Why does the body fat percentage look very off?

Body composition values can be skewed in some cases if measurements used to create the prediction are not correct. Read on to learn the causes of inaccurate body composition values.

Styku uses circumferences and other measurements to calculate the body fat percentage, including height, weight, age and gender.

If there is an error in a circumference or one of the other measurements used in our body fat predictions, this will cause an error in the body fat percentage. For example, long hair not tied up off of the neck, or baggy clothing - especially shorts - will throw off the circumferences and cause the body fat predictions to be incorrect.

To prevent this from happening please reiterate the proper scanning procedures for each client. Wear form fitting clothing, take shoes and socks off before scanning, and if the subject has long hair put the hair up in a bun away from the neck.

If the client has good measurements and the body fat still looks off, then there is a possibility that the scan subject has a body type that would give an inaccurate result if the client was scanned using a DEXA machine. These are typically very lean, muscular people and very obese people. Because Styku is correlated with DEXA, Styku's body composition values may be inaccurate for these populations.  Styku can still precisely track change over time, but the body fat prediction may be higher or lower than expected.

Learn more about Styku Phoenix and how Styku created the body fat algorithms here:

Styku Body Composition