Obesity Discussion Forums

[MichaelB]

I recently went out and purchased a slew of body fat scales and compared them all side by side for features and accuracy.

First, the runners up:

HEALTH-O-METER BFM681-63 - $40 from Walmart
Pros: Lots of items measured. Weighs up to 400 lbs. Easy to use interface.
Cons: How often does my bone mass change, anyway?
Measured: Weight, % Body Fat, % Body Water, Bone Mass, BMR
Memory: Profiles for 4 people, tracks last weigh-in per user.

CONAIR WEIGHT WATCHERS WW67T - $45 from Target
Pros: Lots of items measured. Big display. Results very consistent between weigh-ins.
Cons: Some of the measured items seem pointless (Weight Body Fat, Bone Mass). BMI always returned "Err" for me. Controls seemed flimsy.
Measured: Weight, Weight Body Fat, % Body Fat, % Body Water, Bone Mass, BMI.
Memory: Profiles for 10 people

TAYLOR GLASS BODYFAT SCALE - $40 from Target
Pros: Lots of items measured. Weighs up to 440 lbs. Athlete mode. Good looking scale.
Cons: Hard to use interface.
Measured: Weight, % Body Fat, % Body Water, % Bone Mass, % Muscle Mass
Memory: Profiles for 4 people

OMRON HBF-400 - $60 from REI.com
Pros: Simple interface, easy to use.
Cons: Ugliest scale in the bunch, least items measured, % fat seems much higher than all other scales
Measured: Weight, % Body Fat, BMI
Memory: Profiles for 4 people, tracks last weigh in per user.

TANITA IRONMAN BC-548 - $95 from REI.com
Pros: Lots of items measured. Seemed fairly accurate. Athlete mode. Good looking scale.
Cons: Hard to use interface. The "Set" buttons seemed a little broken/unresponsive.
Measured: Weight, % Body Fat, % Body Water, % Muscle Mass, Basal Metabolic Rate
Memory: Profiles for 4 people, tracks last Weight and % Body Fat per user.

and finally...the Grand Prize WINNER!

OMRON HBF-500 - $64 from Costco.com
Pros: Lots of items measured. Nice interface. Functional but attractive. Additional, hand-held sensors for better accuracy.
Cons: Didn't report % Body Water. Max weight is 300 lbs.
Measured: Weight, % Body Fat, Visceral Fat, % Muscle Mass, BMI, Basal Metabolic Rate
Memory: Profiles for 4 people. Also tracks and reports readings for previous day, 7-days ago, 30 days ago, and 90 days ago.

At $64, the Omron HBF-500 was reasonably priced...only slightly more expensive than the other scales in the shootout, but had several features that put it heads and shoulders above the rest of the pack.

1) The hand-held sensor bar adds a whole new level of accuracy. Rather than just sensors on the feet, and taking readings by running electrical current from one leg through the midsection and down the other leg, the extra sensors on the hand-bar allow them to take readings from leg-to-leg, arm-to-arm, as well as from each leg to each arm.

2) The hand-held sensor bar also means that it's very easy to control the scale and read the results at the end.

3) The memory features are great! Tracking trends across the last 1-day, 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day periods means it's easy to get an idea of how you're doing and how your readings are changing over time. Very nice!

P.S. - There's one more Taylor scale still en route from Costco, and I'll add details re: it when it arrives, but I'm pretty sure I've found my winner in the Omron HBF-500.

[monique]

Interesting comparison, MichaelB, thanks!

How can that last one tell if your body fat is visceral or subcutaneous? Magic? I know it has a handle but without a full body scan I didn't think it was possible to know how much was around your organs. I like the idea of a BMR reading on a scale, I didn't know they did that!

That last one sounds good but I have to lose 8 more pounds to be able to use it, grrr!

Also, how do you know which one is most accurate? Are you comparing it to an "official" scale or professional body fat analysis? It seems like you would just have to guess on that.

~Monique

[Jasmine130]

MichaelB, thanks so much for doing this. I am really interested in trying out your recommendation. I like my scale, but it doesn't give all those other measurements, and I would love to have that info.

-Jasmine

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by monique

How can that last one tell if your body fat is visceral or subcutaneous? Magic? I know it has a handle but without a full body scan I didn't think it was possible to know how much was around your organs.

Yes, magic.

No, I'm guessing it's comparing differences between the various scans.

Arm-to-arm and right arm-to-left leg and left arm-to-right leg would be sending electrical impulses through your core and likely through the fat / tissue surrounding your organs. Leg-to-leg, right arm-to-right leg, left arm-to-left leg would not.

That last one sounds good but I have to lose 8 more pounds to be able to use it, grrr!

Think of it as inspiration to lose more weight, not necessarily a drawback.

Also, how do you know which one is most accurate? Are you comparing it to an "official" scale or professional body fat analysis? It seems like you would just have to guess on that.

I'm looking at the differences and similarities between all of the scales.

The Omron HBF-400 was a definite outlier, for example. It reported my % Body Fat at 30.1%, whereas the others reported between 21.5% (Tanita Iron Man) and 26.7% (Weight Watchers). I discounted it as invalid completely.

The average reading for the leg-to-leg units was right around 24%, so I assume that's not too far off from the correct value.

The more expensive units tended to skew the value lower than 24%, so I assume that they're more likely correct...i.e. their internal algorithms / lookup tables might be more accurate for determining fat percentage based on a given bioeletric impedance reading.
The problem is that even though they're trying to compensate for limitations in their sampling method (i.e. the leg-to-leg limitation) with smarter algorithms, they're still not going to be as accurate as a system that actually takes more, and more varied samples through your body.

The reading from the Omrom HBF-500 (with both the leg and arm sensors) was 22.5%. I would assume it is most accurate because it's using the most number of samples (and a greater variety of samples) in determining the actual reading.

Regardless of which reading you go with as the gospel truth, the important thing to look at is the general trend and/or shift in the reading provided by a single scale. So whether my scale goes from a reading of 30% to 25% over 3 months, or from 25% to 20% in that same timeframe, the important thing is that I really have reduced my body fat percentage by 5%, and that's a good thing.

[johnita36]

My scale is the Health-O-Meter and the body fat is not accurate at all that I can tell, the hydration feature it shows I also don't think is very accurate at all. I am going to have to try to find another one that is more accurate, mine had some crazy times where the weight was going all over but I changed the batteries and that seems to have fixed that at least the weight is seeming pretty accurate now. Thanks for doing this test Michael, I may have to look into getting a scale that is more accurate towards the body fat.



Johnita

[Obesity Discussion]

Awesome comparison! Just curious, were you good about making sure your body was in the same "state" if you would before each weigh in? Hydration levels for example can have a big impact on results.

[MichaelB]

Yep. It was a side-by-side comparison within the space of a half an hour or so. Multiple readings, back and forth between the different scales.

In the future, I'll be recording the weight/body fat percentage that my own scale is reporting and those measurements will always be first thing in the morning, identical "state" if you will. The other numbers I've been using recently have been from the scale at work.