BIA scales?

B

BigLyn10

New member
Does anyone know much about the home use BIA scales. I saw one on line that says it will do segmental or total body verses the ones that just do the legs. I am looking for one and don't mind spending the money as long as it is good and accurate. I really don't know much about them. I would like to know my fat verses muscle weight. I have been reading up on this and before today didn't really know anything about them for home use. If the home ones are not very good or accurate, how about the professional ones?

Is it OK if I mention the brand and model I was looking at? I try to be careful because I don't want the spammers or manufactures responding just trying to sell me their products.
Lynn
 
I don't know much about the various brands etc. To me the biggest advantage is that you can track trends - getting an accurate reading of your body fat may not happen. Although you can get within a tolerance.

One thing is that since they operate based of electrical current, if you drink lots of water you'll show up as lower body fat than if you're dehydrated. I've used the same BIA scale for years now and I have a general feeling for this - as in I doubt I dropped 1% BF and gained 2 lbs overnight, I have a pretty good idea I'm retaining water.

The reason the segmental or total body matters is that the measurement takes the path of least resistance. So, I carry more fat in my legs than my upper body - a hand held BIA device gives me a lower BF% than the scale. I don't know that professional ones will be particularly more accurate since the amount of water you've been drinking will affect any of the above, but I still do find mine useful in order to see that I've made improvements.

Hope that helps at least a little!
 
Thanks for the info. I haven't looked at scales in years and was supprised to see this type. I don't need a new scale for weight but I liked the idea of being able to see how much fat I lose. I'm trying not to lose any muscle. I have one of the older types of scales that is weighted with real weights. I bought it about 25yrs ago.
This gives me something to think about.
Lynn
 
Yeah - if you want to know exactly how much fat you have, it may not be that useful.

If you want to get reassurance that you're losing more fat than muscle, and that your BF% is changing as you workout/lose weight, then it could be quite useful. For me personally, I just went with the el cheapo Wal-Mart version that was around $40. It may not be as accurate as the more expensive models, but I'm mostly interested in seeing that my BF% is going down rather than getting an exact readout.
 
I'll have to check the ones out at Wal-mart. My concern about muscle loss is because of my bones. I have shown some bone loss on my Last DEXA so I'm trying to do everything I can to prevent any more loss. I had started my dieting around March and found out in Oct. about the bone loss. The bone loss isn't too bad at this point and I might be able to reverse it. I won't know for a year how effective the changes I have made are.
Lynn
 
I don't know for sure on this, but one of my friends got a BIA scale (from Wal-Mart) earlier this year and he claims it also gives him an estimated bone density. I really have no idea how accurate it is, but it may be of interest to you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top