Body Scales - WSJ article

[Guest guest]

Howdy folks! I sure appreciate the tidbits of info and experiences that

everyone is willing to share. Even yesterday as I was reading the Wall Street

Journal's Weekend section, I knew the issue of CIs and those fancy body scales.

Thank you for broadening my horizon! Here is the article for your reading

pleasure - although I will stick with the " do the pants fit " way to measure my

body weight. Enjoy (or the delete key is your friend).

The Body-Fat Skinny

By LAUREN LIPTON December 28, 2007; Page W12

It took a test of five digital body-composition scales to reveal that though our

body-fat percentage is fine and our " metabolic age " is youthful, our level of

trust in digital body-composition scales is a bit off.

In the past two years, scale manufacturers have introduced updated instruments

that do more than track weight and calculate your percentage of body fat, as did

the highest-tech models of just five years ago. Program these new versions with

your age, sex, height and, in some cases, fitness level, and they'll also tell

you things like how fit you are, how many calories you should consume, and how

much " visceral fat " you've got tucked around your internal organs. But you'll

have to suspend some disbelief.

As with the earlier body-fat scales, these updated models send a mild, painless

electric current through one's legs (and, in the case of two we tested, one's

arms as well). The scales calculate body makeup based on the way different

tissues conduct electricity. Bioelectric impedance analysis, as it's called, or

BIA, is an accepted way to determine overall body fat, says Dympna Gallagher,

Ed.D., director of the Body Composition Unit at the New York Obesity Research

Center at St. Luke's Hospital in New York. But Dr. Gallagher is skeptical about

the scales' using BIA to determine such things as metabolic rate. The makers of

these scales say they use mathematical equations based on scientific testing.

For our test, we visited the St. Luke's center for a weigh-in and a body-fat

assessment via a space-age machine called a 3DPS -- the center says it's more

accurate than BIA -- which calculated our fat by making a three-dimensional

image of our body. (A basic rule of thumb is that women's body-fat percentage

should be under 30 and men's body-fat percentage should be under 20.) The

hospital has no tests against which to compare the scales' other claims, though

an MRI could have measured our visceral fat. Then we came straight home and

stepped on the scales.

Our first surprise: The model we bought from Herrington simply didn't work,

flashing an error message no matter what we did. The remaining scales all

registered our weight as a pound lighter than the hospital did, and none matched

the hospital's body-fat assessment. The one from SkyMall had us two percentage

points fatter; the tone entry had us one percentage point fatter.

Nitpicky? Manufacturers say their scales are accurate within a reasonable range,

but we suspect that for people obsessed enough to want this much information

about their fat, one pound and a couple of percentage points would matter a lot.

Best Overall goes to the scale we bought from Frontgate, with hand-held as well

as sole-of-the-feet electrodes. Its body-fat percentage reading was off by less

than one point. Best Value goes to The Sharper Image's scale, which

underreported our fat by a point and a half but at least was pretty easy to

program. As for our physical-activity score, caloric recommendations and the

rest, we'll stick to our own time-honored assessment: how well our jeans fit.

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Best Overall: Ironman body composition monitor scale

Frontgate; 888-263-9850

$299; standard shipping adds $26.99

The good: This white-plastic Tanita model with additional hand-held

electrodes—theoretically more precise because they send electricity through the

upper body, not just the lower—was somewhat more sensitive than the others in

body-fat percentage. It also displays the body-fat percentage of particular

parts of the body, such as the right leg.

The bad: We still came up a pound lighter and almost one percentage point fatter

than in our benchmark test. (A Tanita spokeswoman says its scales are accurate

within plus or minus 3% when used properly.)

The shopping: Site inundated us with unwanted special offers, including a

magazine-subscription deal and an announcement that we'd " qualified to be

registered to win a new Lexus.

Best Value: Sharper Image total body composition monitor The Sharper Image;

800-344-4444

$119.95; standard shipping adds $17.95

The good: The second most accurate scale, manufactured by Terraillon, was one of

the easiest to program. It measures weight, body-fat percentage, bone and muscle

mass; recommends daily calorie intake based on one's activity level.

The bad: Round glass scale looks like a spaceship—and won't fit neatly into a

corner. It told us we were a pound lighter than the hospital test showed, and

had half a percentage point less fat.

The shopping: The site kept exhorting us to create an account and apply for the

Sharper Image credit card—when we just wanted to check out and be done.

EasyView scale with remote LCD

Herrington;800-622-5221

$119.95; standard shipping adds $15.95

The good: There's no hunching over to see the numbers on this scale by Soehnle;

the read-out screen can be mounted on the wall. Measures weight and percentages

of fat and water, and suggests daily calorie intake.

The bad: We couldn't get the thing to work. A second unit, which we requested

from the retailer, worked, but one weighing showed us to be 13 pounds lighter

than our hospital weight.

The shopping: We've always enjoyed this site's chatty product descriptions.

Inner scan body composition

tone; 866-576-7337

$120; standard shipping adds $16.99

The good: Glass scale, also from Tanita, includes stats on weight, body-fat

percentage, bone and muscle mass, and a physique rating. We were inclined to

like it when it told us our " metabolic age " was 21.

The bad: We weighed in at a pound lighter and two percentage points fatter than

we did at the hospital.

The shopping: A one- or two-year replacement plan from tone costs $14.99

and $19.99 respectively.

Body composition monitor scale

SkyMall; 800-759-6255

$99; standard shipping adds $15

The good: Scale from Omron had hand-held electrodes as well as an easy-to-see

hand-held digital readout—of weight, body-fat percentage, visceral fat, resting

metabolism, calorie recommendations and more.

The bad: It measured our body-fat percentage at over two points higher than the

hospital test did. It measured our weight as a pound lighter. An Omron

spokeswoman said this scale is accurate within plus or minus 3%.

The shopping: We didn't like having to create an account with this site in order

to buy.