Scales that measure body fat

Not actually gear but can anyone recommend some good scales that accurately measure body fat? I've looked on Amazon but some of the reviews say that they only measure the fat to within a couple of percent. I'd rather them not cost a lot but will be willing to spend more for some good ones.

Cheers.

I think the best way is to save your pennies and use the ones that you see in gyms and health centers which I believe have a greater accuracy for a few pennies a month

If I had a set at home I would think I would become a bit obsessed 

yep, waste of time. inaccurate at the cheaper end.

Given that body fat-scales are known not to be very accurate, you might as well use an online calculator like this one. It wont be perfect of course but probably at least as accurate.

I have a set of tanita Innerscan scales (BC-543) but sorry I forget the price. Whilst I agree that they may not be as accurate as those used in 'industry' even if they are slightly out you get to use them as often as you wish and they will show change over time, this set can store records for 5 people I think.  Was at my doctors last month and they did my BMI whilst I was fully clothed!

I have two sets of these gadgets, one reads me out at 11% and the other at

Omron BF508 reasonable at under £40 if you look around.

I bought the Tanita BC-543, they we not cheap and are not accurate or even consistent. They will report anywhere between 11% and 15% in the same week.

I have some salter ones from amazon. Work fine, wernt that expensive, and as long as they are the only ones you use, you'll get the constant you require to track fat loss. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0013ISJD8/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

At best with these scales you an get a general trend in body fat 'measured' over time (they don't actually measure body fat at all, then estimate total body water and make a calculation based on that - huge potential for error!). There can be variation of several percent over a day/week, so using them for anything other than long-term trends is fairly pointless.  

That's why I think the calculations based on waist measurement etc are quite good. You can at least get consistent and fairly accurate results measuring yourself with a tape measure. (It doesn't suddenly change because you drank a pint of water.)

The formula for the calculations are based on statistical data from 10's of thousands of US military personnel.

According to that online calculator I'm 14%, my scales this morning read 14% (Tanita UM-015A) I picked mine up years ago from TKMaxx for about £10-15.

Remember that most of these things are based on ordinary people, not people who train a lot, so they may be counting muscle as fat. A pair of body fat caliphers is probably more useful if you actually want to look at body fat.

dancing in spikes wrote (see)

Remember that most of these things are based on ordinary people, not people who train a lot, so they may be counting muscle as fat. A pair of body fat caliphers is probably more useful if you actually want to look at body fat.

^^ This, these scales are way out most of the time if you do any strength/weight training. 

Cheers for the replies everyone. The general consensus seems to be that they're a waster of money so I think I'll just leave them. And I agree with M...eldy, I'd probably also become a bit obsessed if I had a pair.

I think if you weigh yourself once a month, that's fine.  Anything more than that sounds a bit obsessive to me.