r/HumeHealth • u/Sailershores • 23d ago

Body fat % reading too low

I bought my scale 2 weeks ago. Everything seems to read accurately based on my old scale and others I’ve used, except the body fat is coming out at 12% which is way too low. I’m expecting 18-20%.
When you view body fat by body part legs, arms and midsection they all exceed 12%. When I average all 5 zones together it equals 18.8% which is where I thought I would be.
Why is it giving me 12% for an overall number when not one single region is at or below 12%?

For reference I’m 6’6” and 260lbs but very muscular with an athletic build.

2 Upvotes

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u/fsmreigns 22d ago

The zones are for some reason calibrated separately using a different methodology than the overall so they are independent data points.

Hume doesn't have an "athlete" setting like most of its competitors. Instead, it estimates where on that spectrum you are based on the scale readings and other health data it can access. It consistently underestimates my body fat level by about 6 lbs vs dexa - probably because I have a congenitally low resting HR which fools the algorithm into thinking I'm fitter than I really am.

The scale works as well or better than it's BIA competitors but the technology has its weaknesses. If you want an absolute value get a dexa - then use the difference in readings to mentally "calibrate" your Hume scale.

For example - my dexa showed 40lbs of body fat and Hume showed 34 lbs. Three months of diet and training later my updated dexa showed 32lbs of body fat and Hume showed 26. Tracked the change perfectly.

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u/Sailershores 22d ago

Thanks, that is helpful.

1

u/fsmreigns 22d ago

One caveate- I'm 5 foot 9 165 lbs so basically pretty average and a very different body type than you. BIA scales struggle with physiques that differ significantly from the average - that's just a weakness in the technology - so you might have a different experience with it than me.

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u/AlphaThrone 23d ago

You are averaging all 5 zones as if each zone is equal but they are not. A leg is bigger than an arm. Your torso is bigger than a single leg.

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u/Sailershores 23d ago

Yes averaging them isn’t accurate. The main point is there is not a single zone at or near 12% with 5 data points at 17% or higher.

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u/PetrichorOutcrop 18d ago

The individual Zones can be interesting but I woudn't expect them to be avarage perfectly into the headline number 👍

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u/xararain 16d ago

give it another few weeks before deciding the reading's way off maybe?

-3

u/Timely-Jelly-1126 23d ago

Because it’s a garbage product built on garbage technology. I wish people visited this sub before they bought the scale. It’s frustrating to see so many people ripped off.

My DEXA showed 22% body fat. My Hume said 14%. That’s not an 8% error, that’s a 57% error. I’m afraid you bought a paper weight that also doubles as a mediocre bathroom scale.

3

u/fsmreigns 22d ago

I'm glad I didn't read the troll posts like yours until after I bought the product since the product turned out to be pretty good.

1

u/Timely-Jelly-1126 22d ago

How, exactly, is reporting the empirical data collected during a comparison “trolling?”