Do you own one? Have you ever compared it to BodPod and DEXA scans for accuracy? I have many times. enough moisture in the skin to conduct good with nothing in you yet provided the most accuracy. If you want to weigh your food and consumed water, that’s up to you. I prefer more consistent results more inline with what the better method would provide.
By the time I wake up in the morning drink 2 coffee’s a pre workout and whatever I consume during I’m already up 4lbs. No thanks. Not adding in more liquid and food on top of that.
I bought a feet only smart scale from Amazon with good reviews. I’m pleased with the weight accuracy but the body composition results are utter crap. Not even close to what I get with a DEXA scan and twice as far off as I get with a tape measure and body fat calipers.
A simple test shows how bad it is. Use it before and after a sauna. The change in weight is water which is lean mass. Losing water means lean mass has dropped and body fat % has increased but my scale (and I expect most others too) reports a drop in body fat %. If I drink a lot of water it reports a gain in fat %.
I believe this is due to the scale requiring one to enter data like height, sex and age which it probably uses in algorithm to generate a result based on typical people. It may tweak that result with the measured impedance value but not enough and when the change in weight is pure lean or pure fat it is very inaccurate.
It might be that it is only measuring the impedance in my legs and perhaps more of the water loss was from my torso than my legs in which case a scale with hand grips to measure from hands to feet might do somewhat better. But my scale isn’t just under reporting my increase in body fat % with the water loss but is reporting it as a loss of body fat % so merely doing somewhat better could still be very wrong.
Agreed, every feet only one I’ve had has come up with terrible results. Holding water screws with them BAD! One of the reasons I went with the Omron, figured since they make real medical equipment hopefully they knew what they were doing. Supposedly the inBody ones have a very proprietary way to do it where they send multiple pulses at different (voltages I assume?) and since they’ll travel through LBM, Fat, Bone differently it makes it more accurate than the normal way. Just what I was told, but I know the ones all the gyms have cost like $5k so they better be doing something special!
I don’t own one. However, I work in Commercial Fitness Equipment Sales.
Occasionally, someone will purchase one from me.
In the past,I did some Peronal Training and had access to the BIA Scales and Hand
Devices.
There was/is a dramatic fluctuation in day to day readings, even when take at the same time of day. A large part of that was due to individuals not following the recommended protocol.
There was/is an even greater different in the reading when it is taken in the morning or afternoon.
Exercise Physiology
One of my college degrees is in Exercise Physiology.
I keep up with the research and have practical experience in this area.
Hydrated
In other word, you are hydrated prior to using the BIA.
Superhydration
It appears you may have misunderstood the information that I presented on this.
I didn’t now advocate Superhydration prior to the BIA reading.
The information that I posted on Superhydration was in regard to its effect on Strength.
As I noted, that is one of the reason that Creatine works.
Superhydration of the muscle cell is also one of the underlying mechanisms for dramatic increased with certain PED, anabolics.
If you read everything I said, I DON’T weight after all that, for that exact reason! DE-Hydrated means nothing from later the night prior, not shriveled up like a prune.
Which is exactly why I do it the way I do it. Consistency. Same reason when you go in for DEXA and BodPod they don’t want anything in you other than some sips of water. Being a personal trainer to me says the people you worked with as you said aren’t compliant most of the time, don’t have dailed in diets and probably cheat more than they follow good advise. The handheld units are even worse than the feet only scales.
BIA scale accuracy was part of that curriculum?
Than you should be agreeing with me. Feel free to buy a BIA scale with both hand and feet or go to an inBody at your gym and measure both ways assuming you have an accurate BF% on yourself now… and see for yourself. Don’t take my word for it.
On the positive side, it agreed pretty well with my older Tanita scale it replaced in terms of weight and %BF so that’s sort of a sign neither one is way off from a conventional way of doing a BIA.
On the negative side, the algorithms generate some odd results!
For example, I’ve been in Maintenance for about a year. I gained 9.6 pounds. The scale tells me I gained 6.8 pounds of fat, of which 2.5 was subcutaneous and 1.4 lbs was visceral. Wait - that adds to 3.9, not 6.8? Where’s the rest? If I add what it shows for lean body mass and body fat gain, those add to the same number as my weight gain. It’s a little inconvenient that it give lean body mass in pounds and body fat in percentage, but that’s why we have spreadsheets.
Sort of similarly, I’ve been trying like crazy to gain some upper body strength, lifting around once a week in a Body By Science type workout (as best I can). It tells me my lean body mass has gone up 2.8 pounds while my skeletal muscle has gone down by 0.8 pound. So my weight lifting has made the target muscles smaller and my intestines more muscular? Not quite what I intended! (I said intestines because I couldn’t think of another obvious non-skeletal muscle - it didn’t tell me that. I sure didn’t gain 2.8 pounds in my eyelid muscle.).
It’s sort of in an “uncomfortable valley” where it’s not totally useless but it’s not really able to do all they sell it by.
Thank you for the comments. Especially if your scale does not work well for body fat please let me know.
