Body Fat Scales

Body fat scales measure your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is the relative relationship between fat and muscle in your body. Determining the composition of your body helps you to ascertain your fitness. One of the goals in fitness training is to gain muscle and lose fat, thereby having a low body fat percentage.

This provides a slightly different perspective than just losing weight, since muscle weighs more than fat, but takes up less space. People who lose weight and go in for weight training often see this happen--they don't lose as much weight as they thought they would, but they lose a lot in inches. Body fat scales provide one indication that the muscle-fat ratio is going in the right direction, and gives tangible evidence of fat loss.

Body Fat Scales Use Body Composition

Whether you lose weight by swimming, walking, or playing tennis, pedometers and heart rate monitors should be a part of your fitness equipment. These help you to stay in a zone in which you are pushing yourself, but not overdoing it. Body fat scales can give you proof positive that your weight loss/fitness program is working.

The scales operate using the conductivity of your body, which has a high water content. Muscle also has a high water content, so it has excellent conductivity and low resistance. Fat, on the other hand, has less water, less conductivity, and high resistance. The scales measure this conductivity and translate the information into body fat percentages.