Bodybuilding, body fat, and stretching tracking

US Navy body fat vs. bathroom scale (BIoelectrical impedance)?

What do you think will be the most accurate?

  • US Navy body fat measurements once a month

  • Buying a Body Fat Scale for $30-$50 from Amazon, measuring each day or week and calculating the average by the month

My goals:

  • I just want to see whether I’m making progress on my bodybuilding goals

  • Should I also be measuring the circumference of muscles, or will Lean Body Mass & Lean Fat Mass be enough?


[moved/combined from another post]

What do you think is the best Bodybuilding & Stretching tracker?

These should be the features:

  • It should be free or one-time purchase!
  • Creating my custom exercises & stretches , because I do many exercises that don’t exist in most databases
  • Creating my own custom workouts , where exercises and stretches can come in any order, because I do my stretches in between bodybuilding exercises.
  • Export as .CSV or public API
  • Only maybe also measurements of muscles
  • See progress in each exercise
  • Recommendations of stretching based on flexibility assesment or other things a physiotherapist would do
  • Recommendations of bodybuilding exercises, based on tracked history.

Do you know any app like this?

Right now I use the app “Strong” and it comes very close. The only thing it’s missing is export of measurement of muscles, recommendations of bodybuilding exercises & stretches, and seeing progress charts is only possible in the paid version.

Do you know any app like this? Or should I rather use seperate apps or other things for recommendations of stretching & bodybuilding exercises?

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I’ve seen a number of talks showing high variability in the impedance method, based on hydration and other factors. Averaging should help of course, but for straightforward body building goals my impression is that the variability might frustrate you.

If you are curious about changes to your body composition, a DEXA scan will answer that question. But it’s not something you’d do frequently. In my case, the results happen to match up with the estimate from my Withings scale, but YMMV.

For exercise recommendations, Volt looks like an interesting option. Or you could get a real human coach?

Do you think the cheap $30-$50 bodyfat scales will be as accurate as the withings scale?

I don’t know; get one of each, do a DEXA scan, gain or lose a significant amount of fat, get another scan, and report back which scale reflected the change best :smile:

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