| megnliz
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I currently have a regular analog scale. It's only a few months old, so it works fine. But I was wondering about these Body Comosition scales. How do they work?..how does it measure skeletal composition and metabolism?
If any of you have them, could you give me a review. I was thinking of buying one, but I wasn't sure if it was worth the $100, seeing as my scale works just fine. But if it's readings are accurtae, I think it would help motivate me to see all aspects of my progress everyday.
Thanks
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Tue May 06, 2008 8:18 pm |
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| RedRox
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Well you can find those that measure body fat for much less than $100, so not sure what else that one does but it better be a lot of fun! ;)
Seriously though, I have a Tanita that measures water and body fat % ($35) and think it's probably OK to measure relative progress but I don't think it's particularly accurate. The way they typically work is to send an electrical signal into one foot and then measure how long it takes to receive it at the other foot (bio-impedance) and this in conjunction with your measured hydration level is used in a standard calculation to calculate body fat %. The problems are that your hydration level changes the reading significantly and the times most people weigh for lowest weight in the morning is the exact wrong time to measure for body fat % which is typically late afternoon/early evening before dinner while you have been hydrating all day. (The higher the hydration level, the lower the calculated body fat%) So you typically weigh more but measure less body fat % if that makes any sense. You can also have fun with it and reduce your body fat % considerably just by weighing in a crouch as the current has far less distance to travel that way as well! :lol:
We got ours pretty much after I was already in my healthy weight range so to me it's a pretty meaningless number. It just moves up and down based on how much percent water it measures and doesn't do much for me. I've had caliper testing done that places me anywhere from 3%-5% less than what the average number on the scale typically reads. |
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Tue May 06, 2008 8:38 pm |
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| megnliz
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Thanks for the reply! That was pretty interesting to read.
Quote: Well you can find those that measure body fat for much less than $100, so not sure what else that one does but it better be a lot of fun!
lol, yes it does a lot more than just body fat. It also measures your resting metabolism, and skeletal muscle, and visceral fat(not sure what that means)
http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2878138&cp=1331604.1331615.1332285&parentPage=family
Not sure if I need all that, just one that measure body fat...much cheaper too:)[/quote][/url] |
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Wed May 07, 2008 2:32 am |
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