I bought one today, it's basically a scale that you stand on bare-foot (Big 5 nor Sport Chalet had the handheld one =/). How accurate are these things? Mine is a Tanita UM-061, and I don't know if it is accurate. It says I am 182.8lbs (yay, lost fat!,) and it says I am 25.8% bodyfat, but when I first went to the gym I was 29% bodyfat, and I am a hell of a lot thinner now. It says to test in the morning because your body is dehydrated and that's the most accurate so I will do that, but 26%... I guess that would make sense, I've gone from 135lbs to 183 and lost 3% bodyfat...

Those things are typically very inaccurate and yes they vary a lot depending on your hydration levels. The most accurate method (excluding Bod Pod and submersion methods) is body calipers.

Use a good body tape measure and some calipers. Always test them in the same spot and write down your measurements weekly.

That way you can track the growth/shrinkage of your body and see if your making gains

Those scales aren't worth their weight.... well maybe their worth the weight they give but not the BF%.

Where can I get capilers, and how much do they typically cost?

Here's what a Google search turned up:

http://www.google.com/products?q=body+fat+calipers &ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=product_resu lt_group&resnum=1&ct=title

I wouldn't recommend calipers unless you are trained in using them (or can find someone who is trained to use them for you). They are just as inaccurate as the scale in the hands of someone who isn't trained.

I have a similar scale and you need to have your feet damp when you use it for body fat. That's something to consider as well.

Plus, I use it more in terms of finding out if I'm losing body fat--not necessarily what exact body fat % I am. So use it once a week for 5 weeks and see if you can notice a trend.

I measure my weight and body fat on my scale every morning first thing, and I don't rely on the measurement of body fat, but the change in the percentage. It has seemed pretty accurate to me. I've dropped 1% with 7 lbs so far. Maybe the percentage is wrong, but that doesn't matter to me as long as the change seems consistent.