How Do Smart Scales Work? Are They Accurate? Let’s Find Out!

How Do Smart Scales Work

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Smart scales are still a relatively new form of technology. Just a few years ago, you would only find them in doctors’ offices and gyms. But now, you can keep track of not only your weight but your muscle mass and water content, too! So how do smart scales work, and can we trust the numbers that they churn out? Here is all you need to know about smart scales, whether you want to build more muscle or just monitor your health in general.

Why Do We Need Smart Scales?

There are numerous benefits to purchasing smart scales for your bathroom.

Staying Healthy

A healthy life starts with a healthy body. In recent years, the push towards being healthy has skyrocketed in popularity regarding how it is viewed in popular culture. Nowadays, a healthy lifestyle is a popular way of life. If you go on any social media platform, you are bound to find blogs and videos of people talking about delicious recipes that focus on whole foods and sweat-wrenching workouts to keep your body in shape.

There are many ways that you can try and stay on track with your health, and a smart scale can help you stay focused and informed to ensure you are making the right choices for your body.

Different Fitness Goals

However, it would help if you remembered that not all bodies are the same. Likewise, not everyone has the same fitness goals. Everyone follows their method when it comes to diet and exercise. For instance, some people may be trying to lose weight while others are trying to gain muscle.

You can check your progress for whatever fitness goals you set by weighing yourself on a scale. According to a person’s body type, gender, age and other factors, medical experts have set a standard weight that they recommend people should be at. This recommended weight is based on numerous studies. Being overweight can lead to health risks; however, being underweight can negatively affect your body. This overall measuring person’s ideal body weight is called a BMI or body weight index.

Things to Consider When Using Smart Scales

Take note this is not always an accurate measure of someone’s health or body condition. There are many other factors to take into account to determine a health plan. Although these weights have been set up with the help of medical advice, there are some issues with this method that result in a lot of confusion.

Body Composition

To start, we need to look at body composition. Let’s look at the common issue of muscles vs body weight. One measurement to determine if you are healthy is by looking at your muscles. Everyone knows that muscles mean that your body is in shape. By building up your muscles, you are strengthening your body as a whole.

However, muscles weigh more than body fat. Therefore, those with more muscle can often weigh heavier than someone else of the same size and build. Considering this, higher body weight for people who build up their muscles doesn’t mean that they are unfit, but rather the opposite.

Traditional scales weigh your body weight. However, the weight of your body should be considered your body’s composition and not just the BMI. Traditional scales leave out these crucial factors. A person’s body is made of muscle, body fat, water, bones, and more. This is why a traditional scale is not accurate enough.

Issues With Using BMI

As mentioned above, there are many issues when it comes to using only BMI. This is because BMI is not a personal measurement but more of an estimate. A BMI can’t help in weight loss for people who want to gain muscle as they want to gain weight, but not in terms of fat. Therefore, if a muscular person is over their BMI, they will see if they use a traditional scale. The scale will tell them that they are overweight. However, this is not the case, as we have previously covered.

What Smart Scales Do

a smart scale in the bathroom

With the issues mentioned above, this is where smart scales come in. Smart scales can also be called body fat scales. They are a certain type of device that takes in body measurements such as muscle, body fat, water, and bones (including bone density). Due to this, smart scales and weighing yourself on this type of scale can help you get a more accurate measurement of your body. This can help you keep track of your health better. So how do these scales work?

Smart scales are a great device that gives you a lot of valuable data. Smart scales calculate your overall body weight based on your muscle mass, body fat percentage, bone density, water level, and more. This is called your body composition. A body fat scale can give you the percentage that each factor has in your body composition with a mathematical calculation.

How Smart Scales Work

Although they might seem magical in measuring your body, there’s a vast science behind body fat scales. Using a body fat scale to measure yourself is more than just stepping on the actual scale.

The Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis

First off, you should know that body fat scales take measurements through readings of bioelectrical impedance analysis, also referred to as BIA for short. BIA is a standard of measurement for tissues in the body of a person.

Bioelectrical impedance analysis works by sending a small electrical current through the body. The scale receives this electrical current. From the sending point to the receiving point, this electrical current receives data on resistance from the tissues in the body, such as fat tissue and muscle tissues.

This degree of resistance does many things. For example, this resistance from the tissues can indicate what tissue is being measured. This is because some tissues in a person’s body are more resistant than other tissues in a person’s body. For instance, body fat is more resistant than muscle and water.

Finding Your Body Fat Percentage

After this is done, the body fat scale will need to use a mathematical equation to find your body fat percentage. This equation for body fat percentage will need other elements such as your age, height, and gender. These factors can all determine what the proper body fat measurement should be for every person.

For body composition scales to do this, you will need to use apps on your smartphone to input data such as your age, height and gender. Most smart scales will have an app that can specifically connect your phone to them.

Pro Tip:Some app stores only have access to certain apps, and some scales can only be used with specific apps too. So make sure that your smartphone is compatible with the smart scale before you buy it, whether you have an apple or android phone.

Getting the Estimate

After using the data from your electrical device, the scale can estimate your body fat percentage. However, the scale with this data and using mathematical equations can also give you readings regarding body mass, muscle mass, water levels and more.

In Simple Terms

After a smart scale measures your weight, it will then use a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection to transfer the data to your mobile device. Each time you weigh yourself on your scale, your mobile device stores the information collected.

Other Methods to Find Your Body Fat Percentage

Using body fat scales to find your body fat percentage is only one way to measure body fat. In today’s modern age, there is a vast range of different services which you can use to regulate your weight.

Callipers

Using callipers is one accurate test to help you keep track of your weight. A calliper is a tool that measures the distance between two selected objects. This can also include the thickness of your skin. Many medical professionals use this tool to help their patients determine how much fat they have based on the thickness of their skin.

Hydrostatic Underwater Weighing

Hydrostatic underwater weighing (HUW) is an accurate way of keeping track of your weight. This test is smart to use your body density with your body volume to find your body’s composition. This test is accurate as it contrasts any object’s weight on land versus the weight of that same object underwater by seeing how much water volume is displaced once that object is submerged in a tank of water.

However, a downside to this service is that it needs an extensive array of space and equipment to calculate your body composition. This is why this process can only be done in a lab, such as one in a doctor’s office or a place of study.

Go Smart With Smart Scales

How do smart scales work? They help in collecting data each time you weigh so you can keep track of your progress. As you can see, regulating your health is crucial, and a smart scale can significantly help you achieve this. Your body is more than just body fat. Your BMI is not substantial enough to determine whether you are healthy or not, as it does not consider your muscle mass, the density of your bones, the amount of water in your body and so on.

Body fat scales are just one great way in a range of fantastic services that include this crucial data to give you an accurate reading and help you keep your body in top shape. Knowing how smart scales work can make you feel more comfortable using them, whether you want to lose weight or keep track of your water composition.

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