Wed, Feb-13-13, 20:06
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Senior Member
Posts: 3,948
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Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 213/167/165
BF:35%/23%/20%
Progress: 96%
Location: United States
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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.
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