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Home/Orcapedia/Smart Scale vs. DEXA

Why Your Smart Scale Disagrees With a DEXA Scan

Your scale isn't measuring fat directly -- it's estimating it from how easily electricity passes through you, and that changes with hydration, exercise and meal timing. Check today's conditions below.

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    What's Actually Happening

    Consumer body-fat scales use bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA): they send a small, imperceptible current through your body and measure resistance. Fat resists the current more than lean tissue and water do, so the device estimates body composition from that resistance -- then runs it through a formula calibrated on population averages, not you specifically.

    The problem is that resistance is driven heavily by hydration, and hydration swings throughout a normal day for reasons that have nothing to do with your actual body fat: a workout, a large meal, a glass of water, even the time of day. DEXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) uses a completely different method -- measuring how tissue absorbs two X-ray energy levels -- which makes it a stronger reference standard, though not a condition-proof one either.

    How Much Can It Actually Shift?

    Published comparisons of consumer BIA scales against DEXA commonly find gaps of several percentage points of body fat, and the size of that gap varies a lot by device, population and measurement conditions -- there isn't one universal correction factor, which is why this tool shows you a direction and a rough band rather than a single invented number.

    This tool is for general education about measurement methods, not a diagnostic or medical tool. It does not calculate your actual body fat percentage.
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