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The human body is made up of, amongst other things, a percentage of fat. This is vital for a
healthy, functioning body – it cushions joints and protects vital organs, helps regulate body
temperature, stores vitamins and helps the body sustain itself when food is scarce. However,
too much body fat or indeed too little body fat can be damaging to your health. It is difficult
to gauge how much body fat we have in our bodies simply by looking at ourselves in the
mirror. Hence the need to be able to measure and monitor body fat percentage.
Body fat percentage gives you a better measure of fitness than weight alone – the
composition of your weight loss could mean you are losing muscle mass rather than fat – you
could still be ‘over-fat’ even when a scale indicates ‘normal weight’.
BODY FAT – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Body water is the single most important component of body weight. It represents over half of
your total weight and almost two thirds of your lean body mass (predominantly muscle).
Water performs a number of important roles in the body:
All the cells in the body, whether in the skin, glands, muscles, brain or anywhere else, can only
function properly if they have enough water. Water also plays a vital part in regulating the
body’s temperature balance, particularly through perspiration.
The combination of your weight and fat measurement could appear to be ‘normal’ but your
fluid intake could be insufficient for healthy living.
BODY WATER MEASUREMENT – WHY MEASURE IT?
It can serve as a guide to whether you need to adjust your diet, fitness program or fluid intake to
help achieve a healthy balance. Refer to tables (See Fig 1 and Fig 2).
HOW CAN KNOWING YOUR BODY FAT AND WATER PERCENTAGES HELP?
Fat cells and lean/muscle cells have different conductivity. Using a system known as Bio-
electrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) the body fat analyser passes a minute, harmless, electrical
impulse through the body to determine a resistance reading. This reading is then processed
along with the users age, weight, sex and height to calculate the body fat and body water
percentage. For the most consistent results only use the Salter Body Analyser Scale when your
body is normally hydrated (i.e. not following excessive perspiration, nor just after a bath, nor
after drinking a lot of water or alcohol).
HOW DOES THE BODY FAT ANALYSER SCALE WORK?
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