Question RE: Measuring BF with a hand held meter.

[forrest_and_trees]

I recently had my BF measured in my doc's office using a hand held meter. However, it turns out the weight that was entered was about 20lbs too low so obviously, the reading is incorrect. Does anyone know enough about how these things work to tell if that would cause my "true" BF number to be higher or lower than what the tester read? I'm assuming it has something to do with resistance and how your BF conducts differently than lean muscle.

P.S. Yes I know hand held meters are no where near as accurate as doing an buoyancy test however, I'm paying cash out of pocket and cant afford it; so a hand held will have to do for now.

[warchild]

those things come in +/- 3%

[frawnz]

I believe it sends an electric pulse and measures the time it takes for the signal to reach the other hand, and then estimates your bf based on that (bioelectrical impedence).

They can be highly innaccurate.