Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor
Omron HBF-514C Full Body Composition Sensing Monitor and Scale
Measures 7 fitness indicators including body fat %, BMI, resting metabolism, weight and more! The innovative Full Body Sensor is the only at-home body composition monitor that accurately measures your entire body. It uses 6 advanced sensors?2 for your hands and 4 for your feet. Clinically proven to be as accurate as expensive medical devices professionals use. Stores personalized information for up to four people and features guest mode. Memory lets you track your progress along the way. Uses four AA batteries (included).
List Price: $109.99
Sale Price: $68.99
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Omron HBF-514C Full Body Composition Sensing Monitor and Scale
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2497 user reviews
Monitors and Scales
Omron HBF-514C Full Body Composition Sensing Monitor and Scale
Measures 7 fitness indicators including body fat %, BMI, resting metabolism, weight and more! The innovative Full Body Sensor is the only at-home body composition monitor that accurately measures your entire body. It uses 6 advanced sensors?2 for your hands and 4 for your feet. Clinically proven to be as accurate as expensive medical devices professionals use. Stores personalized information for up to four people and features guest mode. Memory lets you track your progress along the way. Uses four AA batteries (included).
$109.99
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http://blog.losing-weight-over-40.com/2010/09/01/omron-full-body-sensor-body-fat-and-body-composition-monitor/
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Rating
I was excited to get this scale. It’s my first scale that does more than tell you how much you weigh. I don’t really have a way to tell how accurate the weight reading is. But I do know that it’s consistent. I’ve tried all sorts of different tests: Weighing myself multiple times, recalibrating the scale each time, weighing myself with shoes, then without shoes, then weighing the shoes to see if me + shoes = me wearing shoes, etc. etc. The numbers always seem to come out the way they should.
The same goes for the other readings – I have no way of knowing how accurate they are. But across a few days, resting metabolism varies by no more than 10-15 calories, skeletal muscle and body fat stay within 1%, visceral fat is always the same number, and BMI only varies slightly with day-to-day weight changes.
It’s been a little under three weeks so far with the scale, so I haven’t really had it long enough to see a significant trend forming based on my recent exercise regimen. But being able to see all of those values really keeps your behavior in check. Every time you see one of the values change for the better, it helps to renew your resolve. I’ve got a lot of room to improve, and I think this scale is really going to help me maintain my focus.
In my opinion, it’s worth more than what I paid for it. I only wish (manufacturers, take note!) that there was more you could do with the memory function. It keeps 90 days worth of data for each user profile, but you can only view today, yesterday, last week, last month, and 90 days ago. I’d like to see a little USB port in there where you could put a memory stick and it would download a CSV or other delimited text file containing your history. It would be a simple matter to import the file into a spreadsheet application to view charts and graphs of your progress.
Rating
My Shugah Booger bought me this scale and had it sent to me in Iraq as a gift. I was doing cardio and weight training at the same time and had no way to really gauge my progress. Although I was putting in a lot of work, the reading on that old balance beam scale in the gym never seemed to change. I was hoping that I was trading lean muscle mass for body fat but couldn’t be sure. With this scale, there is no guesswork. It’s about the size of every other bathroom scale. And it wasn’t too hard to figure out. I read through the instruction manual in about 30min, stuck the batteries in (batteries came included, how many products do that…), and fired it up. You can use it as a regular bathroom scale and simply measure body weight. Or you can input your body vitals and get readings on BMI, body weight, visceral fat, skeletal muscle, and body age. This was perfect for me because instead of scope locking on weight, I was able to monitor the reduction in my overall bodyfat which is what I really only cared about. It also keeps an historical record every time you step on it. It does daily, weekly, and monthly highs. Also, it can store data for up to four different people. That’s good for family or roommmates. I absolutely love this scale. Hands down, it’s the best one I’ve ever owned. Thanks, Baby! I’m fixin’ to be the fittest dude in all of Baghdad. 178 days closer to coming home…GET SOME!
Rating
I was so hesitant to get this scale. $80? Wow! I’m a poor college student.. but this was worth every penny. I am a results oriented person (well, aren’t we all?)…. I knew I need to see hard facts and proof of improvement. This scale is reliable. Sure, it varies, like all scales. It doesn’t matter if its 5 lbs different than your doctor’s scale. Obviously, if you have weight to lose, and you lose 20 lbs, it’ll show up! Now when it comes to this sort of technology, don’t sell yourself cheap. It’s not really worth saving $40 over. You want something that is going to work and this is a good company.
This scale gave me a MAJOR wake up call. I knew what my weight range was in, I knew it was getting out of hand. I needed to lose a third of me. If you’re overweight or obese, this scale will give you a reality check. If you aren’t, I think this scale would be a good preventative method. Maybe weigh yourself once a month, check your body fat, get it under control before two years and a hundred lbs later.
