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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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Body fat scales can provide a cost-effective and convenient way of measuring body fat. It's best to get fat scales that measure from both the hands and feet, rather than from either the feet or hands alone. Also, consider [[Skulpt]] which is an alternative way of measuring body fat.
=How They Work=
Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) scales use an imperceptible electrical signal to calculate the amount of water in the body and thus estimate body fat. BIA compares the electrical resistance of a direct current to an alternating current. The direct current does not penetrate the cell walls whereas the alternating current does. This creates a difference that allows an estimate of extracellular water.
[[File:Omron HBF-510 posture errors.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Posture errors.]]
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=Glycogen Changes=
One study<ref name="ShioseYamada2018"/> concluded that changes in [[Glycogen]] storage shouldn't change body fat estimates using bioimpedence.
=Recommended Scales=
I have tried a number of scales over the years and I believe the Omron HBF-516 is the best value for money, but the Tanita Segmental scales may worth the extra cost for their improved accuracy. I would avoid any scale that only measures via your feet.
==Best Value - Omron HBF-516==
The Omron HBF-516 offers great value for money and are one of the cheapest BIA scales that measure from the hands and feet. It's not segmental, so you only get an overall body fat estimate, and it's only single frequency, but it's really cheap. In fact, it's cheaper than a lot of feet-only body fat scales, though unlike Tanita scales, it's not FDA approved. There's no recording of the data, so you'd need to write down the results to track your weight and fitness. There's a 180-day memory, so at least you wouldn't have to do that every day, but I'd still recommend transferring the data to something that will graph your data. <jfs id="B001803OS6" noreferb="true"/>. Omron makes a few variants of this scale, such as the HBF-514C <jfs id="B0020MMCDE" noreferb="true"/> (90 day memory), HBF-510W <jfs id=" B001IV61J4" noreferb="true"/> (white, no memory). [[File:Omron HBF-516.jpg{{BuyAmazon|center|thumb|300px|]]AZN=omron body fat scales}}
==Segmental - Tanita FitScan BC-601FS==
The BC-601F is one of the cheaper Tanita single-frequency, segmental BIA scales and it will record your data onto an SD card. This is far less convenient than a Smartphone app, but it's a lot better than writing things down each day. <jfs id="B016APIYQK" noreferb="true"/>.
<ref name="BIA1">Body composition changes assessed by bioelectrical impedance measurements http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2923071</ref>
<ref name="BIA2">Changes in fat-free mass during weight loss measured by bioelectrical impedance and by densitometry http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2912008</ref>
<ref name="ShioseYamada2018">Keisuke Shiose, Yosuke Yamada, Keiko Motonaga, Hideyuki Takahashi, Muscle glycogen depletion does not alter segmental extracellular and intracellular water distribution measured using bioimpedance spectroscopy, Journal of Applied Physiology, volume 124, issue 6, 2018, pages 1420–1425, ISSN [http://www.worldcat.org/issn/8750-7587 8750-7587], doi [http://dx.doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00666.2017 10.1152/japplphysiol.00666.2017]</ref>
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