Omron Body Composition Monitor with Scale - 7 Fitness Indicators & 180-Day Memory

I ordered this scale to keep track of my weight loss progress. I work out regularly and intend on converting fat to muscle, so simply tracking my overall weight would not be a good indicator of progress. After a bit of research I decided to order the Omron HBF-516. I'm so happy with my decision. The price on Amazon was very reasonable (about 50% of list) and the item was delivered very quickly. About the scale... It's very easy to use. First it requires you to set the time & date, which it uses to keep track of your stats over the last 6 months. You can weigh yourself many times per day (or none at all) and it takes care of analyzing trends over time -- you dont have to weigh yourself at the same time every day even though that is recommended. There is a very informative owner's manual included with the scale. The first half of the manual is all about the theory of body composition measurement. It goes into detail about how the measurement is taken, what kinds of things affect the measurement (such as drinking water), and talks about how to get the most accurate measurements from the instrument. The other half is about setting up and operating the device, but the device is so easy to use I didn't really need that. Overall it's a very well written manual, everything is clearly explained, in plain (and well written) English, with informative diagrams and illustrations. After you set the time & date, you create a profile (up to 4) which includes your height and age. Once your profile is created you can record your body composition. There is also a guest mode, which requires you to input height & age before every scan. Scanning is very easy. You select your profile number, then step on the scale and hold the handheld unit out (with arms straight out at 90 deg.) After about 10 seconds the scale reports your weight and you can view other stats, BMI, body fat pct., skeletal muscle pct., resting metabolism, "body age," and visceral fat index. While these measurements may not be "absolute" (as compared to real medical-grade technology) they are very consistent with each other, and provide an excellent relative indication of progress over time. Overall I'm so pleased with this scale. It helps me to keep track of my progress converting fat to muscle. I can see, even if my weight stays about the same, that my body fat pct. is decreasing while my skeletal muscle pct. is increasing. As that goes on, my "body age" index goes down. I highly recommend this product to anyone who wants feedback on their workout & diet program.

History: My Tanita died with an error code after working fine for 12 years. I always do my homework for anything. I wanted one with both feet and hand grips because I felt it could theoretically be more accurate. The reason I bought the Omron HBF-516B for $52.99 rather than the Tanita BC-558 at $349.99 is because the Tanita costs almost 7 times as much, and gyms are pretty happy with the Omron hand-held analyzer. The Tanita does more, but some of the additional features I would not want to have, for instance having separate body fat percentages for each limb, and some I would like to have, such as hydration, but it wasn't worth the price difference to me. After studying how BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) works, and reading the reviews AND User's Manuals on almost 20 scales, I became convinced there is no way to beat the value of this scale at $52.99. You pay almost that for a good bathroom scale without BIA. My Experience: - If you can read, you can set up this scale. There is nothing complex about it. - Omron has the only user's manual of any of the scales that goes into depth on what the numbers mean. - The controls on the handle are very intuitive. You'll read the User's Manual only once. - For me, the weight and body composition is accurate compared to skin fold tests. If you read the section below I wrote, "Gold Standards of Body Composition Measurements", you know that any BIA scale is based on an approximation of an approximation. This model does use actual science for its calculations. It has both the feet and hand electrodes. - It does not have an Athlete Mode. Their hand-held only model does, so they know how to do it. My only thought is they left it out because they didn't think they needed it with the feet and hand electrodes. There are a few reviewers that disagree with this decision. - It does not have a body hydration measurement as is typical of the Tanitas. That might be useful to explain day-to-day weight variations but for me, I find the only time when my body is in a consistent state is after I get up in the morning, after I do my duty, and before I run and pump iron. I would guess my hydration would be pretty consistent in the morning as well since my weight is. - It works for big feet. Mine are size 10, and there is plenty more room on the scale. - It keeps history for 180 days, but you can only access one day ago, one week ago, 30 days ago, 60 days ago, 90 days ago, and 180 days ago. I read in another review, if you change the date, you do lose the data. - I like it that you can simply stab with your toe the large on button on the back edge of the scale to use it like a regular scale. Often not everyone in the household will be concerned with their body composition. - Many of the pictures show the cord hanging out with the handle on the top of the scale. The fact is it partially retracts into the base of the scale and the remainder automatically coils into place under the handle when you put the handle away. The handle firmly clips into the scale when in the storage position. - It comes with the batteries. You need nothing other than what comes with it. - If you remove the batteries you do not lose the history. - The display is not lighted, so the area you use it will need to have adequate lighting. - It requires a hard surface for accurate operation. - There are no data output capabilities for moving information to a computer. - I live in Michigan, and it took only 1 day UPS to get the scale even with super saver shipping. It came from Illinois. ********** My In Depth Research and Tests for those who want to know ********** The Theory: Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is what body composition scales claim to use. Those three words, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis can be used to define a multitude of methods ranging from complete hoax to actual science. I see some explaining how it works in terms of resistance. Resistance and impedance are not the same thing. Resistance measures opposition to current flow using a steady DC voltage source and is measured in ohms. Impedance measures opposition to an alternating wave of electrical energy where it is affected by many factors such as capacitance, amplitude, phase shift, reflectivity, etc., and the frequency can be varied to measure different distances from the electrodes. For a method to claim any usable BIA science, it cannot be based on resistance. One could stretch the definition of impedance to resistance for legal defense purposes by calling it impedance with zero phase angle, but that would not be the industry-wide meaning of the word impedance. BIA has the potential to be based on science that makes sense. Gold Standards of Body Composition Measurements: There is no expectation that BIA be any kind of "gold standard" test. In fact, during my research, I found there is no such thing as a single "gold standard" test. What is termed as a "good approximation" by is the results of the 4 compartment test. It uses multiple "gold standard" tests, none of which a gym would have due to cost, training, licensing, and insurance, and where it is unlikely that any single hospital would have what you would need to perform it. The best case scenario would be if they use data from the 4 compartment model tests to define how to calculate the values from BIA scale inputs. Thus, BIA is necessarily is an approximation based on an approximation. If you are looking for a device that gets it right across the spectrum of body types, I can say with certainty it doesn't exist at any price. If you want to understand this area in depth, and see the results of real statistical testing, Google: The Pitfalls of Body Fat "Measurement". After understanding these limitations, my expectation for a BIA scale is simply one that it uses valid science as a basis for its calculations, and that it was usable for my purposes. Other Reviews: Based on other reviews, it seems some scales use simply resistance just to see if you are actually barefoot, and then use your weight, sex, age, and tables to show you what the average is for someone meeting those parameters. One reviewer states the Athlete mode simply adjusted the fat percent measurement down by 5%. Other scales send a sine wave through your body of varying frequencies to measure the attenuation at different distances from the measuring electrodes. My Tests: Between the time I ordered it and received it, I had become quite skeptical of the value of my purchase. It was with almost diabolical glee I went about to prove it was mostly just a bunch of tables based on your inputs, such as weight, height, sex, and age, I began weighing myself and changing my age in 5 year increments between 20 and 60 years old. The glee quickly faded when discovered that the readings really didn't change hardly at all except for my biological age calculation. Moreover, the percent body fat pretty much agreed with my skin fold tests. Other reviews mentioned that when they use the handles, it adds 1.2 lbs. Being helpful, I commented to make sure the handle is on the scale when it goes through calibration after you turn it on. Also, make sure it's not on carpet because if the carpet touches the bottom, it removes some of the load from the load sensors that are using the feet of the scale to determine weight. After the scale arrived, I leveled my treadmill and placed the scale on it. (I did this so I could rig a method to vary my weight for tests.) I saw the same error, but also noted the handle doesn't weigh 1.2 lbs. At first I thought perhaps it had to do with my weight being shifted with my arms out, but it made no difference if my arms were down. It was not possible that anything could be touching the bottom of the scale because, like any other treadmill, it uses nothing but a thin rubber belt over the base. I exhausted a lot of theories. One that didn't make sense to even try, but actually fixed the error, was to move the scale to a painted concrete floor. I cringe to even include this because have no logical explanation of how it is possible for that change to make the difference, but I decided I'd better for the benefit of others to see if they see the same behavior.

