Amazon has one for about $30 that gets decent reviews, and I was wondering if anyone had had luck with them?

I am planning to measure my progress in 3 areas, order of importance:

1) body fat percentage
2) change in measurements
3) weight on the scale

But I don't have a gym membership (can't afford one), the campus gym here is just a few machines in an old storage room so no frills. I want to get a decent, accurate reading that I can do at home to measure my progress. All of my specialists are in Virginia, we're currently in SC, and we're moving to Texas soon, so it really would be most convenient to do it at home than to seek out doctors all over the country!

Thoughts or recommendations?

I dont' have that kind of body fat thingee, but I do have a scale that does the same thing - just through the feet, not the arms.

Those things are ridiculously inaccurate. The only thing they are good at is showing the trend - is it going up? is it coming down?

When I started my scale said I had about 50% body fat when I was 255. Now it says between 27-30% Is it accurate? No. I carry most of my weight below my waist. And the kicker, when my husband uses it? It said 5% body fat RIGHT after giving me a 30% body fat reading. My husband is thin, but he's not THAT thin and fit!

So, if you want to get it for a rough estimate, and I mean rough, then go for it - just use it with all the tips given to keep it as accurate/consistent as possible, but realize it's not very reliable. you could be more fat or less fat than it is indicating depending on a lot of variables.

Understood on the accuracy. However, if I'm consistent with it, then I could see the trend and that's really what I'm going for. This model has gotten lots of positive reviews for accuracy, if the directions are followed... 3 hours after eating, with an empty bladder, and not first thing in the morning. I just want to see the difference (i.e. body fat percentage went down 2% over the last month, etc).

I just use an online body fat detector and they are very near the true body fat %, try this one http://www.healthcentral.com/cholest...-2774-143.html
Even if it's not extremely accurate, the important thing is to see the number going down, take the test once a month to see if there is any change.
Good luck

I personally find it fascinating that it has gotten a lot of positive reviews for accuracy since unless the reviewer was using the hand held and then immediately going to the lab for a dexa scan how the heck would they know if it was accurate, or not????

In my opinion you're throwing away $30 but that is up to you. If you want to measure trends accurately I'd suggest instead you buy one of these instead. You can find a couple of skin folds and take measurements every week.

Better yet just take pictures every two weeks in the same outfit and in the same lighting.

Uses more points than most places and it's giving me 26%. I would love to believe that is true as under 25% is my goal, but...

And calipers aren't that great for people who have loose skin issues (and I definitely do). I am thinking of trying a bod pod scan when I get to my goal weight and see where I am for body fat percentage.

I must be doing something wrong. It keeps saying that my body fat is below 0% and that's not possible so I should try the test again. Ack!

i had one of those body composition scales - freakin' waste of money.

step on it immediately five times in a row and the only constant was my weight. bodyfat fluctuated +/- 10%


the online site said 32% bf - 68.5lb fat and 145.5 lean.

i can go with that.

of course, the numbers were vastly different before i realized i was measuring from the wrong end of the tape!

That's kind of funny!

this is a hand held gizmo, and apparently there are companies that use it for the health risk assessment for health insurance. i specifically didn't want the calipers because i'm starting to get loose skin in weird places, and i want to be able to do this myself without worrying about hitting the exact same spot on my fat roll. it's easier to set an alarm than to keep a sharpie mark on my back or my stomach, yanno?

i want a body fat analyzer, i was mostly wondering if anyone had experience with this particular one, or the scale versions.

I have an Eatsmart scale that measures body fat. I think it's way too low but I'm mostly concerned with the downward trend. It tells me I've gone down about 6% since last fall, which seems right as I've lost about 50 pounds since I got it.

If you want a body fat analyzer than buy it. Just understand it is not accurate.

I know it's not accurate, but at least it doesn't give you different results every time. You can use it just to see if your % is going down or not, than you know your on the right track!

Since your fit and in a healthy weight range, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure your in a healthy body fat percentage.

So, you're a fat free variety?

The site said I'm 29% body fat which I find very hard to believe given my height, weight and amount of jiggle in my wiggle. But yes, downward trend is important just like when we watch numbers on the scale.

Get it if you want it. Amazon has a pretty reasonable return policy if you get it and hate it so you may just be out a few bucks for S&H.