Product Description

Omron Body Composition Monitor BF500

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10 in Health and Beauty
• Brand: Omron
• Model: HBF-500-E
• Dimensions: 4.85 pounds

Features

• Four sensor measurement technology using both hands and feet for an entire body measurement
• High accuracy through new measurement technology
• Measurement of visceral fat, which is closely related to lifestyle diseases
• Memory function for up to 4 users and a guest mode
• High quality finish in modern contemporary silver metallic look

Manufacturer's Description

Why choose a Body Composition Monitor? The Omron BF500 Body Composition Monitor offers you much more than a traditional weighing scale. While it is important to monitor your weight, there are other internal factors that give you a better idea of your overall health. Using it’s sensor technology the BF500 will give you accurate readings for your body fat percentage, Visceral fat level and skeletal muscle percentage. The BF500 is simple to use and offers accurate results making it a perfect fitness tool to use any time in the comfort of your own home. Chewing the fat……. What you need to know What is a Body Fat? Our bodies need a certain amount of fat to function effectively but too much fat can have a detrimental effect to your overall health. Studies have shown that a high level of fat in the body, in particular visceral fat, increases the risk of developing more serious health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. The level of body fat you should have will vary depending on age and sex, this chart indicates what level band you should be in depending on these factors.

What is visceral fat? Visceral fat or ‘central obesity’ is used to describe the fat that’s located inside the peritoneal cavity, that is your mid section around your waist. Rather than being located directly under the skin as subcutaneous fat this ‘Visceral fat can be found in between your internal organs many of which are situated in this cavity. Studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between high levels of visceral fat and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease as well as other medical conditions. The BF500 will give you a reading between 30 levels, to indicate your level of visceral fat, a normal reading would be between 1 and 9with a reading higher than 15 being very high.

What is Subcutaneous fat? Subcutaneous fat not only accumulates around the stomach but also around the upper arms, hips and thighs, and can cause a distortion of the body's proportions. Although not directly linked to increased risk of disease, it is thought to increase pressure on the heart and lead to other complications. The BF500 does not display subcutaneous fat uniquely, but it is included in the body fat percentage reading as a whole. How can you reduce your body fat? The best way to reduce your overall body fat percentage is to take regular exercise and eat healthily. Using a body composition monitor such as the BF500 advanced body fat & composition monitor will give you accurate results so you can monitor your progress on a fitness regime or simply keep a check on your general health.

What is skeletal muscle mass? Muscle is divided into two types, muscle in internal organs, such as the heart, and skeletal muscle attached to bones that is used to move the body. Skeletal muscle can be increased through exercise and other activity. Increasing the ratio of skeletal muscle means that the body can burn energy more easily, which means that it is less likely to turn to fat, and makes it easier to lead an energetic lifestyle and keep your weight at an optimal level. It essentially speeds up your metabolism. The science bit….  Body fat has low electricity conductivity The BF500 measures the body fat percentage by using the Bio-electrical Impedance (BI) method. Muscles, blood vessels and bones are body tissues with higher water content that conducts electricity easily. Body fat is tissue that has little electric conductivity. The BF500 sends an extremely weak electrical current of 50 kHz through your body to determine the amount of fat tissue. This weak electrical current is NOT felt while operating the BF500. In order for the scale to determine body composition, it uses the electrical impedance, along with your height, weight, age and gender information to generate results based on pre-determined data of body composition.

And finally In short owning an Omron BF500 is an easy and practical way to monitor your health at home. Using an Omron means affordability, reliability and accuracy whenever you need it from the worlds leading healthcare at home provider.

