Weight Watchers Glass Body Analysis Scale?

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flrancho
flrancho Posts: 271 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I got an ad in the mail the other day from a local store that has several sales, one of which is on their Weight Watchers Glass Body Analysis Scale.

The ad claims that the scale measures BMI, bone mass, body fat percentage, water weight and muscle mass. Its not a bad price either.

My questions are, is anyone familiar with this scale? Does it really work? I don't see how a scale can measure all those different things just by standing on it.

Even if its not that expensive ($29.99), I don't want to rush out and buy it if its not going to give me at least a semi-accurate reading of my body fat percentage and such.

Replies

  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
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    I don't think any of the scales that measure body fat are accurate at all. The scale I bought measures body fat, and it is different every day, sometimes by a full percent or more.
    Side note. I got this new scale because my old one was a weight watchers scale, and it was worthless. I could step on it ten times and get 8 different weights, and not tenths of pounds difference, there was a 3 to 5 POUND difference. It was absolute junk. now maybe I just got a lemon, but I will never buy another scale with the WW logo. Just an anecdote.
  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
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    Heaps of people will tell you they are inaccurate, some will say they can give you a trend some will say they aren't even good for that.

    I use mine for trending, for me it can help me judge water retention, a wildly diff % result indicates I am retaining fluid or dehydrated.
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
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    It measures those things using a bio-impedance technique using a small electric current through your feet, all of these scales do it that way. You have to give it a few inputs like age, height. It uses those to calculate BF%, bone mass, etc.

    It's pretty likely that the scale uses the same chip as several other similar scales on the market that do these functions. The only difference is the "body" of the scale, and the pressure sensors and bio-impedance sensors.

    Bio-impedance can be quite accurate on clinical grade scales, but it is not very accurate on home grade scales. That is because the scales can't put the high quality sensor components and higher end processor to achieve that performance for the cost.

    So that scale will be inaccurate for bf%, but if it's well made it should be consistent. That is good enough if you need and indication that you are making progress over time.


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