We've had our Tanita since Christmas. Our doctor uses a higher end model that provides us with a detailed print-out of our body composition. I have noticed that my scale shows a slightly different result than his, both for weight and body fat percentage. Does anyone know if the home scales can be calibrated...and how do I do it?

The difference in reading could be the time of day you're weighing yourself.

In the morning, your weight and body fat % will be at its lowest.

I purchased a Tanita scale about 6 weeks ago. I found that my old scale was only off by 1lb, but since it was a very good scale, I was still suprised to see that difference.

The body fat scales are awesome. Often times when I am not losing weight, I can see that my body fat is still going down (which means I'm putting on muscle through my workouts). In addition to 43lbs of lost weight, I can see that I've dropped from 39.1% body fat to 28.8%.

I bought the BF682
http://www.tanita.com/BodyFatFAMILY.shtml

If you know your BF% from an external source (and I would say that only a visual estimate from a picture good enough):

set your age and length up or down in increments of 5 years or 2 inches to get the requested BF%. Now it is calibrated for your personal bodycomposition. Afther this it will give an accurate reading for the next period of time (6 months to a year?).

Remember to measure at the same time of the day, preferably in the evening before dinner and before workout. Take beforehand at least 1 liter of water and eat and drink not in the hour before measuring. Go to the toilet before measuring.
Place your measurements in excel and just keep an eye on the trendline in your grafh of your fatmass. That will tell you really accurate how you are doing!

Succes