fake "body fat" scales from Jaycar

[Franc Zabkar]

On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 09:57:25 +0800, Mike
<mike.n@nospam-westnet.com.au> put finger to keyboard and composed:

Somebody is perpetrating a fraud on consumers here.

I ordered a set of those "body fat" weight-scales from Jaycar.
The idea is that by passing a small high-frequency current through
the body, you can measure fat/water proportion, and compensate
for hydration level.
But the readings looked wrong. So I drank a lot of water, and found
the "% body fat" reading went up, not down! More tests confirmed that
the fat reading is based solely on weight, and the age/height/sex data
that you enter. The electric fat reading is faked.

Why don't you just use resistors to test the scales? For example, what
about two metal pads connected to a resistance wheel? Stand on the
pads in rubber soled shoes.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Mike]

Franc Zabkar wrote:

Why don't you just use resistors to test the scales? For example, what

I just used people of differing build, and added weights, conducting and
insulated. It was inpossible to get a %fat reading off their =f(m)
formulae, with constant age/height/sex settings.

The real meters measure more than just DC resistance. See this page:

http://www.rjlsystems.com/docs/bia_info/principles/

 

[Michael C]

"Mike" <mike.n@nospam-westnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:43f3431c@quokka.wn.com.au...

Jaycar refunded the money.
They have changed the packaging in the shops, which now makes no claim of
measuring fat. The machine itself still pretends to do it, of course.
And even the staff still assumed that it really worked.

I checked out the newer $90 model, which was really bad in so many ways.
So its back to the old mechanical model for me.

The funny thing is if they didn't measure body fat at all you would have
been perfectly happy with them.

Michael