Army major writes ultimate take-down of 'senseless' tape test

SFC (Join to see)
I also agree. For someone who is obviously overweight, the tape test isn't telling you something you don't already know. For others, particularly body builders/power lifters whose muscles are so developed, especially their obliques, the tape test will falsely say that they're "too big."

Today, I have a "body fat analyzing" electronic scale. It's useless. It is wildly optimistic.

I don't see how a smartphone app is going to ascertain body fat composition sense it can only sense its environment with the hardware features of the device on which it is installed. I guess you could take pictures and then attempt to estimate via an algorithm but I wouldn't really expect any better results.

I thought the tape test was pretty accurate in my experience. My results were consistent throughout my time on active duty and I had to get taped at every single APFT I took. But if they can come up with something better that remains practical, then go for it. But I hope you get a better fat-analyzing scale than the one I have.