Years ago around year 2000, I was apparently very curious about the scientific validity of measuring body fat, by running an electric current from one foot to the other foot, via the legs, by standing on a scale. So I gathered up some research articles and posted them on my halls.md website. Years went by, and now in 2014 I am re-styling my website, and finding them again. They are very boring. They used to be on separate pages, but I’ve grouped them all together onto this one page.
This first study proves that DEXA measurements are quite similar to a particular kind of Tanita weigh scale.
Although this study was industry sponsored by the Tanita Corporation, and the results were published on the Tanita website1, the scientific detail presented seems credible.
It demonstrates that body fat measurements made with the Bio-Electrical Impedance technique, using the inexpensive Tanita TBF-105 body fat monitor scales, were able to accurately measure females body fat percentage. There was no significant difference compared to DEXA measurements.
References
- http://www.tanita.com/professional/abstracts/abstract_main.html
Although this study found good correlation between body fat percentages, measured with a Tanita body fat analyzer and a DEXA machine, it found that females fat was overestimated and males fat was underestimated, by the TBF 105 model.
| Correlations | Futrex | BC Scale | TBF -310 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BC Scale | 0.684 | ||
| TBF-310 | 0.782 | 0.952 | |
| DXA | 0.841 | 0.891 | 0.959 |
This poster was presented at a scientific meeting and reproduced on the Tanita Corporation website1. It demonstrates that Bio-Electrical Impedence measurements, made with the inexpensive Tanita TBF-310 body fat monitor scales, were able to accurately measure the subjects body fat percentage, with 96% correlation to the reference DEXA results. That’s pretty darn good.
| r2 | SEE | p-value | |
| DXA vs TBF 551 % fat | 0.84 | 4.78 | <0.001 |
| DXA vs TBF 305 % fat | 0.84 | 4.37 | <0.001 |
The results of the study were good, and their retail model scale gave good estimates of body composition, and was used with different ages and different weights of people, successfully.
A simple useful poster, presented at a scientific meeting, and reproduced on the Tanita Corporation website1, showing that Bio-Electrical Impedence measurements, made with inexpensive consumer-model body fat monitor scales, are quite good for measuring a persons body fat percentage.
Underwater weighing, and Bio-electrical impedance methods, using a Tanita body fat scale, had equivalent results, with no significant difference, even in obese women with body fat percentages in the 43% range.
It has been suspected that leg-to-leg impedance measurements might not be very accurate in very obese people. So this article used a more sophisticated 8-electrode machine, and found no problems in obese people.
