How accurate are personal smart scales at calculating BMI, Body Fat %, etc…?
Any recommendations on accurate smart scales or should I not even bother?
Thanks ya’ll!
BMI highly accurate as its just height & weight (BMI = weight in kg / height in m^2 ).
Body fat number is nonsense, ignore it. The trend line will be accurate if you maintain a similar amount of muscle mass over the same period so its not bad to use it to understand if your body fat is increasing or decreasing if the amount of exercise you are getting is constant.
The main benefit I get out of mine is the trend. Compared to a dexa scan the scale is multiple percentage points off, but it seems like the trend is somewhat accurate if you measure the same time every day. In other words I have found that if the scale tells me I lost 1 percent body fat, that seems to line up to the real dexa result in terms of percentage lost. In my case the scale is now reporting higher body fat vs dexa, by about 3%. It’s better than nothing though.
No. 3 body types, height, osteo density (bone, muscle and connective tissue.) are atypical. BMI is a general guideline which makes your scale of minimal value. However it will beat you down every time you go from dehydrated to hydrated, bloated from temporary effects (some as simple as a bag of salty chips.) weighing ones self more than 2 x a week will work against the mind and therefore undermine the development of any (weight loss or body conditioning) system. forget scale goals. develop your system of change . That way when you hit your healthy point, you have your system as a life habit and will keep the benefits rather than getting to a set goal and being left with “ WHAT NOW?”. If you weigh in 2X a week, your mind will see real changes and your determination will be re-enforced even if you failed for the 3 days before since the fall back will be enough to matter.
Home scales of either kind can be quite off, depending on a couple factors. However any decent scale will be consistently off, therefore still useful for tracking changes. For example if your scale is three pounds less when you weigh yourself at 148, its still going to be three pounds less when you weigh yourself at 145. That makes the change accurate.
Any type of body fat tracking is nonsense, you need an extremely accurate mri type machine to actually scan your body to calculate that. Or at least someone experienced with a set of calipers and tape to start measuring visible fat.
The biggest benefit of smart scales is helping set goals and keep track of weight over time. If thats something you are interested in then they are probably worth it. Either type of scale is useful for a regular person just comparing how their weight changes over time.
If you want to know your exact true weight, go to a doctor to have it taken on a properly calibrated scale. If you want a more accurate body fat estimate a physician visit could also get that for you.
Note that people’s body weight can fluctuate by multiple pounds through out the day. Thats why they recommend measuring in the same conditions everytime and not every single day. For example: first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom but before eating, once a week. doesnt have to be that exactly but just to give an idea.
P.S. bmi itself is very precise, combine your body weight and height in the formula and that is your bmi. however bmi itself is not a precise indicator of overall health, its just a tool in the tool belt. Someone with a high bmi could actually be relatively healthy– say they have a good amount of muscle under the fat and their heart is fairly healthy. Someone with a normal range bmi could be relatively unhealthy because they have a lot of invisible organ fat from bad eating habits. Just random exampmes of why bmi shouldn’t be ignored but shouldn’t be a holy grail either :)