Weighty Matters
New scales analyze how fat your body really is
At last, a scale that people can't wait to step on. The $120 InnerScan from Tanita not only reveals your weight and body fat percentage but goes on to calculate visceral fat (the amount around the organs), bone mass, metabolic age (the average age associated with your metabolism), a physique rating, and an estimate of daily calories to maintain your current state. If you're self-conscious, take heart: At least it doesn't laugh at you.
The bathroom box has been growing smarter over the past decade, thanks to a doctor's office technology called bioelectrical impedance analysis. If you stand barefoot on one of the contraptions, small electrical currents you can't feel run through your body. It takes longer for the signals to get through fat than muscle, so based on its readings, the scale--dubbed a body-composition monitor--can read what's under your skin.
Provided with facts like age, height, and gender, they can figure out even more. The Body Balance New York Scale ($128) from Soehnle offers your weight as well as your percentages of muscle, body fat, and body water and can map out your measurements over time. HoMedics' Tri-Fitness HealthStation $80) displays weight and percentages of body fat and body water, as well as a recommended calorie intake. And now Tanita, the company that first introduced body-fat scales in 1995, has upped the ante by releasing InnerScan.
A doctor's visit is still the best way to measure your fitness, but physician Pamela Peeke says monitors help you follow changes on a regular basis. "You can understand what your body is doing instead of stepping onto a piece of metal and wondering what one number is telling you," says Peeke, author of Body-for-Life for Women and an advocate of body-composition analyzers.
Understanding all of the stats displayed on these new analyzers can be puzzling at first, which is why they come with guide booklets. When you get a physique rating of 4 on the InnerScan, it means you're underexercised, with an average body fat percentage and a below-average muscle-mass level. Or, if your visceral fat rating is a 3, you're in the healthy zone and less at risk for heart disease and Type II diabetes.
Our testers, even those normally too timid to step on a scale in public, were so curious to see their readings that they threw off their shoes and socks, and started comparing body stats. The 53-year-old with the metabolic age of a teenager was particularly eager to share.
Next year, Tanita will release a monitor that targets body sections, so you can know how much fat is in your left arm. In September, a video game developer weighs in with the XaviX Family Fitness Manager (about $100). The scale itself only weighs you (how quaint). But it wirelessly sends info to a XaviXPort ($80) hooked up to your TV. There, you can track weight and other data on-screen. But don't stare at the TV too long. That's how you put on those pounds in the first place.
READ MY HIPS. A U.S. News staffer tried InnerScan. Fat level: good. Vow: lose 5 lbs.
WEIGHT: 135.2 lbs
BODY FAT: 23.35 pct.
BODY WATER: 53.9 pct.
VISCERAL FAT: 1 (1-59 scale)
BONE MASS: 5.2 lbs
MUSCLE MASS: 98.4 lbs
METABOLIC AGE: 15
PHYSIQUE RATING: 5 (typical)
DAILY CALORIC INTAKE: 2340
This story appears in the May 16, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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