Are those scales that give % of body fat accurate? I get 22% reading but?

if I go the BMI method using height and weight then I get a little over 25. Which one is right? can I trust the scale. or am I overweight? Some posters stated 12 or 14 BMI. Any BMI under 20 is underweight. 20 to 25 is normal for men. Maybe professional athletes can go to 16.

Public Comments

1. ur overweight the normal 4 a guy is 12 to 16 percent and a girl is 10 to 14 percent
2. the first guy who posted an answer is wrong. girl have alot more body fat then guys. but if you a guy with 22 or 25 % then your fat. if your a girl with them much, im not sure what normal is for a girl but that sounds a little high to me. also bmi looks at height and weight to find mass not fat. the best method for finding % of fat, and the pincher method in 3 areas, the electrod test from your hand to your foot, and the water dunk. there is also this chamber thing that does it also.
3. Check out following article for more details about body fat:
4. BMI method is often wrong because even though it does take height into calculation it doesnt know what kind of body you have... i would say the scales are more accurate and whats even more accurate is that pinch method.
5. The numbers will vary depending on your hydration level. They will generally read higher in the morning and lower at night. So no, they aren't that accurate, but then BMI is probably even less accurate. Your best bet is to use skinfold calipers if you want preciseness.
6. I think you might be a little confused. First of all BMI is a ratio of your height and weight and is not a direct measure of your body fat. Regardless of gender, the acceptable BMI is 18.5-24.9. However because BMI doesn't take into account frame size or muscle mass, it may not be accurate for some people. Body fat percentage is the percentage of your total body weight that comes from fat. For a male 22% body fat is borderline overfat and typically would correlate to a BMI of 25 in a medium build, sedentary male. In this case it does seem quite accurate. Men should have between 12%-22% body fat. 6%-12% body fat is typical of male athletes or body builders and above 22% is considered overfat. Above 26% body fat would be obese for a male. Just remember BMI and body fat percentage are two separate measures of obesity and should not be confused with each other. A BMI of 12-14 would be severely underweight, but a body fat percentage of 12%-14% would be perfectly healthy for a male.