Water weight?

[fibronfedup]

Hi all

I have a set of scales that tells me muscle/water/fat %

Does anyone know what the "suggested" ideal percentages should be? Ive used it on my partner so i can see his % as hes skinny and i was curious he has like 60% water and i have 28.5% not sure where it should be though?

Any help appreciated

[HRHGaby]

Hi, every individual varies but as a guide the average total body water percentage for healthy adult female ranges between 45 and 60%.

The total body water percentage will tend to decrease as the percentage of body fat increases. A person with a high percentage of body fat may fall below the average body water percentage. As you lose body fat the total body water percentage should gradually move towards the typical range given above.

[fibronfedup in reply to HRHGaby]

Thank you thats really helpful.

[Salaisa]

Don't read too much into that. BTW, in my manual for the scales, it gives tables of what's good. However, the way the scales work is not very reliable. Try measuring in the morning, after shower, after work with sweaty feet straight from boots... I find the values change drastically, so stopped using that feature. (Although, very broadly, I also get "too little water" which matches my dry lips and generally very low water intake, so I would agree that. But in one of the scenarios above - cannot remember which one - I can make the scales to give me "good" verdict.)

[Anaverageman in reply to Salaisa]

you actually LOSE a lot of water from your body after a hot shower/ bath .. so not surprising it shows the difference.. I agree though total body water doesnt actually tell you much (if any) useful information....

[Anaverageman]

The amount of water in your body varies both with age and sex ( and since adipose/fatty tissue has less water in it than muscle will also vary with your weight..) but actually.... it doesnt REALLY matter.. whilst the actual numbers vary from person to person.. the ACCURACY of bio impedance ( the method used by the scales) is no more than +/- 3%

when you feel thirsty at about 1-2 % so it will not ACTUALLY tell you anything useful..

MUCH easier / better methods...

EIther..

a. Drink when you are thirsty

b. Drink when your urine is darker than pale straw yellow colour...

or if exercising..

c. weigh yourself before and after exercise - any weight loss immediately post exercise is water lost through sweating.. so you lose 0.5 Kg... you need to drink 0.5 L to replace it.....

Simples

[AdeTheJambo]

I have a similarly functional set of scales so when I saw your question I checked out the Tanita website. This link may help - somewhere to record your readings and guideline ideal measurements:

tanita.com/data/File/Charts...

I have not used this myself (I may start!) but have been recording the regular readings in a database to try to spot trends. However the readings in some categories are not particularly consistent - this could be because they are quite an old set.

[AdeTheJambo in reply to AdeTheJambo]

I also take readings at more or less the same time each day I take the readings within a regular morning routine to try to eliminate the variables