@Corals I looked at a Tanita online but it did not synch with my phone not sure it was that model, only stores the information on the scale. I do not want a scale that does that as H and I long ago decided we did not want to know what the other weighed! Even during childbirth I sent him out of the room when they asked me what I weighed! If that is not issue I might have considered it.
Thank you. The Omron is so much less than the InBody. Does the InBody do feet only? I would prefer that although it does not sound like it is as accurate. Also most of my fat is mid body not lower body
@KennyCrox Thank you for the explanation, very interesting
No, it does both, if you look closely you can see the hand grip at the top of the scale, it just sits nicer than the Omron one does. InBody’s are probably the most accurate when it comes to BIA, but again, not cheap. Makes no difference where the fat is that’s why it’s sending the pulse through both your feet and hands and seeing what comes back on the other end. The resistance from one end to the other is how it’s measuring along with the info you give it.
I’m happy with my Omron, but would definitely buy the InBody if I had the extra $$ laying around.
Get one that logs readings via wifi. I have the Aria scale and don’t care if the % is accurate but it does trend well to go up when I am putting on fat and down when I lose fat. The on/off can get wonky but that is probably more to do with my tile floor than the scale.
This thread also talks about scales and mentions a Tanita. I posted a new question because it had been awhile
This is an older thread
Is it really worth the extra $280? I am still deciding. Here is the way I look at it, if there were no decent body composition scales then I would definitely think about shelling out for the InBody but if the Omron or one of the Tanitas does a decent job, what am I paying extra on? Not challenging, really asking if it is worth it and I am not sure I understand the difference
I dunno, my curiosity on it is since it’s made by inBody that (maybe) it has more of the tech that the ones in the gyms that cost a couple grand have and would be more accurate. I can’t say that it is for sure. The Omron is good no question but the inBody (the gym one) is better. How much of that translates to the consumer model, I’m not sure. It’s a gamble I guess. As a whole as long as I hit the Omron first thing AM with no liquid in me it’s typically pretty damn close to the more expensive methods. I’m one of those never happy types and keep buying crap I don’t need
Sounds good. The one problem I have is privacy. I really have a thing about other users knowing my weight and I have a lot of people in my house. The Omron does not have a blue tooth link to app
I use an Aria myself but find that it has a 5 percentage point difference between what I see on it and a DEXA scan so I do question it’s accuracy. It is helpful for showing a trend, linking to my app so I can see a graph is also nice.
I didn’t know that consumer devices existed that measures resistance through the legs AND arms. I might need a new toy to test with.
I have been using a BIA Scale for a few years now (daily for about 8 months now), so I’d like to add my 2 cents here. Hopefully you find it useful.
Machine - Omron HBF-514C Full body sensor and composition meter
Tips
The values are not necessarily accurate on a daily basis. They will fluctuate and that might throw you off times. However, if you are consistent and regular they are excellent for long term tracking.
Do your test at the same time each day, keeping as many variables (amount of water, food etc in your body constant). I have found that measuring myself right after waking up in the morning is the best time to test. As soon as I get up, I pee, and then weigh/measure myself. IDo it before drinking any water or coffee.
This way I am able to keep things constant as much as possible. Minimum amount of food and water in my stomach and generally the water distribution is pretty even since I have been in the sleeping position for at least 7 hours. If I were to do this in the evening, the variables are not always the same. How much water I have in the body, what I have eaten, how I feel etc all make a difference in the readings. By doing it in the morning, the factors are at the most controlled level.
Do your test everyday, but average the results over a week. I take a reading each morning, but then average the weeks results. For example, my week starts on Monday - Sunday, so I average the weeks result and only use the weekly results for comparison. The weekly average provides the best results if you want to track your progress.
As mentioned earlier, daily results can fluctuate due to many small causes (I even think the type of workout from the previous day has an impact on my results). However, this averages out over a week. The weekly averages are very good indicators of your progress.
Do not use the BIA scale to check your precise body fat%, but use it to understand the trend. The actual body fat% mentioned in the BIA might be a couple of percentage points off the actual number. However, if you see that your weekly average body fat% is decreasing on a regular basis, you are doing something right.
If the BIA shows your body fat as 18%, the reality might be anywhere between 16-20%. However, if your weekly body fat average is falling every week by 0.4%, then you are on the right track. If your weekly body fat% average is going up, you need fix a something.
Stick to one scale. I visited my inlaws for about 4 weeks during this period and they had a different model of an Omron BIA. It showed my skeletal muscle% nearly 5% off what mine was showing. However, I used it only to check the trend/weekly average and it seemed to work. But for that you need to use it for a longer period (2 weeks +)
Good luck with a BIA. Its a very handy tool as long as you know how to use it.
Thank you for the analysis. Are there any options to keep the readings private? I really do not want other family members to know my weight. We have another scale in the kids bathroom but H would have access to this one as well. My other choice if everyone really thinks this is the closest to giving me an accurate reading is to keep it in my closet which no one ever goes into.
Also, if I did keep it where anyone could access it, if someone goes on it will it immediately show the prior weight? I would really prefer one that sends everything to an App that is private but if the Omron are the most accurate without breaking the bank then that may be the best purchase at this point
