accurate BF% equipment???

[PurePower]

My buddy at the gym just spent 700 bucks pn a BF machine that looks like a scale. You stand on it and it sends electric waves through your body to determine your BF and how much water,muscle etc etc you are carrying. My first question, is this machine for real or is it a crock of shit? Secondly what is the best form of BF measurment, i have been told that the caliper is innacurate?

[spm162]

The method you described is known as bioelectrical impedance. I personally think it is a waste of money for 2 reasons: (1) I worked at a pharmaceutical company where we used a $5000 machine that did the same thing. We tested it to see how accurate it was and on a 15kg dog, the machine reported that the dog had 17kg of BF. and (2) they have a similar machine at my gym where you enter your age, wt and height and you hold onto the bars on the machine. It said I was like 30% BF and I know I'm more like 13-14%. I think they are a bunch of crap IMHO. The best way is to get a hydrostatic test done where you get put under water.

[Swellin]

I tried one of those things a couple of years ago. While the seven caliper method resulted in 17.8%, the scale thingee reported 32%.
I was nowhere near 32%.

The caliper can be accurate, or in accurate. It depends on the operator. You have to let someone else operate the caliper, or you will cheat. I take the measurements three times, and use the average.

[testaprim]

those scales are crap, you can alter the results by the amount of water you drank and the food you ate as well which gives you a large variance and usually ends up on the high end of the scale. Calipers are good however it depends on the person as swellin said. you can have a 3 site, 5 site or 7 site caliper test done, more sites closer to the actual % given the person is proficent in giving the test. The best and most accurate is the hydrostatic as spm162 already said