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Muscle Mass VERY inaccurate? Please kindly help.

Former Member over 9 years ago

Hello,
I had both the Tanita and Garmin scale and notice that on results from my tanita say that I have 123.5 lbs muscle mass with fat at 32.1% and weight 191.5 lbs and with the Garmin it says I have 75.3 lbs muscle mass and fat at 30.8% and weight of 192.9 lbs

I mean I'm sure there are fluctuations but 123.5 lbs vs 75.3 lbs Muscle Mass is a big discrepancy?
I made sure to weight myself a few times and they all read 75.3lbs and even on the garmin scale.

I'm not a pro, just a guy wanting to get in shape so I'm not sure which is right or if my garmin scale defective or something else.

Would anyone be so kind and shed some light on what the issue might be?
Thank you VERY much
Mark

0 Dr Phil over 9 years ago

The only way you are going to know for sure is to have some proper athoprometric testing carried out. I'm not familiar with either scales but do know that bio-impedance testing can vary greatly between devices.

However, that being said both are reporting your fat mass to be broadly similar at within 1.4% so the error does not appear to be with the measurements but more in the reporting, unless you are reading the numbers incorrectly.

Do the math and you'll see what I mean - 32% of 192 is not too dissimilar from 31% of 193 (yes I have rounded the numbers)

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

The only way you are going to know for sure is to have some proper athoprometric testing carried out. I'm not familiar with either scales but do know that bio-impedance testing can vary greatly between devices.

However, that being said both are reporting your fat mass to be broadly similar at within 1.4% so the error does not appear to be with the measurements but more in the reporting, unless you are reading the numbers incorrectly.

Do the math and you'll see what I mean - 32% of 192 is not too dissimilar from 31% of 193 (yes I have rounded the numbers)

Thank you for your reply. I understand what your saying but why would one report 73lbs of muscle mass and the other report 123lbs muscle mass? I guess which one of the two would be accurate. The reason I'm asking is so I can open a ticket with Garmin or Tanita. Thank again, appreciate it.

0 Giovanni_Garcea over 9 years ago

One thing that you should look at is if both scales mean the same thing when they say muscle mass. According to a Tanita website, their muscle mass measurement includes the skeletal muscles, smooth muscles such as cardiac and digestive muscles and the water contained in these muscles. My impression is that Garmin reports only skeletal muscles. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is a likely explanation of the difference.

0 happyrunner999 over 9 years ago

Oak

You may want to read DCRainmaker for his discussion on the "non weight" metrics reported by scales from all manufacturers. The upshot is that they are all grossly inaccurate, although there may be some correlation between the reported numbers over time from a single scale and actual change.

0 pplaniol over 9 years ago

I also have both scales. In my case, tanita bc1000 gives me 3kg of bone mass and 56kg of muscle mass. However, the garmin scale gives me 6kg of bone mass and 31 of muscle mass. :O

I think is not very reliable...

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Giovanni_Garcea
One thing that you should look at is if both scales mean the same thing when they say muscle mass. According to a Tanita website, their muscle mass measurement includes the skeletal muscles, smooth muscles such as cardiac and digestive muscles and the water contained in these muscles. My impression is that Garmin reports only skeletal muscles. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is a likely explanation of the difference.

Its Garmin's website which reads that skeletal, smooth and water contained within both is included.

Its obvious there's some difference in calculation going on there. I'd worry much more about the +30% body fat.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I just picked up an index scale today and would say that it sorely needs an athletic mode for body fat. I am quite an anomaly so wasnt expecting it to be extremely accurate regarding body fat but its unuseable for me. A tanita will usually give me 17-18% which is still inaccurate for me but I can work with it. The Garmin connect gives me 28%. I cant do much with that. I usually use a home ultrasound tester and its always within 1% of a dexa scan done on the same day (which is below 10% BF).

I got it to go with my fenix and effortlessly sync with connect. But i would rather use a cheaper withings scale and sync with my fitness pal witb weight only or even a 3rd party app.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I found that with the newest update (2.5) the scale same i'm about 3% lower in body fat, but it estimates 3% higher in body water.

That being said, the fat is now on par with other similar devices.

0 Ssaint6 over 9 years ago

I have the same issue.
With my Fitbit Aria I would have about double the muscle mass than I am with the Garmin.
Total bummer.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I just picked up an index scale today and would say that it sorely needs an athletic mode for body fat.

it does. Set your activity class to match your athletic value. You should see the readings change next time (2x) you weigh yourself.