The scale, the BMI, The Skeletal Muscle, and the body fat. How is this sensible?

(Liz) #1

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Hi guys can someone tell me how my skeletal muscle percentage makes sense alongside my BMI and body fat percentage??

These seem like they can’t be right.
How can my BMI be 33% with a 20% bodyfat and 47% skeletal muscle.

(Ellie) #2

Where are you getting the breakdown from?
Was it a dexa scan?

(Running from stupidity) #3

Pretty much the only data worth collecting from scales is your weight.

(Allie) #4

These scales are useless.

(Dana) #5

I’m not totally sure what you’re asking, but BMI has some serious limitations. It is calculated using a person’s height and weight; it does not take into account a person’s actual body composition. At best, BMI is an educated guess, and I wouldn’t be too concerned over it if I were you.

(less is more, more or less) #6

Wait, isn’t @MarcoPolo the reason we have pasta in the West? :wink:

I’d rephrase this to say that they’re not useless, but take about 3 tablespoons of salt with the results, and it depends on the device and the user.

For newbies: this kind of data, accurate or not, can be dispiriting, especially without guidance. Caveat lector.

Dr. Westman has a Tatanta in his office, which he warns as “inaccurate but sufficient for this purpose.” Note his scale has four inputs for measuring bioelectrical impedance, not two as most home scales have (presuming you have both of your feet.) As I’ve lost body fat, the scale has recorded this accordingly. With his guidance, watching this number drop has been exhilarating, (28.6% to 17.5%) especially for an old fart, such as I.

I have a garbage scale at home that purports to capture body fat and other metrics, but I found it consistently over-reports body fat. However, I’m lazy, and the accurate weight measurement “bluetooths” the data to my app and syncs across a variety of app store. Welcome to the first world. My home scale’s inaccuracy, alone, would be very dispiriting.

I’m not a fan of the infantile presentation, but Becky Worley presents on the inaccuracy of these scales. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/comparing-accuracy-body-fat-scales/story?id=40082433

If a free DEXA scan came along, I’d take it, but since the Lowcarb Unicorn isn’t bringing one soon, I’ve got kids I’m putting through college, so that comes first.