheap, less than a fiver - might be worth having a look at

Thanks, will have a nose

I had just visited a doctor how had a special sensor that you hold in your hands and it calculates it. He didn't make an issue of it, I just glimpsed the reading.
I don't trust the handheld calipers. It's too hard to be consistent with them. You can judge improvement without knowing the actual number.

The scales in Boots have always been really accurate for me.