why would you pay £20 for a machine to tell you that you're fat? just look in the mirror

I bought one of these but it just displays 'Maximum Load 8 Persons'

Have you seen the price of mirrors lately? :smile:

tbh they dont need to be accurate, only precise (ofc you need to control conditions a bit)
as long as change over time can be recorded then they are a useful tool.
not sure how they are working out muscle/bone density though but not looked into it!

why would you pay £20 for a machine to tell you that you're fat? just look in the mirror

Got one of these last time. Very good and you can set several confidential account tax. Links with smartphone and keeps track of those measurements on a graph - useful if you're trying to lose weight. Links with health app on iPhone

21 on amazon n bas reviews :disappointed:

This scale can only read your weight, it can not give you any meaningful data on fat, water, muscle density, bone density. The accurate way to read your fat content is using body fat pinchers.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/354963-how-do-body-fat-scales-work-are-they-accurate/

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/diet-weight-loss/article/body-fat-scales-step-right

These body fat scales as inaccurate just like exercise wearables such as Fit Bit. It's technology for technologies sake and even worse it's entirely useless as the measurements these devices are inaccurate.

Shhhhh you'll upset all the sheep.

Pretty much this.

I have a smartwatch and I bought this scale last year to monitor weight and although the weighing side of things seems to be ok, the rest is completely inaccurate (just like the smartwatch!)

tbh they dont need to be accurate, only precise (ofc you need to control conditions a bit)
as long as change over time can be recorded then they are a useful tool.
not sure how they are working out muscle/bone density though but not looked into it!

£11 plus postage here on Ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Scale-Body-Fat-Water-Muscle-180-Kg-Sanitas-SBF-70-/322266796695?var=&hash=item4b08991297:m:mdmqaRHx6cfx8BrMb1eGaLA

Good. I can now check to see if my wife is lying when she says she didn't eat all the chocs/biscuits in the house.

The scale can remotely tell me what weight she is as she never let's me look directly at the scale.

Yes does a variety of units. You have to change it in the phone app however one annoyance it displays stones on the scales but the graphs on your phone are either in pounds or kilograms.

I bought one of these but it just displays 'Maximum Load 8 Persons'

It is switchable to either.

^ This. If you get n the scales 3 or 300 times and you get measurements within a percent or two, then that shows the method is reliable. If you actually do lose fat and it then measures a reduction and maintains that test-retest reliability, then this makes it a useful tool. It doesn't need to be spot on accurate.

The main thing to remember is weight loss doesn't necessarily mean fat loss.

They can't do what they say they can do which makes them worthless, they monitor weight that's it, that's the only information these scales can reliably give you. Worthless information that changes over time is still worthless.

I haven't read the reports you've quoted, though had my own cynicism just my engineering Mind thinking How the hell can it do all that through your feet etc... However When Being tested for suitability for a Pre-diabetes trial, I was weighed for three months (monthly) whilst losing weight anyway(nothing to do with the trial) I'm Obese and have to lose weight anyway, but this was a Tanita scale, a common reputable brand as far as I'm aware and the weight losses month on month were also measured with losses in Body fat/Visceral fat/ etc/etc.
I would therefore conclude that there is 'something in it, and would personally accept Brilly's suggestion that they can be used as a tool to show/provide some indicators as to the change in a body over time.
Clearly my sample of 3 weighings isn't meaningful in itself but I wouldn't put it in the 'Worthless' Category, Nor would I put the scale as a whole(assuming it was accurate of course) in the worthless category for £20 having the Bluetooth link makes monitoring your weight long term easy and the graphing function also helpful .
Really the only point I was making is that the NHS were making use of this type of system, albeit a much more expensive version with potentially different technology inside, but it is the technology you are debunking rather than these scales. I believe that the nurses/trial would only be using the detail as indicators as Brilly suggests as well, but use them they do..:smiley:

EDIT In fact your two links both suggest this 'indicator' type use may well be beneficial, despite the inherent issues with the technology to which you refer. we are talking about a £20 outlay here Not £50-£100++ although I accept we don't have any idea how good this scale is at weighing let alone the other stuff :wink:

nope, its a tool like anything else
weight is worthless if cant interpret it properly
changes in fat content no matter how accurate as long as precise over time are useful
similar to fitbit etc which you also rubbished
they are both tools, the worth is what you are able to make of them

Most of the functions are useless if you have a Samsung s6/s7 as the app doesn't work for some reason. Waste of money.

Useless tools as the data is inaccurate, your exposition or lack of it regarding measuring data over time is useless if the data is useless.

http://jezebel.com/your-fitbit-is-****-says-science-1686024094

Accurate representation of data is essential, not guesswork. If these scales were branded "Accurate weight representation, inaccurate representation of all other data including Bodyfat, Bone density, fat and water" You wouldn't buy it.

Also the reason this scale is in fact complete Bullsh*t is that it can't accurately represent data due to other factors such as ingested food and water, it can't distinguish that at all, which makes the data it gives out inaccurate, it's not possible to represent this data accurately based on the diagnosis technology in the scale.

Inaccurate is inaccurate as I've stated it can't distinguish the factors necessary to accurately represent the data so it is completely and utterly worthless data. The method used to represent the data has not been studied to show accuracy using the method this scale employs. This scale could well give you variance over time but it's variance of data it has no clue how to interpret and thus the user can't make use of the data either.

Links to the science >

http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/tips-plans/best-and-worst-ways-measure-body-fat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis

ofc you can interpret the variance of data, want to reduce body fat?
use a scale
does it go down over time? result
does it go up? cry and say its inaccurate

the actual % means nothing really, people just want to lower it
if thats not what they want then this is the wrong tool for them, fine
for the other 99% that can think - its good enough

These look better for the money:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-Bluetooth-Body-Composition-Monitor-Fat-Mass-Weighing-Scales-Free-APP-UK-/112106173948?hash=item1a1a0c75fc:g:2wYAAOSwZVlXvA7X

https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B017GDTH52/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=3

Had 2 of it. Replaced first one as there was a 2kg difference between first and second measurement (every time when scale went off). The second scale was working identical - again 2kg difference.
The app for android ....I think was working once and it was very tricky to synchronize it with scale. In general the app was 100 times worst than the scale.
Totally disappointed.
Conclusion : If you want a SCALE go for SALTER.

Sale works for KG, S7 edge on 6.0.1.... No go. So essentially its not better than a standard run of the mill scale. I'll keep them anyway, android app will be updated I have no doubt.