This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

BF% is exactly 7% for months. which is WAY off, cant change it.

For a couple months now, the BF% is exactly 7% for me. When I weigh in on our other user it reads accurately.

I've tried reseting it.

Removing it from connect.

taking the batteries out.

reseting again.

NOTHING works.

Garmin support site is a black hole of never ending loops that get you nowhere.


It worked fine - changeing a little every time I weighed. But stayed consistently at where it should've been. I understand the whole BIA thing is not accurate but this is something funky with the software because it worked before.


Any ideas?
  • Good decision and one I wish I'd made. The "Garmin Universe" is a pretty amazing place, but this is a dead star actively ignored by marketing and support. But not by sales as they keep selling this device that does not work. I used to think that Garmin would eventually do the right thing and either recall them all or fix the problem, but two years in the only confusion I can draw is that they really can't be arsed and since this is such a backwater are willing to absorb the minor repetitional impact. If you get a scale that works, please let me know what it is and I'll UPS my scale with a printout of this thread to Garmin's head of public relations. Ping Former Member 

  • Same issue for me. Bought it in Dec 2018 and it was stuck at 7.0% from the beginning. It should really be in the mid to high teens to be accurate. 
    Contacted Garmin support who suggested changing activity profile, disconnecting, reconnecting and all of the other ideas in this thread. No change.

    Let it rest for 6 months or so. Contacted support again, as BF was still at 7.0%. Did the whole procedure again + gave them access to my account. Finally returned it to Garmin for warranty replacement (for which they wanted me to pay the shipping costs, which is illegal in the EU). Got the new scale and still the same issue and it has been stuck at 7% for the last 6 months. However, over the last few days it has actually moved to 6.9 and 7.1% and just after xmas it was at 7.2%, which is still out by around 10%-points. So, it it's not completely dead, but close. 

    Would be really great if we could get a solution to this. It is apparent that it is something fundamentally wrong with the scale as everyone is stuck at 7.0%.

  • I may have found a “fix”. After years with 7% body fat I tried changing my height in Garmin Connect. I am 177 cm and have a slim build. I set my height to 167cm and now body fat i 16. May stil not be correct but more realistic than 7.

  • I did exactly the same. I forced my BMI to be above 21 by decreasing my height and the body fat started to show 7.1%, 7.2%. I forced my height to 165cm instead of 175cm and the body fat went to 12%.

    This scale clearly has some bad algorithm programmed. I wonder if it actually measures bio impedance. 

    Garmin offered to replace my scale but I am sure that I will get the same results with a new unit. Not all clients have this problem because not everyone has a BMI around 20, that is my case. 

  • I forced my BMI to be above 21 by decreasing my height and the body fat started to show 7.1%, 7.2%. I forced my height to 165cm instead of 175cm and the body fat went to 12%.

    This scale clearly has some bad algorithm programmed. I wonder if it actually measures bio impedance. 

    Garmin offered to replace my scale but I am sure that I will get the same results with a new unit. Not all clients have this problem because not everyone has a BMI around 20, that is my case. 

  • Unfortunately, the problem applies to me as well. I'm on activity class 5 so athlete mode is not the root cause of the problem. Yet, my body fat percentage is always reported as to be between 7% and 8% by the Index scale whereas, in reality, it's about 17% to 18%. My BMI is 21.5. I've reached out to support for feedback but considering the feedback of this thread, I may have to return the scale and replace it with a working product.

  • same Issue With Me :( .But  All the other metrics vary slightly from day to day

    Body fat is 7%

    https://www.aarialife.ca/

  • Had this issue with a scale bought from a retail shop, did all the fault finding steps (changing profile to below 8, factory reset, re-pair etc), no fix, shop exchanged and the new one had the same problem as I tested it in front of the shop assistant. Net result - both are now returned and they gave me a refund. Back to my €30 ebay bluetooth scales that worked reliably for the last three years.

  • Totally agree with this.  If you look at the graphs of body weight and all the other metrics, they are exact duplicates (body water is inverse), just with a different scale.  I get that the 'absolute' values may be inaccurate, but was hoping that the trend would be useful.  It is literally just a function of body weight, no other variation at all, even though I know I have gained muscle and lost fat whilst maintaining body weight.