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Body Fat Monitor Blog Archives
This blog remained active for only a short
period. Here is an archive of postings. For more recent trends in body fat
monitors, please see my
Personal Health Monitor Blog.
"All Are Excellent Products"
How accurate are body fat monitors? An expert answers this question at the
Denver Post:
Tanita, Homedics and Taylor are among manufacturers of bathroom scales
that measure body fat. First, you enter your age, gender, height and
activity level into the unit. Then you step on the scale barefoot, and a low
level electrical current, carried by water, travels through the body. The
scales measure where water is not located (fat does not store water) so good
hydration is crucial for accuracy.
The Tanita scale is the most well-known because the company was the first to
enter the home-use market. Prices range from $90 to $120. They can measure
body fat, hydration levels, bone density and even metabolic age.
Homedics/Taylor's scales, at about $80, offer body fat and hydration
measurements along with calculations of the number of calories required to
maintain or lose weight.
The choice comes down to personal preference because all are excellent
products. The accuracy of these scales can be as close as plus or minus 3
percent.
Accuracy is dependent on the user's ability to duplicate conditions almost
exactly each time the scale is used.
Dehydration, exercise or eating before measuring, prescription drugs,
caffeine, alcohol and menstrual cycles all can affect accuracy.
April 24th, 2006
Keeping Your Dog Trim
Two Japanese companies, Kao and Yamato Scale, have announced a
new body fat
monitor - for dogs.
The newly-developed device, which measures 78x97x40mm and weighs about
123g, can measure the body fat percentage of all types of dogs with a simple
procedure.
By applying an electrode to part of the body, which previously was wiped off
with cotton containing ethanol, and pressing a start button, the device can
show the result on the display in a few seconds.
Details of this achievement was presented at the 141st Meeting of the
Japanese Society of Veterinary Science. Kao plans to introduce the device to
the market this fall.
March 28th, 2006
Falling in Love with the Bathroom Scales
Washington Post writer John Deiner has
fallen in love with his new body fat monitor:
So I got the scale, and I can't get enough of it -- even if it doesn't
seem to do what it's supposed to. The scale uses bioelectric impedance
analysis, or BIA, to measure body fat. (Theoretically, every time I hit the
treadmill I'm nudging my body fat percentage lower by gaining muscle and
increasing lean body mass.)
According to the literature that came with the device, "A harmless
bioelectric current passes from the foot pads through the body. The current
travels at different speeds through lean mass and body fat."
Using information you input -- age, height, sex -- and your weight, the
scale's microprocessor then "analyzes the impedance, or speed, of the
current," and deduces your fat-to-everything-else ratio.
Not so fast, says Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist and senior research
scientist at Duke University. Slentz, who's been studying exercise and body
composition for nearly 30 years, said he recently reviewed the research
concerning BIA and came up with a simple conclusion: Don't trust your scale.
"I don't believe that bioelectric impedance works well at all. My guess is
that somewhere down the line it has some promise," he said, "but it hasn't
reached that point yet."
The newspaper also has
brief reviews of four scales, the Sunbeam Digital Scale, the Weight
Watchers Glass Electronic Tracking Scale, the Health o Meter Professional
Body Fat Monitoring Scale and the Tanita InnerScan Body Composition Monitor.
March 8th, 2006
High-Tech Gadgetry - Partner in Healthy
Living
The MSNBC website looks at
body fat monitors under the headline: "Bathroom Scales Gain Weighty
Technology":
High-tech gadgetry, sleek designs and belief in the virtue of regular
weigh-ins are transforming the bathroom scale from an embarrassment in the
corner to a partner in healthy living.
And it examines some of the Tanita units:
For example, the digital Innerscan and Ironman lines from Tanita ($70 to
$130) come packed with features that do everything from sending a low-level
electric current through the body in order to measure body fat percentage
and hydration levels to allowing up to four individual users to track their
progress over time.
Some models, such as the glass-and-stainless BC-533 ($120), also analyze
muscle mass, bone mass and daily caloric intake, gauge stomach fat and
provide a "physique" rating based on body type.
Tanita claims these additional measurements can be important to maintaining
overall health and monitoring the effects of a diet and exercise plan. For
example, a stand-alone weight reading does not distinguish muscle from fat.
Too much fat can be a warning sign of serious medical conditions such as
heart disease and diabetes.
Cathy Nonas, a dietician and spokesperson for the American Dietetic
Association in New York, cautioned that before people opt for these
features, they should know how they intend to use the information. Do they
really need to know their percent body fat on a regular basis? "If so, then
by all means, spend the extra money," she said.
February 17th, 2006
Citizen Systems - New Personal Health
Monitors
Japan's Citizen Systems, part of the Citizen Watch group, is to market a
body composition
scale that can measure not only weight and body fat but also visceral
fat, basal metabolism, muscle bulk and bone mass. It is part of a move by
the company into home health devices, which are seen as a fast-growing
market segment as the Japanese population ages. Last year the company
introduced a comprehensive "personal doctor"
home healthcare system,
allowing users to monitor and store weight, body fat ratio and blood
pressure. So far, it appears the devices are for sale in Japan only.
January 14th, 2006
Affordable
Luxuries
Forbes
magazine has published a list of “affordable
luxuries” – goods or services costing less than $200 – for getting fit.
According to the report:
You
don't need to be wealthy to get healthy. In an age where gym memberships
cost hundreds of dollars per year, personal trainers around $100 an hour and
state-of-the-art exercise equipment in the thousands, it might strike some
readers as unrealistic that $200 will have much impact. Allow us to demure.
[The writer presumably means “demur”.]
Among the
items selected:
Tanita BC533 body composition monitor -
To help keep track of all
that weight you are losing, there are few bigger motivators than a scale,
and few scales are as high-tech--and affordable--as the Tanita BC553 Body
Composition Monitor, which has a list price of around $120. It not only
tells you your weight but also body fat, body water percentage, bone mass,
basal metabolic rate, metabolic age and muscle mass.
January 5th,
2006
A Lawyer's Weight Loss Odyssey
Not quite sure why the TechnoLawyer Blog is covering weight loss matters,
but it seems one of the writers there has discovered
body fat
monitors.
Here's what he writes:
In
July 2005, I purchased a Tanita InnerScan BC533 scale. This clever gadget
not only calculates your weight, but also your body fat percentage, water
percentage, visceral fat, muscle mass, physique rating, bone mass, DCI
[daily caloric intake], and metabolic age.
…I
love the scale, but would like to report on two interactions with Tanita.
First, my scale arrived with the wrong manual and reference guide. The
reference guide is important because most of the readings have no meaning
without the accompanying explanation. At first, Tanita sent me a Xerox copy
of the manual and failed to send me the reference guide — very annoying.
After complaining, it sent me the actual, bound manual and reference guide.
Second, I agree with all the scale's readings except DCI. Given my interest
in (obsession with?) weight control, I consider myself an expert at DCI. I
eat 1,700 to 1,800 calories/day, but the scale provides me with a DCI of
2,400 to 2,500 calories/day. Given this 700 calorie discrepancy (that's 247
grams of ice cream!), I sent Tanita my statistics thinking that my scale
might have a defect, but Tanita stands by its DCI calculation. This
discrepancy remains a mystery to me, but I'm sticking with my DCI, not
Tanita's.
…Finally, a buying tip. I initially purchased the scale from Amazon, but
Amazon shipped it "naked" without an outer cardboard box. As a result, the
scale arrived looking like it had travelled through a war zone. I returned
it, and instead ordered the scale from Bodytronics, which packed it properly
in a cardboard box.
December
29th, 2005 |
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