How Accurate Are Body Fat Scales?

More and more people are finding out about the benefits of owning a body fat scale and how they are superior to the regular bathroom scales that  are limited to measuring your body weight so the question of whether the body composition analyzers are really reliable machines is becoming more important than ever. To seek an answer to that question let us first see how these scales work.

There are a number of technologies used for keeping track of a person’s body fat percentage and the method used in home scales is named electric impedance analysis. Body fat scales have electrodes that check out the electric resistance of your body when you step on the platform to weigh yourself. Muscle transmits electric much better than fat so a person with a muscular and lean body will have significantly less electric resistance than an obese person. The scale may also require you to manually enter your age and gender because the electrodes can only check the electric resistance in your lower parts and females and males store different amounts of fat in those parts.

Arguments have been raised that question the reliability and accuracy of body fat scales. Some people think the electric impedance is not reliable because its results fluctuate vastly throughout the day. According to them, inconsistency of body composition measurements fort he same shows that body composition monitoring is little more than a marketing gimmick to sell more expensive products to people who are desperate to know more about their weight loss progress. These people think the most accurate bathroom scale and perhaps a body tape measure are all you need to keep track of progress.

Although the old school bathroom scale lovers are not few, body fat scale owners re also growing in number. This is because body composition is a crucial piece of information when you are burning fat and building mucle at the same time and a scale is the most affordable way to get that information. Body fat scales perform well if you get the right one and use it correctly. If you believe you need to know about your body composition, your first step should be to do some research on the products in the market and get the most accurate body fat scale. Next, you will have to use it with caution, not stepping on the scale too often with beverage breaks between and not growing obsessed with what the scale is telling you. This way you will be well-informed and confident to move on with your fitness program and will find out that indeed, the body fat scales are great.