It’s great to see more and more people focusing on releasing body fat rather than just weight loss when embarking on a body transformation journey. This rise in awareness about the importance of body recomposition has brought about a rise in sales for body fat scales, which offers a convenient way of measuring your body fat percentage. But can you really trust the readings that body fat scales produce? How can you ensure the most accurate reading possible?

Here’s a video demonstration to help illustrate this point…

Pretty cool that I was able to gain one pound of muscle in just one minute eh?

Obviously I didn’t gain a pound of muscle, but I wanted to illustrate the point about how easy it is to throw off the readings with body fat scales.

Body fat scales use electricity to measure your body fat percentage. Electricity passes through water and muscle easier than it passes through fat. Therefore, the more resistance that it encounters when passing through your body, the higher the body fat reading it will produce. The electricity passes through one leg across your midsection and down the other leg. It doesn’t pass through your entire body and is intended to only produce an estimated body fat percentage reading.

One way to throw off the body fat measurement is to change your hydration level. Drink extra water throughout the day and you’ll see your body fat percentage drop. Dehydrate yourself and you’ll see your body fat percentage go up.

That’s why it’s important to have the total body water reading, which many body fat scales include now. If your total body water is off by even a pound I would discount the body fat percentage reading or at least take that into consideration.

How To Receive The Most Accurate Measurement From Your Body Fat Scale

Body fat scales come with a list of protocol to help you receive the most accurate reading possible. First of all, the body fat scale should be placed on a level and hard surface. Typical protocol is to not eat or drink anything for 3 hours prior to taking the body fat measurement. It also helps to measure your body fat at the same time of day each time. You shouldn’t exercise for several hours prior to taking your measurement as well.

Many health clubs have a commercial grade body fat scale as I do. If you were to step on the body fat scale prior to your workout and then step on it after your workout you could end up with some drastically different readings even though your body fat percentage would not have actually changed during your workout.

You should also be consistent with what you wear when you step on the scale, whether you are buck naked, in your underwear, or wearing gym cloths. Gym shorts can vary in weight by a couple of pounds and that can through your overall measurement off.

Some body fat scales allow you to enter in your age and whether or not you are an athlete or an average individual who is seeking to improve their body and health. The body fat calculations are different depending on your age and if you are extremely active.

If you follow the recommended protocol that comes with your body fat scale and your hydration level is consistent with each measurement, you will receive the most accurate reading possible for this method of measuring your body fat percentage.

When the proper protocol is followed, body fat scales can be a useful tool to help you track your progress while transforming your body. I recommend that you combine the use of a body fat scale with girth measurements to provide you with valuable information about the progress that you are making. Measuring your waist, hips, thighs, chest, and arms will provide you with useful numbers to know where you are releasing body fat from your physique.

If you are losing inches, yet the scale number is not going down, you are still making progress. This could mean the difference between getting discouraged because the scale number didn’t go down and quitting or getting excited and motivated because your waist is shrinking.

I also recommend taking weekly pictures of yourself. It’s amazing how different you view yourself in the mirror than you do in pictures. A picture can reveal progress that you were not aware of even though you have been looking at yourself in the mirror.

Now that you know how to receive the most accurate reading with your body fat scale and you are ready to measure your fat loss progress it’s time to put in the effort to ensure that those numbers are going down and that the image you see in your pictures are looking better and better each week.

Your effort will certainly pay off in more ways than you can ever imagine. Go for it! You deserve this!

To achieving your limitless potential,

Scott Tousignant

PS Tom Venuto revealed some incredibly valuable advice about body recomposition during an outstanding interview, which you should download and listen to right now. Simply visit Body Transformation Secrets to gain instant access.