This body fat % is seriously not possible. What is going on?

[Wiifitmama]

I took my body fat messurent on my ta its scales for the first time in ages yesterday at the start of a new diet. It came up as 45% This is off the scales of morbidly obese which seems unlikely as my BMI is 26.7 which is oversight but not by much. So I did it again this morning and it is 38%. Way better but still considered obese for my age (42). So what is going on? My DH is also measuring his body fat in the same scales and it is consistent at 15% so it can't be the scales. Any ideas?

I have no idea - mine is pretty similar, in fact apparently 48% and I'm pretty tall and 10 1/2 stone. I think it's bollocks, it has to be.

Well I agree it can't be right for either of us!! But it's right for my husband?

Dh cycles 40 miles most days and has a bmi of 26. He bought some of those scales last week and they read as 49% body fat consistently for three days. It's crap. He's lean and fit. We went to boots and they gave him a reading of 22%. Ignore.

I looked at what Which magazine said about these scales a while ago... IIRC, it said that they were generally good at weighing, but a bit crap at the body fat %age thing. Apparently they tend to be consistent (so, useful if you always use the same one), but not comparable (so, not useful if you use different ones) if that makes sense.

I seem to have lost the power of English .

You need to take the measurement first thing in the morning after you pee and before you drink. Fluid in your system is of a similar electrical impedance to fat

I am doing the messurent naked after peeling before drinking first thing in the morning so it's defibiteky not that.

I am ok in accepting that it is innacurate but it totally throws a spanner in the works for our diet competition. We were measuring percentage fat loss!!

Are you on your period? Whenever I've had my body fat measured at the gym they have always told me to wait until my period is finished. Tbh, 38% doesn't sound too unreasonable for a female 26.7 bmi.

www.ruled.me/visually-estimate-body-fat-percentage/
www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/
There are some pictures of different body fat % You'll have to scroll down a way to see the female pictures.

Wow! Fascinating link! Ok so looking at the pics, 38% May not be wrong. 45% definitely was though!!

Yep it's easy to forget women need a much higher body fat % just to be alive! Great link Hound, thank you.

I think that a body fat percentage of 40 per cent for a woman probably isn't far wrong at a BMI of 27.
My body fat got up to 30 per cent at my highest BMI, of 24, so I can see it's perfectly possible....

Standing on any type of device is never going to give you a proper reading of body fat % caliper readings taken from multipul sites will give a better overview of done correctly by someone trained to do so.

My body fat when I got down to BMI of 25 was 31% which is the very top end of healthy for a woman >40, so I think your 38% figure is probably reasonable.