Eli5. At home scales that measure Body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat etc etc. How do they work and how accurate are they?
In: Technology
They are not accurate and differ greatly between measurements but they can help you see a trend in the measurements if you keep repeating them consistently, at the same time of day and making sure that hydration is generally equal each day.
The determination is made by measuring a current sent through the left foot and read on the right after the current has passed through the body. Water allows the current to pass more easily, fat does not and this is where some determinations are made.
Also, a 4-point device (+2 hands) will be slightly more accurate than a classic scale that only measures using the feets.
In general, you should check these parameters in the evening, when after a normal day, you are generally fully hydrated, as opposed to in the morning, when you are dehydrated and the determination will say you have a lot of fat.
Obviously, in the evening you have extra weight from eating, so the weight should be weighed in the morning, just after you get out of the bathroom.
But as I said, if you follow a diet and weigh yourself every day, you don’t necessarily care if the 25% fat percentage is correct but if after 3 months, there is a drop from 25% to 20%.
If you really need to know how accurate it is, you can take a test at a medical office that has a similar but much more accurate scale with 4 contact points plus sensors attached to the body.
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