Are these things worth the money?
Recently went a mates house and he told me to try his 'accurate scale' which supposedly measures body fat percentage, weight and other things.
Ozbargain, do you have experience using these things? After a google search, it looked like a 'Body Analyser 1'.
If they are worth it, and how much did you spend on them? Show me the bargainz!
Smart Body Analysers - Are They Worth It?
NaughtSpent on 18/10/2018 - 22:02
Last edited 18/10/2018 - 22:03
Last edited 18/10/2018 - 22:03
Poll Options
- 4Yes they work, and worth the money
- 0Yes they work, but I regret buying it (not worth it)
- 12No they don't work, don't bother
- 0No they don't work, but cool to have
Comments
I got an Omron one very similar to this one https://www.amazon.com/Omron-Body-Composition-Monitor-Scale/… for around 80 AUD back when AUD was higher than USD and Amazon shipped to OZ. Man I miss those days…
Assuming they work, what exactly is the point of knowing the details it provides?
For me, I'd like to know if I should make some adjustments in my lifestyle if that fat % is high - may that be diet, cardio, gym intensity.
Then have regular checkups on the scale to keep myself in check and not 'let myself go'.
yeah but theres some natural fluctuation, so that daily result might not be indicative of your actual health.
Are you suggesting the occasional check? Once a month/week would be better than daily?
(I wasn't intending to rely on daily checks anyway)@NaughtSpent: i'm suggesting that you cant rely on any technology for short term health assessment. Even blood pressure is variable - and doing two tests sequentially will give different results.
Personally i'd just drop the idea and use your eyes. Generally going up or down a belt notch is a good indication
Like what Davo said, your natural daily fluctuations will be greater than the accuracy of these scales.
Pragmatically, there's no point in measuring fat unless you're doing a diet study involving many other people. You're not going to be able to completely isolate ingredients that may be contributing to fat.
If you're looking for quantifiable numbers to measure, consider distance, number of pushups, chinups…
I know it's not really the same, but similar. We have a lady from a local gym that comes to our workplace every quarter or so. She brings along a InBody Body Composition Analysers, offering scans and advice for about half her normal price at the gym. I've gotten a scan last 3 years in a row. It shows weight broken down into bone, muscle, water, fat. You see muscle mass, fat mass etc per limb and body. Visceral fat.
As fascinating as it is, it will probs will never be 100%, but in my opinion it's quite accurate enough and very insightful. I was able to see very direct results between scans due to change in diet alone. Maybe checkout if it's something already at a gym nearby.
I used one of these as part of an intro session at my gym. But the employee, who went through all the results with me, also indicated that these can have a 20% variance so told me it should be used quarterly at most and not regularly relied upon.
They only "work" to a certain extent. As long as the device can output consistently, then you can use the results from the same device as a "relative" measure (relative to previous readings from the same device).
It'll be a lot harder to compare and draw conclusions if you're using two different devices for the same measurement.