Change in Metric Calculations for Scale

I also think there has been a recent change in the calculation algorithms, or something along those lines, particularly with regard to body fat and water.

Mid last year, after a mid-40s birthday, my scale suddenly started telling me I was 44% fat, 40% water. I am a ~57kg, average height, slim, fit and active woman, BMI ca. 20.5. There is no way in the world I am 44% fat and so little water. Garmin support were of little help and even used language that suggested I was trying to cheat, unless I could show them dexa scan results to prove otherwise.

After repeated attempts modifying the settings, eventually changing activity level to 10, it eventually settled back down to (probably realistic) 23% fat, 58% water. Incidentally, the body fat calculation method using my neck, waist and hip measurements also approximates to 23% body fat.

Since November it has gone the other way, telling me I am 3% fat, 70% water. Decreasing the activity level back down from 10 to a truthful 7 now gives me 5% fat.

At least now I can ignore it as it doesn’t negatively impact my fitness age, as it did with 44% fat and telling me I am unhealthy and to lose weight!

I think there are clearly problems in the algorithms, especially when it comes to determining between body fat and water content.

I suspected the earlier change to over-estimate body fat also had something to do with age-based assumptions built into the algorithms, since reducing my age in the settings also gave lower results (but then of course also reduced my VO2max rating to a lower, less than ‘superior’ category).

Was anything else changed in the app? Jingles mentions the activity level which could definitely impact things. You could also see changes if you edited Height in User Settings or any of the information under Set Body Composition.