Customer Reviews

It can be a bit upsetting!
These are wonderful scales and fantastic value for money. Two minutes fiddling around had batteries installed, a profile (age, height, gender) set up and I was ready to go. These scales measure your body mass and have your height so they are able to automatically calculate give a BMI reading, however, as we know BMI is very crude as a person heavy with muscle is officially classed as obese. This is not a problem however as they also use electrical impedance (essentially how resistant your body is to currents flowing from hand to hand and foot to foot and hands to feet) to calculate the composition of your body. Twenty seconds after you hop on you know your weight, your BMI, your fat content (visceral and sub-cutaneous) and your muscle levels. This means you can do the following:
1. diet and check that you are not losing muscle, but fat (if you lose muscle then the weight comes back with interest, as only muscle can burn calories)
2. make these part of an exercise regime (as I do) and track whether the changes in weight are due to eating too much or increasing muscle mass and then modify to take account.
3. use them as normal bathroom scales, but with the ability to ensure that increasing weight is not drifting into dangerous levels.

I think these are great, but they can burst your bubbles (I genuinely though the weight I had put on was muscle - it wasn't). A word of caution though, it is quite possible to get obsessive with these, they are far better used at intervals of a week or more than daily.

Really Indepth Body Monitor
On receiving this body fat monitor it looked like something from a spaceship. The design and size looks like any other body scales, but this has a detailed function that makes it superior to any other similar product on the market. This item not only tells you your weight...but a lot of other details too. I was in my GP recently and they had a huge machine costing thousands, which told me the same details as this machine did and it took 4 times longer as well.

The instruction booklet is pretty large and thick, but all you need is on 6 pages and it is really easy to follow.
You set up your profile (up to 4 allowed) telling them your age,height,gender. Then all you have to do is stand on the scales, and hold the handled device at a 90 degrees angle to your body. 5-10secs later your results are ready. easy. And it will store 97 entries, so you are able to keep track of how you are progressing if you are trying to improve on something, and will delete the oldest record when adding a new one after the 97th.

List of what this device will tell you.

1. Weight
2. Body Fat Percentage (with Body Fat classification chart)
3. Muscle Percentage
4. Resting Metabolism
5. BMI (with BMI classification chart)
6. Visceral Fat Level (with Visceral Fat classification chart)

All the results are easly displayed, and with the classification it is easy to see where you are and where you should be. Great for those trying to stay healthly, losing weight, or like to keep track of these measurments. The price of this device is the same as a normal set of scales..and this does much more.

I really recommend this product as it is easy to use, contains simple instructions, and gives you a lot of great information.

Omron BF500 - Incredibly impressive !
In the box - the scales themselves, 4 x AA batteries and a 336 page super thick multi-language instruction manual.

After inserting the batteries and switching on the unit you're promted to set the date and time for the lcd display - which is easily done. Then comes the time to discover how exactly fit/fat you actually are or aren't !

The handset is programmable with upto four peoples profiles and requires that you allocate each person to one of the four individual memory locations then input the individuals age, gender and height - again all easily done fromt the on screen prompts. From switching on the unit you then select the memory location of the person being measured, uncouple the hand held display and stand on the scales which have three metallic plates for each foot to stand on. It's important to stand upright with your arms stretched straight in front of you for the scales to give a totally accurate reading. The scales can be set to display in pounds (lbs) and ounces or kg's - that's down to the users personal preferance.

The measuring process takes around ten seconds and once completed all the measurements are displayed and you can consult the manual which will then explain to you how to interpret them.

So - what exactly is diplayed..?

Obviously, your weight.
Your overall body fat content.
Your visceral fat (the fat which surrounds your internal organs).
Your BMI - the measurement used to establish if you're underweight, normal, overweight or oboese.
Your resting metabolism - the amount of calorific intake required daily to maintain vital bodily functions.

I was a little scpeticle of the accuracy of such a machine in the home but my wife is an avid gym attendee and has compared the results from the BF500 against those given to her by her gym and they virtually mirrored each other - so the accuracy of the measurements is spot on.

So, all in all the BF500 scales provide accurate information for those who need or want to ensure they can monitor their overall fitness levels and be sure their hard work keeping fit and dieting is heading them in the right direction.The supplied manual is extremely informative in explaining what the results actually mean and how to interpret them correctly.

A welcome and practical addition to any health conscious household - totally recommended.