to be shocked by my body fat percentage?

[Pollykitten]

I've just bought some of those fancy scales that do your body composition - these are supposed to be accurate to within 3% due to having hand as well as foot sensors. I'm 37 5'8", 10.5 stone and regularly exercise, including lots of resistance stuff with a trainer. It says my body fat composition is 32%!!!! WHY??!!! Am I 'fat on the inside'? Is that a thing? It also gave me a visceral fat (which I think is fat round your organs?) of 5 which is OK apparently. Anyone else think their body fat is higher than is 'should' be. I eat healthily, although I do drink quite a bit of wine. No processed food or sugar though. It's my fault for slating my husband's body composition scales - I was convinced they were wrong for 2 years with the % they were giving me (exactly the same as the new ones I just forked out for!)

Boodles, how was your body fat measured?
According to the collective wisdom of this thread unless you had an expensive high tech body scan your result is probably not accurate!

I'm not doing this for celeb bashing, but I believe a good representative of "skinny fat" is Tulisa. She is obviously slim in photos but doesn't appear to have much muscle tone or definition.

Rightsaid, yes, I love spinning. I do do free weights too.

Mercury, it was with a machine at the gym. To be honest I would think that it was pretty accurate from looking at me and knowing how much exercise I do.

I do have good muscle tone and definition (if I do say so myself lol) and so if it was out at all I would imagine I was lower.

You sound perfect boodles, I have a girl crush on you

can't even find the calculator I used before...but I just looked at a BBC stats dump and In 4 months of dieting I have gone from having a higher BMI than 79% of people the same age/sex/nationality to having a lower BMI than 70%. Thats more than a little bit surprising...

I have a BMI of about 25.5, carry every single gram of fat in my body around my waist/boobs, and according to the hand held body fat monitor at my gym, have 42% body fat!!!! I think I'm the winner so far.

Even when I had a BMI of 23, my body fat was over 35%, so God knows what I'd have to do to get it to below 30%. I know, I know - exercise more and eat a lot less fat and sugar...

I went on one of those scales that cost £1 and measure, weigh and work out body fat. I was pretty chuffed with 22% as it used to be over 40% ( low carbing definitely worked for me).

My BMI is 23.7

My body mass (calculated online) is 26.5%

Im suprised its that low, I assume its because I have skinny wrists because my tummy is not skinny.

Im 10.7 stone and 5' 6"

Theoriginal, I am flattered but I am farrrrr from perfect. I just have exercise addiction!

I really can't see how scales and online calculators can work out how much fat is in your body when it's distributed throughout your organs, muscles and under the skin in different places on everyone.

Ducks I am 11 st 4lb and 5' 8" with a BMI of 25. My body mass calculated online is apparently 21.6%

So this must be rubbish, mustn't it. What method did you use? I used the one on wikipedia.

I am 5'5" and 9st, size 8. I exercise a lot, mainly kickboxing and (pretty heavy) weight training. I have had my bf measured with callipers by a PT and he made it 17%. The scales at the gym has said 28% and 16% within the space of a few days, so I wouldn't take them too seriously either.

Can you get your body fat done with calipers at your doctor's surgery, do you reckon? I don't belong to a gym and I want an accurate measure.

Nurse might be able to do it at docs surgery, give them a call!

You visceral fat rating is great!

I'm have a BMI of 22 but my fat percentage is 25% on the scales at gym. I'm T-total and don't eat processed food but find my fat rating quite high.

I had my body fat % measured properly once, calipers all over and calculator jobby by the PE postgrads. Even though I was exercising plenty every day and BMI probably around 22, it came out as around 25% (which was then considered average, ha!!). I was shocked, just goes to show how fat most of us are. I can believe OP's numbers could be close enough to true, I'm a tiny bit taller & a stone lighter than her.

Take them back and get a refund, total waste of money! You need a proper machine to test % of fat.

Re Tulisa, I think I read a quote from her that she never goes anywhere near a gym and I agree, it shows, especially when you see her next to Nicole S who clearly works out - not that many of us could stand next to her and look good either though

OMG so glad other people have had the same experience. Was getting really worried after getting on my body fat scales today. Aged 49, height 5'6, weight 9st 12 and body fat 32 percent even though I eat a low fat diet, exercise three times a week etc! Aargh !

Having read everyone else's messages I think in future I will just use these scales to weigh myself and not get hung up on the fat thing. As long as I can still fit into my size 10 jeans I'm a happy bunny!

The scales are the least accurate way to measure body fat. It's calliper a and a calculator I'm afraid.

Women should not have a body fat percentage if under 25.

I had it done in the gym with my friend who is overweight and her percentage was loads less than mine and my BMI was 23.
The trainer said she was really muscly and I was basically bones and fat

Bmi is a load iof rubbish too...

Sorry I meant that under 25 per cent body fat for women risks affecting fertility.

I have had my weight, bmi and body fat measured at my local leisure centre and also Boots. My BMI WAS 23 - I weigh approx 9 stone 10lbs but my body fat was 45%! Really worried as I must be a TOFI (thin on the outside but fat on the inside) I am quite active but and do exercise - mainly stretching every day although I don’t go to the gym. I’m 67 years old. Worried that I’m storing visceral fat and hope I can persuade my doctor to send me for a DEXA scan!

These scales are sooo inaccurate. They told me I was obese at a size 8 with a 25!!!!! inch waist. I’m very curvy and have a lot of muscle so the measurements get skewed.