JillFlorio

According to the Omron Fat Analyzer, today I have 23.7% fat and a BMI of 21.4. A card that is included with the monitor says this is on the low side of the “normal” range for a woman around 40 years old (which would be me).

This is my result from the first thing in the morning, after peeing and before drinking coffee. I held my arms at the recommended 90 degree angle, covered the electrodes correctly and didn’t wiggle around. This is almost the same as my result yesterday (fat of 23.4%), so I will assume this is near enough to my average body fat percent, and that readings might fluctuate slightly from morning to morning.

Note: the BMI doesn’t change unless your weight and age do. It makes sense to see fat percentage rise up and down depending on water volume in the body, the moment you do your test.

*The Manual Suggests:*
- Monitor yourself at the same time each day (after waking up and peeing is good)
- Don’t bother if you’ve been drinking fluids or eaten in two hours - it will really throw the test out of whack
- Hold your arms out straight, at an exact 90 angle from your body
- stand up with your feet apart - no sitting
- don’t move when you are getting the reading
- Cover the metal plates as they show you in the manual. Holding it incorrectly will give a false reading
- Don’t use after a shower, bath or a work out - again, the water weight will throw things off

*Other Use Notes:*
- You do need to program your appropriate fitness level when you set your profile. If you work out frequently, you need to set the machine for ‘athlete’ and not ‘normal’…there is a chart for you to see where you fall, based on three things:

1. how many times a week you work out,
2. how long you work out for, and
3. how intense are your workouts.

So I fall right into the Athlete category (I hike, use the treadmill or do yoga just about every day). Whether you enter Normal or Athlete makes a big difference how it reads your fat levels from my experimentations. Fortunately, the math to figure out which category you are in is super easy.

- The Omron readout area lets you know if you are Low in fat, Normal, High or Very High when it pulls your results. This could really help be a wakeup call for some people, or a good way to reinforce healthy behaviors for others.

*The Upshot:*
Okay, given that you have to obey ALL those set conditions, the Omron Fat Analyzer is easy to use and a very good buy for someone looking to keep track of their fat levels. It’s far easier to get fat measured properly with this tool as opposed to clunky calipers and you don’t have to mess around with displaced volume math formulas in the bathtub.

I plan to bring this tool as a fun party favor for my family to play with at my big 4th of July bash this year. It’s good for people to know how close to normal their amount of body fat is.

Omron HBF-306 Body Fat Analyzer

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