I'm planning on buying one of those little hand-held calculators that you press your thumbs on and it calculates your body fat % and other things. What model would you suggest? Does anybody use one? How useful do you find it?

I used my running partner's for months and months...then I got my body fat measured using the "pinch an inch" method and got veeeery different results...went home and still got the same reading on the hand held ( the hand held gave me a reading close to the scale one). I followed the directions exactly and would still get the same reading.
The caliper test was done by someone who has done it for many years...sooooo, I don't use the other method anymore.
Just my .02

I just bought a Centrios Body Fat Manager. It seems to be pretty accurate, so I'll use it as well as a scale to track my weight loss and let you guys know how it works!

i really wouldnt rely on anything but calipers, those scales and hand held things that give body fat readings are based on electrical current that runs through your body and just gives a rough estimate. how much water your holding, what you have eaten etc. can throw off that % big time!

The only problem I have is that I don't go to a gym and there are none really within an hour of where I live. :S I'm kinda out in the boonies...except not! Hehe!

Hi, we have a gym and I bought a too expensive scale that also gives your fat %, way off. After a week I stopped using it on the ladies at our gym!! I think they are super unreliable.

I heard "curves" uses some kind of fat counter does anyone know what that is and if it's reliable?

I don't really know what curves uses. There are a lot of different ways to check it, but few are very accurate. It might be a good idea to average a few different methods. I have used the scales and the hand held ones, they are basically the same thing. They send a current through your body. This current travels at a different speed through fat than it does through muscle. Thats how they come up with the result. These can be very inaccurate because there are too many variables. The caliper is a pretty good way to do it, but you need a fairly experienced person to do it to make sure they are pinching the right amounts in the right places. There are also formulas that can be fairly accurate. Be careful, some of these are dependant on BMI. Any one dependant on BMI could be very inaccurate. BMI is simply a ratio of height to weight and tells nothing of body composition. For example a male that is 6 feet tall and weights 210 lbs with 4% body fat would have the same BMI as someone that is 6 feet tall, weighs 210 lbs and has 20% body fat. I have an equation that is about as accurate as a formula can be. It is not dependant on BMI, rather, it is dependant upon body measurements. We are working on this page, if it doesnt work check back in a couple days. http://www.insiderfitness.com/calculators_forall.php
Your best bet is to do an average of different methods. If you cant do this, just use the same method everytime and note changes. The values might not be 100% correct, but as long as they are going down. you're in good shape.

I used to have a Tanita Scale, and it's absolute shitte. I could get a difference of 5% within 2 minutes. Please don't spend money on those!

The best site I've seen for body fat tracking is probably http://www.mybodycomp.com It's based on about 10 different body measurments.

However, you may run into the same issues you do with the caliper method...making sure you get it right. If you can measure yourself consistently, you should be getting an accurate measure of BF change. Not perfect, but then again, what is?

Hope that helps!

Just measure your hips and your waist with a meter.