What about those fat testing “scales” or hand-grippers for home testing?

What about those fat testing "scales" or hand-grippers for home testing?
Another body fat testing device that can be used for personal home testing is the
"body fat scale." You just step on it like a regular scale, and it not only flashes your
weight on the digital readout, it also tells you your body fat percentage. The most
popular brand of fat testing scale is made by Tanita.
The Tanita scale is based on bio-electric impedance analysis (BIA) which is a fancy
way of saying that a current gets passed through your body to measure your
tissue's resistance to electricity. (Don't worry – you don't get electrocuted – you
don't even feel anything because it's a very low-amperage current). The BIA test
measures body composition based on the fact that muscle has high water content,
and is highly conductive, while fat has lower water content and is not highly
conductive.
I would only recommend the "body fat scales" as a last resort or a 2nd choice for
home self testing. Here's why: The makers of the scale point to the scientific
literature on BIA testing, which does show that BIA is valid technology. What scale
makers don't tell you is that most of the research on BIA was done on the
conventional BIA analysis test, which is done in an exercise physiology lab. In this
type of test, one electrode is placed on your hand, and another on your foot. The
current is then passed through you to measure whole body electrical conductivity.
The body fat scale only measures your lower body.
Incidentally, another company called Omron makes a similar device which uses a
hand gripper. The gripper has the same problem – it passes the current through
your upper body only and doesn't measure full body electrical conductivity.
There's also a second drawback to the fat testing scales and grippers. Because the
BIA test is based on body water balance, your state of hydration can impact the
level of accuracy. Anything that affects your water balance (alcohol, caffeine,
diuretics, exercise, etc) can mess up your results. If you measure yourself in the
morning, and then again the same day in the evening when you're retaining more
water, you can get a completely different result. Ditto for after exercise, when you
can be dehydrated. This drawback can be partially overcome by always doing your
weekly test under the same conditions and same time of day and by following the
instructions that come with the scale.
Some of my clients told me that they really like the Tanita scale because it's
"easier to use" than skinfolds. They swear the results seem consistent each week
and seem to correlate with their weight loss and the way they look in the mirror.
However, other Tanita users told me that they get some pretty funky readings at
times, so they don't trust the scale's accuracy level. Some people even say that
they can step on the scale once, then step on it again one minute later and get a
totally different reading – like a 3% lower, for example (yeah, don't we wish body
fat could drop that fast!).
One reason you might want to use a Tanita scale for home testing is if you have a
very high body fat percentage, which sometimes makes it difficult to grab your iliac
skinfold and get an accurate measurement. When skinfolds are over 20 mm in
thickness, it tends to decrease accuracy somewhat. In extreme cases, you might
not even be able to get the jaws of the caliper around the skinfold or your skinfolds
may be off the chart. (Note: The Tanita has it's limits too, however: 300 lbs./ 136
kilos).
If you're already very lean, with a 2 or 3 millimeter iliac crest skinfold, and you
want to get even leaner (but you're still visibly storing fat elsewhere on your
body), you may have the opposite problem – not enough fat to pinch at the hip
bone. That makes it hard to track changes from week to week because there's only
so much further your iliac skin fold can decrease (1.5 to 2.0 mm is like having no
fat... just skin; but you might have 6 or 7 mm on your back or abdomen which
could still drop and be measured).
One major advantage of skinfold testing over body fat scales, grippers or other
"indirect" measurements is that the skinfold tests allow you to "palpate" your body
fat. In Webster's dictionary the definition of palpate is "to examine by touch."
When I begin my 12-16 week bodybuilding contest prep phase, not only do I get
measured (by a colleague at the gym), I also have this almost unconscious habit of
"grabbing my fat" around my navel and hip bone. In the middle of the day while
sitting at my desk, or while I'm walking down the street, I find myself constantly
"pinching my fat" with my hand/fingers. Here's the interesting part: After
competing in over two dozen bodybuilding contests over a 14 year period, I've
reached the point where I can tell by touch (palpation), exactly whether I'm
getting leaner or not. This may seem to go against my recommendation of having
a "scientific," "objective" and "quantifiable" method of gathering feedback, but in
addition to having the former, it's wise to have as many methods of gathering
feedback as possible – including those that are subjective and intuitive.

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