Fancy Schmancy Scales Questions

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ilex70
ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Did a weigh in at the gym today on an impedance scales...fancy one with metal plates at the feet and hand grips too.

Showed a teeny different lower body fat percentage vs. Navy tape method...not important, just interesting.

The PT pointed out a number on the readout (.38 IIRC) and said "your cells are stressed from the inside out...they aren't efficiently taking on nutrients or offloading waste" and she suggested I take omega-3 for it.

So my question is what the heck was the scale supposedly measuring?

Because I would think something like cellular activity would be measured more by blood work at the doctor or some such.

And, secondly, wouldn't eating in at a deficit stress the body since our bodies like to maintain homeostasis?

Also, no, I'm not on the run to buy fish oil, not that a good quality one might not have a benefit for some people.

Replies

  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
    edited February 2016
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    It was measuring bio-electrical impedance which will not tell you anything reliably, will vary form measure to measure, will change based on the amount of food in your body as well as hydration... and definitely not the woo about "cell stress"... that's a brazenly high form of bunk.

    ETA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    and definitely not the woo about "cell stress"... that's a brazenly high form of bunk.

    Pretty much figured it to be woo. Just wondering what the woo is supposedly based on.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    I can't seem to find what IIRC stands for at all, actually. I'm assuming it's somehow tied to electrical impedance. Google doesn't seem to be much help.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    Too funny! That's a new one!!!
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
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    IIRC- If I Recall Correctly...message board short hand.

    The trainer didn't say what the measurement was, just pointed at a number. I tried Google and tried to find the same scale to see if there was a spec sheet of some kind, but no success.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    I'm guessing it was just a measure of the actual impedance or something to that effect. Just a convenient number for the trainer to point to and tell you anything. In many gyms around my location, trainers make their money by providing services or selling goods for/from the gym. It's rare to find a trainer who is not shilling something and those I've met that behave that way will often use whatever they can at their disposal to accomplish those ends.

    That said, any trainer who is not involved in that and knowledgeable is a rare commodity and worth the money, IMO.

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