How accurate are the hand-held body fat analyzers? I just started training with a personal trainer to put some more meat on my bones and she had me use one of these to measure my body fat percentage. It said 6%. Now, I know this is really bad for a female as essential body fat is at least 11%. So, I am wondering how much this thing could be off and if I should be concerned about it?
Aww..the Bioelectrical impedance analysis. They can be extremely inaccurate. Hydration level, food that you've eaten, taking a show beforehand, and menstrual cycle can throw these things off.
Was it a Tanita or Omron? An Omron is cheaper and tends to be extremely in accurate, I noticed a lot of gyms uses these.
These devices can be off by 5% and over.
Here is a good article on the different devices used to measure body fat percentage.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.as p?articlekey=56830
They can be off, but even if it was off by 5%, that would still only put you at 11%.
You say that you are trying to put some meat on your bones - what are you doing? Is your trainer helping you with a meal plan to make sure you are eating enough to gain?
amethystgirl:
I just had my second training session with her yesterday. She is awesome. I told her my goal was to gain muscle. I'm already really toned, I just need to bulk up. So, she is doing 30 minute sessions twice a week with hand weights and TRX bands.
Yes, she is helping me with a meal plan. She had me record my food and give it to her and she printed me out a plan with calorie targets and percentages for protein, carbs, fat, etc. She also gave me some recommendations on how to get more calories in. I am currently at a huge deficit, but I honestly have a hard time eating more than what I do right now. I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. I get full really easily. This will be the challenge. Lifting is the easy part :-)
Get to a barbell. You get muscle by lifting heavy things. You can llift more with a barbell than you can with dumbbells. Dumbbells have their place, but barbbells should be a big part of your workout.
Yeah, you're not going to gain any muscle if you don't eat. And (I imagine that this part is going to be hard for you to hear) you won't gain any muscle without gaining a little fat as well.
I know I will gain fat as well. If the measurement of 6% is correct than I need to gain fat, anyway.
6% is unlikely, unless you are very unhealthy. BIA is not reliable, so you should probably just ignore that number.
I'm pretty underweight.. so it is possible.
Has your doctor cleared you to lift/was your most recent physical good? You don't want to hurt yourself.
Original Post by tinyntough:
I know I will gain fat as well. If the measurement of 6% is correct than I need to gain fat, anyway.
6 percent bf percentage is in the level of female bodybuilder during contest time, and as a result the breasts can be greatly reduced in size, and the period may vanish.
It would be difficult for the average person to achieve that, unless you're genetically at a low level of body fat to begin with, and you do some extreme dieting or have an eating disorder.
For men, essential body fat is much lower than women, and 6 percent for a male is very low.
I don't know what you look like, but if you don't have an eating disorder, I would seriously doubt the reading of that scale. Take the test again in the morning before eating or drinking anything.
The problem with early-morning BIA tests is that one is dehydrated already, so the BF% is going to be overstated.
For me, my first-thing-in-the-morning reading is 18% while my midday is 14%. I know I didn't lose 6 lbs. of fat in just 9 hours! 
I tested in the afternoon.. over 4 hours after lunch. I don't drink nearly enough, so if anything I was dehydrated. What would that mean for my reading? I bought a new scale that measures body fat, so I'm going to compare and take at different times during the day.
So even though they are not accurate you can still take away the fact that you are very much underweight. Based on your picture 6 % may be a stretch but not by much.
The scale also won't be accurate. But you can track the trend using both the hand-held and the scale and if it reliably goes up you're in the right direction.
Original Post by tinyntough:
I tested in the afternoon.. over 4 hours after lunch. I don't drink nearly enough, so if anything I was dehydrated. What would that mean for my reading? I bought a new scale that measures body fat, so I'm going to compare and take at different times during the day.
dehydration causes the bodyfat reading to increase. Weirdfish has it correct.
Soo... it's looking like 6% is pretty close to being accurate then..
Yesterday my personal trainer took measurements again and this time my body fat percentage was 5.1%! If this is accurate or even slightly off, I know it's not healthy because I'm nowhere near the essential body fat percentage for women. So, how do I gain to a healthy body fat percentage without gaining unwanted fat? (i.e. in the wrong areas). I've heard it will go straight to my abdominal area and I certainly don't want that.
Original Post by tinyntough:
Yesterday my personal trainer took measurements again and this time my body fat percentage was 5.1%! If this is accurate or even slightly off, I know it's not healthy because I'm nowhere near the essential body fat percentage for women. So, how do I gain to a healthy body fat percentage without gaining unwanted fat? (i.e. in the wrong areas). I've heard it will go straight to my abdominal area and I certainly don't want that.
No one can tell you where the fat will go, so anyone claiming it will go straight to your stomach is a moron. Your body has a natural distribution of body fat and until you gain some weight, you won't know what that is.
With a BMI of 14.6 (based on 5' 4" and 85lbs as you mention elsewhere,) you classify (W.H.O. definitions) as emaciated. It is not recommended that you exercise AT ALL, as your heart muscle could be severely damaged.
It is easily possible that your body fat% is critically low if you really are BMI 14.6
Why on earth is a personal trainer letting you train at this weight? You need to gain weight befoer you can gain any muscle. Exercising with these stats means your body has nothing left to use for energy except your muscles - so exercise is counterproductive at this point.
Please seek medical help a.s.a.p.
Original Post by mrswilsonscat:
With a BMI of 14.6 (based on 5' 4" and 85lbs as you mention elsewhere,) you classify (W.H.O. definitions) as emaciated. It is not recommended that you exercise AT ALL, as your heart muscle could be severely damaged.
It is easily possible that your body fat% is critically low if you really are BMI 14.6
Why on earth is a personal trainer letting you train at this weight? You need to gain weight befoer you can gain any muscle. Exercising with these stats means your body has nothing left to use for energy except your muscles - so exercise is counterproductive at this point.
Please seek medical help a.s.a.p.
I've never disclosed my weight, so you have no right to say that I am emaciated. Instead of telling me I'm going to die and I need to quit exercising, answer the question. If you don't have an answer or advice to the question I asked, then please don't bother to comment.
There is no way you have 5.1 % BF.