Out of the box… it’s sleek and light weight. Feels well made and looks attractive. It took me about 15-20 minutes to get it started and flip through the instructions. The instructions are great – very detailed. The scale is very easy to use, but you’re gonna have to read the instructions for the first time through. It wasn’t intuitive but certainly not difficult. I like how it uses both arms and feet to measure to try and get the most accurate body fat measurement. Having the separate component for hands is wonderful. It increases the accuracy as I said and I don’t have to bend over to press little buttons on the floor.
First you set the month, date, year, time… then your age/height/gender. As I found out, the surface you weigh on makes a difference! Make sure it’s a hard level surface! In the instruction manual it gives you a description of what ideal ranges are for body fat, skeletal percentage, visceral fat, BMI, etc. It also shows you on the digital pad if it’s below normal, normal, serious or very serious (-, 0, +, ++). It comes with this excellent chart to record all your readings on. Make photocopies! Press the user button (1,2,3 or 4). Once it gets your weight stable, it flashes a few times… hold the device out with your arms 90 degrees… then it gives you all the readings in one swipe. Just press the button for the result you want. It’s quick and easy. Takes what… 20 seconds? Wouldn’t be hard to do twice a month at all.
I just want to say though that I think the extras on this scale are kind of silly. I can calculate BMI and resting metabolism online just as accurately and for free. I’m not sure what they do to calculate body age… but it’s probably a formula based on your measurements. I do however appreciate the body fat percentage, visceral fat level and skeletal muscle percentage. So in a way, I think some of the “bells and whistles” on this scale are unnecessary but convenient.
Rating
I got this scale out of desperation. I had been dieting and lost about 40 pounds over 6 months. The weight loss stopped completely for about a month. I cut back more on my calories and did more exercise. But I found I felt terrible and was very tired.
I think of all the years I went through getting upset over a few pound gain while I am dieting/exercising. Now I can see what is going on with my fat/muscle ratio.
More importantly I now know I wasn’t getting enough calories and my body was in starvation mode. You can go weeks without losing a pound. It is very frustrating! Society trains us to think eating is bad when your overweight so we tend to limit too much. At 1,200 calories (and exercising) I was losing muscle at a fast rate and it took some modifying of my diet to stop that. My fat level would stay the same and my muscle was going down.
I now only weigh in once a week and can see what that weeks dieting did. I am better able to lose fat now. I love this scale!!
My husband got on the scale- and thinking his weight was ok- found his visceral fat was at a dangerous level. He now completely cut out fast food and soda and has seen a drop over the past month. This scale may have saved him from a heart attack.
Rating
I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my wife. We both use this item since it can track our individual results. At first, it was confusing to understand the history that was being recorded, but once we had used it for a few weeks, we found that scrolling through history revealed our past recordings. Would recommend weighing around the same time when you desire to record all the areas measured. We noticed that if we took a second recording shortly after the first, there was slight variation in some of the measurements. When multiple people are using this, recommend turning on the scale (a button on the rear of the scale), wait for the display to register, and then select the number corresponding to the person weighing before you step on the scale. We have found that holding the reader at the 90 degree position in measuring BMI, etc. will provide more consistent readings. We avoid keeping this scale in the bathroom to minimize the potential for damage due to high humidity.
Rating
This scale is AWESOME. Usually I have to work with a personal trainer to get an accurate body fat% or visceral fat number, so it’s nice to find a product I can use at home. My trainer used a hand-held version by Omron(like the part that comes off of the scale that you hold in your hand) and it was as accurate as using a regular caliper(sp?). This scale can handle keeping track of multiple people and also keeps a 90-day history for each person. Pretty great. Compared to the old scale that I had, this one is miles ahead of it and more accurate (for those interested, I had a Tanita body fat bathroom scale). Get it!! It’s comparable in price to other scales and is fantastic!! Of course, Amazon shipping was great as usual as well.
Rating
I love this product, i use to monitor the families health status and changing weight patterns. The programming was easy. The only problem which may just require reveiwing the manual is i cannot switch from one user to another without first turning off and then on again.
Rating
I was extremely hesitant in buying a new scale despite dissatisfaction with my old scale which had a tendency to fluctuate erratically. I also wanted more than just a cheap scale that only told me my weight but NOTHING about what was going on in my body. After shopping, comparing features and reading literally hundreds of reviews, I finally settled on the Omron brand but I wasn’t sure which model to get. Finally I chose the 500 model and Amazon informed me that the 500 had been replaced with a newer model the 510. Unfortunately the 510 no longer had the same features as the 500 (they got rid of the Body age & Resting metabolism features along with the 1, 7 , 30, 90 day memory that the 500 had). Luckily the web page for the 510 showed a better new model, this HBF-514C which had ALL the original features of the 500 and boasted “NEW – Advanced Accuracy” on the box. The main reason I chose the 514 model was for the extensive features and the excellent quality behind the Omron name. They are noted for their accuracy, NON-fluctuation when done consistently and long lasting scales. I figured that with the amount of money as I was about to spend on any one of these scales, I should get the one with the features and the newer model upgrade.
