weighing scales

[Giant-Churchy]

Hello all, I'm after some advice please. I would like to find some decent scales to measure my weight and body fat. I have in the past had cheap0and nasty scales. What set would you recommend for accuracy and above all quality. Thanks

 

[Dusty Bin]

Do you want to spend £40 or £400?

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Do you want to spend £40 or £400?

Sorry I should be more accurate the moment I would like to keep it below 100 if possible

 

[Dusty Bin]

We have a Salter digital bathroom scale which seems to work ok. Accuracy is relative though, and a lot of the cost in whichever scales you buy will be taken up with the materials used to build it, rather than the accuracy of the scale itself. They are all pretty good these days though. Next time you are at the docs, jump on their calibrated scales and then compare the readings when you get home.

 

[uclown2002]

Withings do some quality scales but don't come cheap.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Checking your body fat with bioelectrical impedance used by scales is not reliable or accurate. If you’re dehydrated or sweat a lot from exercise or your climate, you will have less body water for the electric current to flow through. The result: your body fat reading may be higher than it really is. And the opposite is also true. If you drink too much fluid, have a full bladder,

Body Fat scales are digital snake oil get yourself some calipers and learn how to use them correctly.

 

[Dusty Bin]

or just look in the mirror regularly....

 

[ColinJ]

or just look in the mirror regularly....

Indeed, and apply the 'jump up and down and see what wobbles' test. (Men and women have some obvious body parts that wobble, but most other areas shouldn't!)

 

[sazzaa]

Bin the scales and go by how your clothes fit / how you feel / how happy/comfortable you are. Weight is just a number which many become unhealthy over.

 

[Giant-Churchy]

Thanks for your advice people, I need some scales

 

[Ian A]

The body fat measurement one is a funny one for bathroom scales. Agree with the "snake oil" comment. Very inconsistent between models. The best way to measure is with calipers but you need to know what you're doing. I don't . You can use tape and compare results over time etc. Like others have said a mirror is a good way of looking. On personal experience the expensive scales/body fat measuring device at the gym with hand and feet electric shock treatment were within 2% of the result given by someone who is aparently a trained professional using calipers (medical person) for me. Our £40 bathroom scales put me at nearly double what the calipers said. The scales at the council swimming pool which costs £1 a go and measures body fat through hand and feet electric shock put me at about a stone above my actual weight and around double my body fat. I think most of the £1 went on the electricity. It was a belter . I read in an article somewhere that "athlete" mode is available in some bathroom scales with feet only sensors for body fat. May be rubbish though.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We have just bought some Salter ones from Sainsbury's. They are currently half price at £15. reviews suggest they are good - only time will tell. http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/sho...48_salter-9141wh3r-glass-analyser-scales.html
They won't break the bank (in fact they cost us nothing because we used the nectar point to purchase them!) and may guide you and let you work out if they are what you want... All the literature does state that you cannot compare results with different models though - so you should pick on and watch for changes on that one and that one only.

 

[BRounsley]

The only way to get a true body fat measurement is to be scanned. Such as a DEXA or MRI.
I'm surprised no one has jumped on DEXA scanning as a business idea. I’d like to know my true body fat measurement.
Everything else is inaccurate. All the gadget ones either measure your electrical resistance (being cold will affect that) or you volume (like the pods) and does some calculations based on standard formulas.
A calliper is equally inaccurate as all it measures is surface fat (or whatever you have trapped in it) at the point of the body. It does not measure the fat inside your body. So you could have TOFI person (you know the guy who eats junk but is still skinny) who’s riddled with fat on the inside but not on the outside.
Weight is an equally pointless metric as if your exercising there’s a good chance you’re putting heavier muscle on. A tape measure is probably the best cheap tool.
After saying all that I have some ‘Omron BF511’ scales I paid £50 for. The Omrons seem decent and the reviews were typically good.
Nothing like doing a pre and post dump weigh-in, to measure poop size!

 

[User482]

I find the reading on my bathroom scales correlates very closely with how tight I do up my belt.

 

[steveindenmark]

Thanks for your advice people, I need some scales

What's the point in asking for advice, being given it by a lot of people and then just ignoring it?

Steve