Do scales that claim to measure body fat percentages really work and are they better than callipers?

Public Comments

1. These things are worthless. Find a trainer and get them to take your bdyft for you. Just make sure they KNOW what they are doing. Many trainers are just bored housewives who decided they wanted a job in a gym, took one test and call themselves a trainer! You want someone who is educated in testing the CORRECT way.
2. If you mean a kind of weighing machine, no. How can it tell what %age of your weight is fat? At least the callipers are measuring a definite part of your body (waistline, e.g.) which has some proportion of your body fat in it!
3. Neither is as reliable as the full immersion technique, but they'll give you a good ballpark number, and can help to show prorgess, which is all that's really important anyway.
4. I have a set of those scales. They measure the electrical resistance by sending a current between your feet. Both my scales and my Doctors results came out the same.
5. No. The scales don't take into account different body types, muscle mass, etc. For example; I'm female, 34 years old, 5'10" and weigh 210 pounds... but I do weight training. My body fat percentage is at 10.2% (per the doctors and extensive testing) but according to the scales, I'm over 38% body fat. The scale goes by your age, weight and height and obviously can be way off.
6. My scales are great they do work as I came out of hospital they read exactly the same as the Dr registered,those who don`t like them are most probably not liking the results