My body fat percentage came out really high?
Today I had my body fat percentage measured on a scale with an error margin of 4%. I'm 5'9" and weigh 170 pounds and have broud shoulders and wide hips (I'm not talking about just fat hips, while they are fat, the bone is wide). Well, it came out to 37.4%. There was a fitness question you had to answer (excercising 3 times a week with a high heart rate over the past 3 months) and since this was in my aerobics class, I assumed the answer was yes. I didn't know whether this was innacurate and thus made the percentage innacurate, but it just seemed wrong.. Most people say that my weight of 170 doesn't even make sense and I look average. How is it, then, that my body fat % would come out 7.4% above obese for women? :/
Public Comments
- ummmmm, you could be big or heavy boned, and since ur sooooo tall....
- Well maybe you dont look fat but that doesnt mean that you dont have alot of it, you should exercise and lose weight and gain muscle , sounds hard cause it is but you can do it!
- Many of those scales' accuracy are suspect at best. For instance, impedence scales are notoriously inaccurate due to their tendency to find the quickest route to ground, which doesn't usually take a good cross-section of the body composition. Your best bet is to get your bodyfat tested with inexpensive hand calipers by someone who knows what they're doing, or better yet learn to do it yourself and track the results of exercise/diet over time. Other than full body immersion hand calipers are by far the most accurate means of bodyfat measurement.
- we are all different sometimes bodies hold more fat than others for some reason. but i wouldnt worry too much personally unless your doctor has concerns
- You know if your eating too much or if you eat because your bored and if you are than you probably do have a high body fat %.
- To put it in perspective: I am 5' 11" and weigh 235lbs My BMI (Body Mass Index) was 35-37 Am I fat? NO I have a large frame and I am very muscular. Don't worry about what a test says, do you look good and are you healthy? That's all. Peace
