My future Bariatric office uses Tanita body composition scales. Take shoes off, step on and it spits out all sorts of interesting stats.

My coworker says wearing layers of clothes and a heavy purse will not affect my weight on this scale. She said it only measures your body. Is this true? (I hope not)

I'm right around 35 Bmi so I need to make sure I'm a certain weight when I have my first visit.

Sent from my XT1254 using BariatricPal App

I have a weight watchers scale that does the same thing. Measures weight, BMI, muscle mass, water weight, etc. Bought it at Target on clearance for under $20.00. Oh and it is blue tooth so it sends everything to my phone.

Was just thinking about this last night - how I would love a scale like the one at the surgeon's office! Might need to look into that. So nice to have more info than just a random number. And I find it's way more accurate too.

And to answer your question, yes I think that's true. It uses a mild electric current to measure your body composition. There are handheld versions as well.

Though I'd still put your purse down...

When I was getting cleared for my RNY, I was sent to a heave my heart checked out. When they told me to get on the scales I jumped up there and didn't even realize that I had my purse on my shoulder!! You might wonder if it made a difference, I can tell you my purse weighed almost 10 #'s!!!! I threw that purse down so fast. LOL If I would have thought better about it I could have used that weight for my before!! LOL WOW look at Sherrie go!! LOl

I flat out asked. They told me they give a 2lb allowance for clothes but that's it. Even that depends on the office's policy. It will measure you higher if you have lots of bulky clothing on.

What you wear does affect the reading that you get - the professional series of Tanita (and I assume, other brands) have an offset that they can program in to account for an average clothing weight, typically around 2 lb. So, wearing your heavy clothes and purse will give you a higher reading.

The impedance measurements for fat mass, muscle mass, etc. depends upon the resistance to current run between the foot pads or handles on the hand held devices. Either can provide some error depending upon where on holds their fat - a pear shaped person carrying most of their fat around their hips and thighs will read "fatter" when measured between their feet than between their hands, and the opposite occurs with an apple shaped person that keeps more of their fat around their abdomen. The better scales, in both professional and home models, will have both foot pads and handles to measure both and average them.

Either way, impedance is only a so-so way of measuring body composition as it is highly dependent upon hydration - they will typically read a few points "fatter" first thing in the morning when we are dehydrated from sleeping than in the late afternoon when we are more normally hydrated, and can vary some day to day with hydration changes. Dexascan, water displacement or BodPods are somewhat more accurate, but less convenient than a home impedance scale that can be used daily to track trends.