I wondered about the scientific basis behind those popular body fat monitor scales, such as the Tanita series. Scales like those can show your body fat percentage, along with your body weight, which is remarkable. So a little research into their accuracy yielded the following references. It’s boring to most people, but interesting to a few, who really want to know.

 
 

Medical Publication or Poster:		My Comments:
1.	Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB, Heo M, Jebb S, Murgatroyd P, Sakamoto Y. Body Mass Index Guidelines: Corresponding %Fat Standards Based on Three-Country Study 9th European Congress on Obesity June 1999.	Men’s overweight threshold should be above BMI of 25, womens should be below 25.
2.	Nuñez C, Beyer J, Strain G, Zumoff B, Kovera A, Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB. Composition of Weight Loss While Dieting: Comparison of Research and Clinically-Based Methods NAASO meeting, Cancun, Mexico, November 1997.	The Bioelectrical impedance method is better than fat thickness measurements.
3.	Nuñez C, Rubiano F, Horlick M, Thornton J, Heymsfield SB. Application of Leg-to-Leg Bioimpedance System in Children Childhood Obesity: Partnerships for Research and Prevention, May 1999.	The bioelectrical impedance method works in children.
Why does it skip from 3 to 8 here? Careless bastards.
8.	Nuñez C, Kovera A, Wang ZM, Heymsfield SB. Weight Loss-Induced Skeletal Muscle Loss: Accurate Estimation by Bioimpedance Analysis (BIA) 8th International Congress on Obesity, Paris, August 29-September 3. 1998.	And they work before and after a diet. As if thats ever in doubt.
9.	Allison DB, Zannolli R, Faith MS, Heo M, Pietrobelli A, Vanitallie TB, Pi-Sunyer FX, Heymsfield SB. Weight loss increases and fat loss decreaess all-cause mortality rate: results from two independent cohort studies ACSM 46th Annual meeting, 1999.	Very Interesting. Weight loss increases mortality rates, but Fat Loss lowers mortality rates.
10.	Nuñez C, Gallagher D, Visser M, Pe-Sunyer FX, Wang Z, Heymsfield SB. Bioimpedance analysis: Evaluation of leg-to-leg system based on pressure contact foot-pad electrodes Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 1997.	Leg to leg impedance method is better than arm to arm systems.
11.	Nuñez C, Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB. Appendicular skeletal muscle mass: Measurement with single frequency bioimpedance analysis (BIA). Annual NAASO meeting. 1997.	The Tanita scales are accurate for muscle mass measurement.
12.	Nuñez C, Gallagher D, Russell-Aulet M, Heymsfield SB. Bioimpedance analysis of body composition: A new measurement approach Annual NAASO meeting. 1997.	The Tanita scales, using bioelectrical impedance, are accurate in overweight people.
13.	Ohno M, Nishisaka S, Ikeda Y. Body Mass Index, Percent body fat and normal weight obesity Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1998: 22: suppl 3, August.	They used Tanita scales, finding them to be accurate in this research study.
14.	Austin MA, Heymsfield SB, Nieman DC. Body composition measurements in females with leg-to-leg bioelectrical impedance analsys compared to DEXA Tanita Corporation website. 1998.	Their Tanita scales worked well for females specifically.
15.	Tsui EYL, Gao XJ, Zinman B. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) Using bipolar foot electrodes in the assessment of body composition in type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Diabetic Medicine, 1998: 15:125-128.	The Tanita scales slightly overestimate females fat, and underestimate males fat.
16.	Rubiano F, Nuñez C, Heymsfield SB. A comparison of body composition techniques International Symposium on Invivo Composition Studies, Brookhaven National Laboratory. 1999.	Another article showing Tanita scales are reasonably closely accurate, compared to DEXA.
17.	Fubiano F, Nuñez C, Heymsfield SB. Validity of consumer model bioimpedance analysis system with established dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) ACSM 46th Annual Meeting, 1999.	Same conclusion as above.
18.	Utter AC, Nieman DC, Ward AN, Butterworth DE. Use of the Leg-To-Leg Bioelectrical Impedance Method in Assessing Body Composition Change in Obese Women American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1999; 69:603-607.	Same conclusion again. The Tanita scales give good results compared to other methods.
19.	Pietrobelli A, Miller S, Tan YX, Nuñez C, Heymsfield SB. Phenotyping obese subjects: multi-contact electrode bioimpedance system for practical body composition measurement. Experimental Biology 1999.	The Tanita scales worked well in very obese people too.
20.	Sampei MA, Novo NF, Juliano Y, Sigulem DM. Comparison of the body mass index to other methods of body fat evaluation in ethnic Japanese and Caucasian adolescent girls Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord, Mar 2001;25(3):400-8	These folks used Tanita scales for their research study in Japan.
21.	da Veiga GV, Dias PC, dos Anjos LA. A comparison of distribution curves of body mass index from Brazil and the United States for assessing overweight and obesity in Brazilian adolescents Rev Panam Salud Publica, Aug 2001;10(2):79-85	And these folks used th Tanita sales for their research study in Brazil.
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This page is an index, of body fat related articles pertaining to weigh scales. I made it long ago, and I’ll admit the reason was, I wanted people to be able to find my webpages with search engines, and there was a theory back then, that having a lot of pages on a topic, gave an indication that the whole website had some expertise on the topic. Well, its 2015 now when I’m adding this paragraph, and that theory has changed a lot. Now, small numerous pages of thin content can hurt the whole website, so I don’t really know what to do. I decided to leave these pages on my site, even though they are lame when it comes to fat and measuring body weight. But not every good idea comes along instantly when you need. I think I’ll wait for an inspiration to improve this whole area of my content.