I've owned fat monitoring scales, but they all have varied widely in their reading from day to day. This scale has been consistent from reading to reading. Over time, this scale has shown the trends day to day and I can see the incremental daily changes as I am going through the Insanity workout. I have several other people going through the Insanity with me who are also using this scale, and it seems to be very accurate at analyzing their fat/muscle/visceral fat content based on their builds and our measurements by other means. If you are going through Insanity, or any other fitness program, I would very highly recommend this scale because it will let you see the day to day progress you are making. Physically, it is very difficult/impossible to see small changes day to day, but having this show the daily changes is very motivating that progress is being made even if you don't see it. The 'body age' is a feature that I like too. It seems that it uses BMI, %fat, %muscle, %visceral fat and male/female to find the age that would have these values as their 'normal'. So as you become more fit, your body age will go down. Some have said this is not accurate, and I agree that there are many factors that go into your overall 'health age', so the value doesn't really represent your health age, but it does represent your physical composition age. If you look at this value with this in mind, then the value can be an overall measure in your fitness/diet plan to set a goal and try to get there. I am 48, and I started out at a body age of 33. My goal by the end of Insanity is to be into my 20's, however that composition comes about (more muscle, less fat, lower BMI).

There are expert reviews saying the bodyfat measure is not accurate - I would trust them. For me, however, it has proven reliable. Every morning I use the scale and then do a caliper (Jackson-Pollock 4-point) measure and the two are often within 2% of each other. That said, you have to use the scale in a consistent manner - such as the first thing when you wake up. The body fat readings are very sensitive to hydration. Dehydrated reads as low body fat, hydrated reads as extra body fat. Don't work out and then step on the scale, it will give you a very low (false) body fat reading. Hold the hand unit with just enough grip to make contact with the sensors. Do not squeeze it. I find a tight grasp will affect the readings. If used carefully and consistently, this scale will give a good indication of increasing/decreasing body fat. Calipers are always the best, but this scale does a good enough job. I'm glad I bought it.

I bought these scales as i have used an omron blood pressure monitor for years and it has always been accurate. The scales are easy to setup and is a relatively cheap way of understanding the makeup of your body. You can also tell if an exercise program is having any effect

How to get retractable cable of this machine in India as retractable cable of my machine got worn-out.

Tenía mis dudas sobre el producto pues hay muchos comentarios sobre su precisión, sin embargo despues de mas de dos semanas de uso diario puedo decir que no lo es. Es cierto que a veces llega a variar el peso en 100 o 200 gramos pero es algo hasta cierto punto normal de las básculas digitales. Otra cosa que note y que probablemente ayude a futuros compradores es que debe estar en una superficie totalmente plana, si no a la hora de encenderla no se calibrará bien y solita movera el gramaje sin que tenga peso encima. También, es importante no moverla una vez se encendió, pues de nuevo, la calibración no funcionará y se deberá reiniciar.

It was working perfectly for years, suddenly started showing abnormal weight.