|
Digital scales purport to measure your body fat through a process called BIA, or bioelectrical impedance analysis. Essentially, it clocks the speed that electricity travels through you. The scale runs a low-level electric current through your body, using your feet as positive and negative electrodes. The current encounters different levels of impedance, or resistance, from fat versus muscle. The scale measures this impedance, and throws it together with other factors (age, sex, height) to come up with your BMI, or body mass index. That's how it works in theory, but several fitness message boards complain that BIA
is unreliable at best, complete bunk at worst. A numbing trawl through several retail sites resulted in all kinds of other dubious sounding terms like "floating code thickness measuring system" and "sophisticated mathematical Jackson-Pollack body-density equations." Buyer beware on the BIA front. If you're interested in calculating your BMI, we suggest you read this even-handed article from MedicineNet.com. The options range from a simple weight-for-height formula, to calipers, to something called a BOD POD ("a computerized, egg-shaped chamber"). Most commercial gyms also offer BMI assessments.
|
