By the power vested in me, I hereby prohibit all posts having to do with bodyfat measurements or bodyfat measuring devices. Just eat right, train hard, and use the mirror.
If you took all of the anxious energy you waste worrying about your BF percentage, and applied it to your training, imagine the possibilities!
Down with the BF hysteria!
The mirror is much less accurate than pictures IMO.
The mirror can be very decieving depending on your mood.
Of course, you would have to use the same setting, body possition and lighting with pictures.
Damn you. I was just about to post a pic about my body fat. Not because I care about my body fat, but I wanted all T-Nation members to be able to see what kind of shoes I wear.
As long as one is not trying to reduce BF% by holding a shoe in the posted photo, I don’t see any problem with it.
Geek boy
Okay, I’m willing to compromise: You can only talk about bodyfat if you also tell us what kind of shoes you are wearing.
They say a camera adds ten pounds, but a shoe gets rid of 15!
[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
The mirror is much less accurate than pictures IMO.
The mirror can be very decieving depending on your mood.
Of course, you would have to use the same setting, body possition and lighting with pictures.[/quote]
Good point. I have noticed huge differnces in the way I look in pics as opposed to how I look in the mirror. I guess maybe subconsiously you know how you want to look and you can on some levels convinve yourself that you look that way. Very weird.
As someone with an engineering background, I really prefer numbers over something subjective like mirror appearance. If you test regularly with more than one method, and record your results, you’re much better able to see trends accurately. However, I’d also say that as many different methods as you can use the better: calipers, electrical bf measure, tape measurements, pictures, scale, etc.
[quote]blue9steel wrote:
As someone with an engineering background, I really prefer numbers over something subjective like mirror appearance. If you test regularly with more than one method, and record your results, you’re much better able to see trends accurately. However, I’d also say that as many different methods as you can use the better: calipers, electrical bf measure, tape measurements, pictures, scale, etc.[/quote]
I’d have to disagree with one minor thing, the rest is great.
If measuring BF, then use the same method each time, the results of skinfold vs electrical impedance will vary, sometimes greatly.
Just pick one and stick to it.
Ok… so which would be better for getting an accurate BF measurement – my denim-colored Chucks, or my white Otomix Versa Trainers, or, perhaps, one of each?
Unless your a super fat bastard and your trying to lose weight and also lifting weight regularly I don’t think body fat percentage has much use.
I mean if I go get an expensive super acurate test and it tells me I’m 9% body fat but I still want striations in my ass what does it matter?
Plotting trend lines and things of that nature are all well and good but isnt nearly as usefull as just looking at yourself. Numbers can’t tell you if your happy with your appearance.
Also if someone brings up an athletic argument… replace mirror with performance test. An accurate body fat percentage can’t tell you if you improved your 40 time or if you can now dunk or not.
How about arm size? Can I post a picture and ask what you think my arm size is? And possibly how much I should be bench pressing.
How about a ban on posts about banning posts on bodyfat?