These translated into body fat percentages of 248 for women and 155 for men which are decreases of 23 for the women and 17 for the men. If you are using a body fat scale or monitor your body fat reading is affected by the amount of water in your body. Water affects your body fat scale reading. This is especially significant after completing a vigorous workout routine. Hormonal fluctuations cause the body to redistribute body fat or draw in more water resulting in fluctuating body fat percentages over the course of several days to a week. Because the amount of water in your body is constantly fluctuating so will the estimate of your body fat.

Accuracy can also vary depending on various factors including. If the amount of water in your body. On the flip side it soars through fat free mass such as muscle which contains 70 to 75 percent water. Now that youre aware of the importance of being well hydrated to gain lean body mass youre probably curious if your hydration status can also impact fat loss efforts. That means that your changing level of hydration can have a significant effect on the body fat reading that you get. Women are particularly sensitive to these fluctuations so much that it is commonly recommended that you avoid measuring your body fat a few days before during and immediately after your menstrual period.

Your body stores the fat from the foods you eat in deposits that can be used for energy insulation and protection. In a study by published in annals of family medicine the researchers found out that people who are obese and have a higher body mass index or bmi although bmi has its own limitations are more likely to be inadequately. Body fat scales can be an easy way to track your body fat percentage but they may not tell the complete story about your health. Now these are just the average values. Body fat often gets a bad rap but it serves an important purpose. Your body fat is pretty water dense so dense in fact that body fat is comprised of about 10 water.

One person in the study had a decrease in body fat percentage from 297 to 259 a difference of nearly 4. Flood your body and the device will give you a falsely low fat reading.

Gallery of What Affects Body Fat Measurement