My BMI Says I'm Obese, but Am I Really?

[Proton Soup]

Measuring skin fold fat tells you nothing about the amount of fat that you may have around your internal organs.

Does anyone know what the accuracy of the home weight-scales is that measure your resistance through an electric current? I was thinking about buying a new scale and was considering such a fancy one, but then it occurred to me that it probably only measures the fat content in your legs (where the current runs)?

yes, skin folds don't tell much about visceral fat. but luckily, if you're a woman, you probably don't have much. and if you're a man, you may store visceral fat more easily, but it's also the first and easiest fat to get rid of.

those bioimpedance scales don't work very well at all. but if you use them at the same time of day (say first thing in the morning), you should be able to track a trend OK, even if the actual number isn't all that accurate.

But the area where people store fat is highly variable, how many places would you need to measure to get an accurate reading?

at least three for males. there are different equations for male and female. for example, men tend to store more sub-q fat on the abdomen, while women store more of it on the hips.