Scale frustration

[superduper]

How accurate do you think that the Body Fat % is on the Aria scale? I have a lot of weight to lose, and in spite of my diet being pretty consistent, I tend to see a lot more fluctuation in my weight than I would like. I tend to see a drastic drop of a couple of pounds in just a few days, then my weight goes back up again by a couple of pounds. Then I stay at that weight for a few days, or close to it, but my BF% continues to go down even when my weight isn't. I just took some before pictures about 5 lbs ago (even though I had already lost 45lbs) and I definitely am going to start doing that going forward. My main question is though, why would my weight stay the same/go up, but my BF% consistently keep going down? Any insight?

[Mukluk4]

Check out this article

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/weight-fluctuation-experiment

[Esya]

If you are a woman, your weight will go up and down with your cycle. If you connect your FitBit account to trendweight.com it becomes easier to see the trend and ignore the fluctuations.

[superduper]

I apologize if my question was not clear. I'm not worried about my weight fluctuations, the overall trend is down and that is what I want to see.

My question was about the FitBit Aria scale. I'm wondering how accurate the Body Fat % is, and maybe even if anyone knows how that is determined, because even though my weight fluctuates by a couple of pounds, the BF% keeps decreasing, it never goes back up.

[Mukluk4]

What activities are you doing to lose the weight?

You will be losing muscle, track on trendweight as stated above and you'll get a better idea.

[Esya]

As you are losing weight, you are mostly losing fat, so the fat % will go down.

I am not sure how accurate it is. It sends a small current through your body via your feet and measures the resistance (google for bioelectrical impedance).

I also use the Aria scale, but I am maintaining my weight and for me the body fat% is fluctuating.

[waffle1]

For what it's worth, I've used the Aria for BF measurements, as well as a couple other scales previously. I've also had my BF tested using DEXA scanning. Most of the scales will be off by 5-10 percentage points, which is very large! (see this article for more details). I've also found the BF measurements to be very imprecise: that is, if you step on it a few times, you'll get different results.

These scales use impedance to measure your body fat, which can be affected by all sorts of things, like your posture on the scale, skin moisture, etc. I wouldn't pay any attention to the body fat measurements.