My body fat data seems inaccurate and inconsistent. What should I do?
If you are a bodybuilder or have strong muscles, you need to select the Athlete Mode in your settings. The normal mode doesn’t work well with very muscular users. Typically, it is the main reason to cause your body fat measures way off.
In terms of measurement consistency, human body weight and body fat do change during the day. We recommend users measure at a same time each day and under similar conditions. For example, you can weigh yourself first thing in the morning, or in the evening weigh right before dinner each day, to keep things consistent.
Some users may notice that their body fat measured different from the data from other scales. It is indeed not unusual. Fat is a special and complex tissue in the human body. It includes subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, and others, and is widely present in various parts of the body. Currently there are several popular methods for measuring body fat percentage, different methods may produce different results. One method is called the DEXA Method (Dual Energy X-ray Absorption Method), while most household body fat scales employ another method called the BIA Method (Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis Method). The Arboleaf Smart Body Composition Scales use the BIA Method. It is worth noting that all methods present certain level of measurement discrepancies, and different manufacturers may implement with different algorithms too. No instrument can give absolute and correct answers.
Rather than concerning about different measurement values from different scales, here we should focus on relative changes of the values measured by the same device over long periods of time. Sticking with the same assessment system will likely yield a better overall picture of a person’s health status. Again, we must stress that often relative changes of value are more meaningful than absolute value of a single measurement.