If you exercise regularly, make healthy food choices, and have not yet seen the scale budge, consider assessing your body fat percentage. Measuring your body fat is essential, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Practicing healthy habits like physical exercise can build muscles that will help you shed stubborn pounds. The additional muscle mass can increase or make the number on the scale remain the same. As such, the best way to track your progress is to step on a smart scale. Even if you are not trying to lose weight, smart scales can tell you if you have a healthy fat-to-muscle ratio. Although these scales are not foolproof, they provide an option to measure your body fat in-between visits to your doctor and gym trainer. Read on to discover more about wifi scale accuracy and why it is important.
Functionality. Wifi scales are easy to use. All you have to do is step on the scale, and it will measure your body weight and estimated fat percentage. Unlike the analog scales, wifi scales can sync your health metrics to your phone through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The scale is linked to a fitness app that can help you graph your progress. Wifi scales work with the help of something called bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA). BIA passes a weak electrical current through your feet to your pelvis. This current measures the amount of resistance it meets from your body fat as it travels back through your other leg. The greater the resistance, the higher the body fat percentage.
Accuracy. The primary issue with wifi scales is that they can be inaccurate. Variables such as your hydration level, your last mealtime, and whether your feet are dirty can affect the results. Other factors that can affect the results include gender, pregnancy, age, where your body stores fat, height and stature, and the frequency of endurance and resistance training. However, always ensure you measure yourself on a hard, flat surface for the most accurate results. Visit GetFitTrack for more information about the accuracy of smart scales.
Do you need a wifi Scale? This question is debatable since most people wonder if they need to know their body fat. However, your body weight can be deceptive because it will not show how much is from fat and how much is from your muscle. Experts recommend that a healthy range of body fat ranges between 23 to 33 percent for middle-aged women and 11 to 21 percent for middle-aged men. Older women can have up to 35 percent, while older men can have up to 24 percent of body fat. While wifi scales can give you this information, they cannot indicate where the fat is distributed. Excess fat in some parts of your body can lead to severe conditions such as cardiovascular diseases. Results from wifi scales can only help you with obesity risk factors such as blood sugar and lipids. However, wifi scales can help you track your body fat changes over time and motivate you to lose weight.
Importance. The greatest advantage of wifi scales is that you can measure your body fat in the comfort of your home and at any time. You do not have to visit your doctor or gym. Wifi scales are also to use. As long as your scale provides consistent measurements, you can use it to estimate your exercise’s effectiveness.
Alternative Methods. While using a scale may be the easiest way to measure your body fat, there are other ways to determine your body fat percentage. Some of them include;
- Calipers: calipers measure the distance between two sides of an object. You can use these tools to measure the thickness of skin folds on different parts of your body. However, the accuracy of calipers depends on your experience of using them.
- Bod Pod: a Bod Pod measure your body fat through air displacement plethysmography (ADP). Bod Pods combine two measures when measuring your body fat: your mass and volume. All you have to do is sit inside the Bod Pod. The device uses its scales to measure your weight. Meanwhile, special sensors detect the volume of air displaced by your body based on the air pressure changes occurring in the Bod Pod. The results represent your body volume. An expert uses these readings to determine your body fat percentage. Bod Pods are available at some medical facilities and fitness centers.
- Underwater Weight Test: Since fat floats more easily than muscle, an expert can use your buoyancy and weight to calculate your body fat percentage.
Although wifi scales do not tell you everything about your fat-to-muscle ratio, you can use them as complements to other tools.