Best scale for body composition?

Equipment
13

Good Lord. Some very damning content in all of that. Thanks to everyone for your input. Some particular notes from reading all of what y’all posted…

  1. BIS (hands and feet) > BIA (feet only). If they’ve done a good job (no way to know for sure), the Withings Body Scan scale with the handle should provide a better estimate of fat mass than all the ones with only foot sensors since it can use more frequencies and contact points for its analysis.

  2. BIA can both over- and under- estimate fat mass. Scary thought. And just counting references makes me think underestimating is more likely. Scarier still. Worst of all, fat content of extremities influences readings more than fat content of trunk, despite lower percentage of overall body mass… and I, like many, have MOST of my fat concentrated in a large potbelly. So there’s a real chance I’m in even worse shape than I thought. :flushed:

So yeah, the actual measurement accuracy is badly flawed as @AJS914 said. But in general, I’ll take a rough/imperfect tool over no tool, and the one scale that offers at least some hope for reduced error is the Withings Body Scan, so I’ll go with that. Having a reasonable data point every day is motivationally reinforcing for me: I simply behave better when I have data.

Thanks to everyone for your input! Hugely useful in being able to make a quick decision.

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