UKC

Just wondering if any coaches or training gurus can advise... Is the only info worth tracking from scales, your actual weight?

I currently am deciding on buying from a variety of scales... They can measure Body Fat / Body Water / Bone Mass / and BMI body mass index, or just weight.
Muscle mass is an option in some scales too.. That could be useful?

Is any of this info useful for training or just your weight tracking enough to go by?

I can't see bone mass changing much, unless you have a health problem. Body water should be fairly irrelevant too as we probably drink enough to stay hydrated.
Body fat could be worth tracking, especially for some big climbers who realise they can make big changes.

I'm about 63kg clothed, just under 10st, so probably can't lose much, but have cut bread out + lost 2kg from a month ago. Perhaps could get down to 60kg if i start training properly, but might end up back up at 65 from it!

Is the weight figure all you need a bathroom scales to give?

In reply to Rock to Fakey:
I have some fancy withings ones and predictably the fat percentage is all over the show. Apparently I am capable of gaining/losing 2-3% body fat overnight. They do show a general downwards trend over the time I dropped nearly a stone (a year) tho. So perhaps not entirely useless.

That said the wifi tracking and the app is great.

In reply to Rock to Fakey:

I just wish I could see the scales on the bathroom scales when I look down

In reply to subtle:

You need to turn the bathroom light on....

In reply to Rock to Fakey:
I track my weight and body fat % with my bathroom scales. I doubt that the body fat % is very accurate in an absolute sense, or even day to day, but then the weight is pretty variable too. But, I put the daily measurements into a spreadsheet and the trends are obvious over time.

Incidentally, body fat, muscle, bone, and water are all calculated from a single resistance measurement.

I've been dieting ready for next year and have found being able to track bodyfat as well as weight useful

In reply to snoop6060:

I have the withings too and think it's great, round about £100 but it works well. The % body-fat does vary from day to day but the trend over time does seem accurate. I think this is the same for most fat measuring method except maybe callipers. The bone and muscle measurements seem irrelevant. The main benefit of the Withings is accurate weight measurement with a resolution of 0,1 kg and the wifi connection to its phone ap which keeps a graph of your weight trend and other data (inc resting heart rate) which can be a useful motivator

It may seem a little expensive and geeky but if it works for you......

In reply to Rock to Fakey:
I'm not a guru by any means but my gym has a boditrax machine. It's kind of interesting and fun but I'm not sure it tells me a whole lot I can't work out with a set of scales, a mirror and pinching my stomach!

I find it slightly suspicious that my muscle mass and water percentage move in tandem. How does that work? But anyway, it tells me that my metabolic age is 15 years below my real age so I like looking at it

On a good day I weigh 75kg and register as "thin muscular" but it tells me me my optimum weight is 69kg. I'd look like someone out of Changi .

In reply to Rock to Fakey:
Unless you need some precision tools as your body fat is already very low I would not bother with fancy scales.

A good quality mechanical scales will keep performing for the rest of your life. The electrical impedance scales which give you readings on hydration, fat etc are notoriously inaccurate, yes watching the general downward trend is ok, but you would need to make recordings and compare. J

When gauging body fat estimate simply from the many free reference images that are available, or buy some calipers and do a reference check assessment.

https://goo.gl/images/8MDgoP

In reply to Rock to Fakey:

I have a Tabata set of body monitoring scales.

Weigh myself everyday and take the weight (lbs), body fat % and the water %.

The body fat will be directly affected by water %. So if over, say, a month, you have weighed yourself everyday. Then if you look back and see a day with a very similar, or the same, water %, then you will be able to compare it to your current body fat % with a lot more accuracy?

This is how I compare my body fat %, and it was worked on numerous bulk & cuts.

Aslong as you understand that many variables can affect your weight on a day to day basis, then there is nothing wrong with using that as a baseline.
Just trust the process and don't get dismayed by the figures.

In reply to Rock to Fakey:
I would not bother. The only reasonably accurate method of measuring body fat % is hydrostatic weighing, which involves a water tank and a very accurate set of scales.

Calipers are good and reasonably cheap.

Sounds like you are doing pretty well without the scales .
Cut out grains, potatoes and suger and you will lose a bit more

In reply to subtle:


Set up an inverted periscope arrangement or fix a mirror to the wall near your scales that you can angle at 45°

In reply to Rock to Fakey:

Cheers for the replies.
Suppose you need to look for changes over a week or month, and ignore the daily ups + downs.
I've decided some basic digital weight scales will suit. The Withings sounds great, but decided i want to keep it simple. Might try get some next year. Thanks for the ideas.