Out of the box, I noticed how lightweight the scale was and yet it felt VERY solid and well built. Attractive. Well boxed and it comes with batteries, manual, registration card and a worksheet for logging results that they say you are allowed to reprint as needed. The worksheet is clean and very easy to use with tons of room for many weigh-ins to come.
I then sat down and did what many reviewers said to do, I read the manual from cover to cover. Then I braved the programming for myself which went quickly and was very easy to do (reading the manual before doing it REALLY made it easy.) Then I weighed. The results were exactly as expected, no surprise in my weight. The other results were realistic and informative. I mainly got this for the weight, general body fat % and most importantly the Skeletal Muscle % as I am attempting to lose extra weight while building my body to be strong and lean. More muscle, more calories burned so that is very important to me (I am 34 and active but stress has left me less than happy with my body composition) BMI is close to other results. Body fat % seems realistic as does the skeleton muscle %. The Resting metabolism and body age is neat but I don’t know how helpful it really is. Knowing your Resting metabolism rate gives you a base amount of calories you should eat daily so it may be helpful to some although it is probably just a start and needing to be fiddled with to see what caloric level YOU need daily for your goals.
The scale gave consistent results for the 3 people in my family without fail, repeatedly. The most accurate (read: Consistent) scale I’ve had the pleasure to use. I follow the rules outlined in the manual to get consistent results and it works. The scale and hand held sensors are easy to use and very fast to get results. Having it store my results for up to 90 days is a great feature although I also log my results in my excel sheet (I like making pretty graphs showing trend lines and how far I’ve come) and also on the fridge with the reprinted worksheet included. Gives me motivation to see my progress when tempted late at night.
HIGHLY recommended and worth every penny!
Pros:
* Full body composition (7 areas tested)
* Can also be JUST a scale. Nice! Scale weight is consistent every time.
* Accurate in that it is consistent without weird fluctuations.
* Easy to set up and use if you read the manual to get acquainted with your new scale first.
* Lightweight and attractive to see lying around.
* Good value for features.
* Well written manual that is actually helpful.
* Included worksheet that you can legally reprint. Nice worksheet design for easy use.
* Free batteries so that you can use it immediately.
* Sold by Amazon so I got free shipping. (and with the promotion going on right now, I saved an additional $10 at checkout. Details on the item page: [b]Save an extra $10 instantly when you spend $49 or more on select Omron products offered by Amazon.com. The discount will be reflected in your cart at checkout. Here’s how (restrictions apply). Offer valid through August 31, 2009.[/b] )
Cons:
None really so far. However, to many people the price is a bit high esp. when you are worried about whether it will live up to the hype, when you could get a cheaper scale for $60-89 with less features (or an older model like the 500 with the same features from a 3rd party seller on amazon) Honestly, I do believe that this was the best scale for me at a price that I could afford. I debated a cheaper Omron model but at the end, I knew that this one was the way to go for my needs. Shop around, I do however recommend this scale and I am very happy to date.
Rating
I bought this to replace my old Tanita body-fat scale. In my opinion, this scale is fine, but unless you are really into some of its special features, it’s not worth the 2-3 times more money you will pay to get this instead of a more basic scale.
Features and comments
- Measures weight to nearest 0.2 lb (or 0.1 kg), estimates body fat to nearest 0.1%. This is good precision for a scale – my old scale measured to the nearest 0.5 lb and 0.5% body fat. Based on a 30 day comparison against my old scale, the weight measurement is very similar to the old scale.
Body fat, however, swings up and down much more heavily on the Omron. The overall average is similar, but any given day’s measurement is likely to be father off the average. (I haven’t been able to find a consumer reports or similar comparison of accuracy, but I would love it.
I had thought that the addition of the handles would produce more accuracy in the body fat measurement, but from what I have read, the feet-only scales are just about as accurate. (According to Omron’s literature, the handles are good for end-of-day measurement, when gravity may have drawn more water to your legs).
- Also calculates body mass index and estimates visceral fat level, skeletal muscle %, resting metabolism, and body age. Frankly, though, I can take or leave these measurements. BMI is easily calculated from weight and doesn’t add much, and all of the rest of the measurements (including body fat %) are estimates based on the electrical conductivity of your body. Based on that, the scale estimates how much of your body is fat and how much is not, giving you body fat %. If the other numbers do anything for you, that’s great, but for me, they’re (1) basically another way of stating body fat % and (2) too much to keep track of over time.
- Can store profiles for up to 4 people. This is a pretty nice feature if 3 or 4 people will be using the scale. If not, look into the scales that only store profiles for 1 or 2 people, as needed – you will save some money.
- Remembers weigh-in data for each person at 1, 7, 30, and 90 days. For some reason, although the scale stores the most recent 97 days, it will only display the 4 dates listed.
Basically, this scale does what it advertises, but most people probably won’t get much out of the hand grips, or out of the additional calculations. Unless you’re sure you want it, I would recommend a simpler, feet only scale that sticks to weight and body fat %.