Scales that calculate...

R

Red_Panda

0
I know its not really fitness equipment, but its equipment we use in the pursuit of fitness? Ok I just couldn't think of a better place for this. Anyway. Those scales that send a pulse and tell you your fat percentage, skeletal muscle percentage, and visceral fat percentage. Helpful? Do you think they work? Mine gives me numbers that sound about right to me. Just wondering what other peoples takes are on these.

For the record, I have one that has both foot sensors and a detachable handle set for taking readings, seemed like it would work better than one with just foot sensors. But that could just be my logic.
 
I sure hope that they are right! Mine seem to be on the track to leading me to becoming a size smaller!
 
Those scales use the electrical resistance method. Fat has more resistance than lean, so a more resistive body is likely to be a fatter body. However, bone also has more resistance than lean, so someone with a high bone mass (like an athlete doing weight bearing exercise) will show a higher resistance than one would expect from his/her actual body fat level. So some scales have "athlete" modes that change the bone mass assumptions.

However, the bone mass assumption (for either normal or athlete mode) may or may not be correct. So the body fat percentage reported may or may not be correct in an absolute sense, but can be used to track up or down trends over time.
 
personally, I don't think those scale are accurate for measuring bodyfat but it's a great scale though.
 
My scale on regular mode says I'm 18% (no way I'm that high), athlete mode says 7.8 (no way I'm that low)
Here's a current pic, judge for yourself

PIC-0112.jpg
 
I bought one of those a few months ago and the manufacturer states, right on the manual's first page, that this things wont take accurate measurements with anything but "normal people". Athletes of any kind will have different parameters that are just too wide in variety for them to take into account. A marathone athlete will have a very "dry" body, a bodybuilder will be "abdnormaly" heavy for its height, etc.

I felt really pissed off at this because they sell this things manly at sport shops, so a lot of their costumers won't be "regular people". It was pretty expensive too, at least comparing to a normal scale.

I suspect mine calculates water percentage, body fat, etc through automatic formulas. You have to input age, height, psychical activity... pretty much like those BMPs calculators you find on the net.

But I have to agree with the manufacturer, an athlete's body in one sport is very different from another athlete in some other sport, so I guess there is no way that things could be accurate. They may be useful as a way of pointing changes in your body's parameters though...
 
That's like the "fat-burning zone" on the cardio machines. Whilst better than nothing, the reading off such a machine is not 100% accurate.
 
The scales are fairly consistent, so even if off a couple percent, it will still show if you are gaining or loosing fat. Good tool. :)
 
yi5hedr3 said:
The scales are fairly consistent, so even if off a couple percent, it will still show if you are gaining or loosing fat. Good tool. :)
Click to expand...

Agreed; they may not be totally accurate but so long as they're consistant they'll do a good job of telling you if you're losing or gaining fat
 
I'm not convinced they're consistent either. Mine can change 2-3% in the course of a day
 
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