Has anyone used those body composition scales?

[NaturalW]

Just wondering if they would help me with the next stage of my journey - checking my muscle mass - and increasing it - or are they a gimic and I just need to eat better for muscle growth / maintenance?

Depends which ones, I have the eufy ones and they match fairly close to the gym ones. So I think as accurate as younger at home. Obviously not close to a full scan, but good as a general indication of direction. So if you want to lose fat gain muscle to absolutely tells you the movement,

I've got the renpho scales and, to be honest, now I've lost my weight and maintaining while exercising a lot more, they're driving me nuts. I lose a lb after exercising and the fat % rises and the muscle % drops. I think they're great when you see big changes as you lose lots of weight and fat but my experience is that they're useless at tracking the small, incremental changes which occur as you build muscle.

Btw, you mention eating better to build muscle. I don't think this will happen - you need to exercise and eat better to build muscle.

I’ve had OMRON Viva scales for a number of years. They’re good for the trend, but can easily have one percent more or less body fat within a day, even if done at the same time. Also not good to see small nuanced changes, so probably more useful for weight loss than muscle building

I bought these and my DH popped my bubble by explaining they just measure the resonance of the level of water in your legs and make a guess as to your fat and muscle % from that. They are kind of interesting but not accurate.

I’ve got the eufy ones. Weight wise they are not accurate enough for me but I was delighted to read that I was overweight with high visceral fat AND excellent muscles. After a sedentary life I joined the gym 3 years ago and love classes. I do about 60 classes a month. It seems that all those classes have paid off and that at 69 I’m not too old.

The at home ones are a waste of money, find somewhere that has an InBody machine—leisure centres and pharmacies sometimes have them.

InBody scans are known to be accurate, as long as you follow the instructions about eating, drinking and exercising beforehand. And my Renpho scales are miles off of my InBody results, with Renpho saying 30% body fat Vs 14% body fat on my InBody

@woolflower
I'm now 9st3lbs, bmi 19.7. My renpho scales say 27.5% body fat ie 2st7lbs! Given that they also say visceral fat is only 3 and I can play a tune on my ribs, I'm not sure where all this fat is hiding😅

So they're not very accurate
I'm curious about them, and I was thinking they might help with motivation later

But the scales we have already do a body fat calculation I have no idea how they do it though but you have to stand at a very particular point so I think they probably work the same way

The one I was looking at was Hume. They have handles and claim to be 98% accurate and ‘medical grade’

I do weight training x2 / week, run x2 / week and hike x2 week so active enough but my hydration and eating isn’t as good as it could be. Just would be good to track other trends now I am maintaining. But I could look out for the InBody ones.

I used bodytrax in the gym and Withings at home.

I have also done dexa and bodypod in 2 different labs.

Bodytrax in the gym says my bodyfat is 7% which I know is wrong. The Withings ones say 15% which is more realistic and in line with dexa. So not even clear that the gym ones are better than home. I was very surprised when I did get a dexa, my bodyfat was way higher (25%) than I thought it would be.

At 14% you’d have a very clearly defined 6 pack… if you have then yes the renpho is likely to be wrong.

It would indicate lower body, thighs and bum and maybe arms. Are you pear shaped?

Are the inbody set for athlete mode? 14 percent is very low. Essential fat is 13. 14 is feasible in certain professional athletes, are you in this category?

if it’s set to athlete mode it gives a much lower body fat percentage.

@Franklyannoyed
No definitely not pear shaped...more like a lanky streak (5ft8), including a thigh gap for the first time in my life. Not complaining really, I know I'm not carrying 2.5st of fat and do need to continue to build muscle strength. I just don't find the renpho scales helpful in that task, after loving them while I was shifting all the weight.

I’ve said this to others. A good way to have another opinion about body fat is to take photos in a bikini and ask chat GPT.

14% is immensely hard to achieve without a serious amount of muscle mass.

As I said currently bodytrax is saying I am 7% and Withings 15% but chat GPT saying 14-17%. I have a clearly defined 6 pack - defintion lines down sides of stomach since around 25%.

I sound the same as you. Was 24% on DEXA and 14% on home scales. I think the home ones must vastly underestimate body fat, as I am slim but definitely don't look like someone with 14% body fat, which is actually pretty unhealthy.

I have the Renpho ones. Useful to trach weight but not so good as anything else.

I did, until I had kids and got loose skin.

I’m very athletic. Weight train 3-4 times a week, run twice a week, and interval train 3-4 times a week.

14% is definitely more accurate than 25-30%

I have a visible 6 pack now even with loose / crinkled lower stomach skin and 3 kids. The skin over my stomach is very very thin. Yes 14% may be more accurate than 30% but it’s quite unlikely.

I was quite amazed that dexa (June 24) said 25% as the gym scales saying 15% at that time. My gym scales now saying 7%!

It’s a %, so the ‘look’ will vary massively from person to person. And I do think we need to stop defining women’s health and fitness by how they look.

15% on someone with low muscle mass will look unhealthy, someone with 15% on just above average muscle mass would probably have a six pack, someone with 15% and very high muscle mass might look ‘chunky’ rather than tones.

I have a very high muscle mass, you’d look at me and think I looked ‘bulky’ rather than ‘toned’. I lost a lot of weight very quickly due to health issues, then over the last year, I’ve been able to go back to the gym and regain my muscle. I’ve gain about 3kg but it’s all muscle so even though I’m heavier and my amount of body fat is the same, the % has gone from just above 20% down to 14%.

Six pack wise don’t underestimate the impact of two almost 9lb babies on a 25inch waist, I was comedically large. My ribs are visible (not that I’m proud of that) but I don’t have enough stomach definition for it to count as a six pack, maybe a 2 or 4 pack if you can count the just the ones that sit above the loose skin.

Anyway, my original point is. As others have also said, the Renpho ones arent accurate, and in my opinion the InBody commercial ones seems not far off what I’d expect.

I have very high muscle mass and I don’t look bulky at all. I’m sure it’s about 15% as it fits with amount of muscle I had in July when I did the bodypod measurement chamber at the University of Westminster. It also fits with what chat GPT says after I uploaded some photos.

i’m 57.5kg at an estimated 15% which gives a FFMI of 19.5 which suggests I am an advanced gym user - which sounds about right given I lift heavy every day, and I can squat 92.5kg. Etc.

But I agree it looks very different person to person especially as people store fat in different places. I had a totally flat stomach with definition in July when I had 24% fat, as the excess was on thighs and bum.

I think it’s impossible to second guess what the number is beyond that it’s something between the two measurements you have, and my experience with the dexa and bodypod is that it’s higher than you think. I don’t think it matters so much either beyond being able to monitor, as you lose weight, that it’s fat being lost rather than muscle.