Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor Review

I work hard at the Gym, I stay true to my diet, I put the time and effort in that it takes to not only stay in shape pretty much all year round but also get into the kind of shape for my competitions that means my conditioning is simply better than all the rest. So how do I do this?

One key factor is knowing what is going on with my body and to know this it helps if you have a device that is less subjective then simply looking in the mirror and wondering just exactly where my body fat percentage is at. Having a device that can backup what you are thinking can help you reach your fitness goals.

Please keep in mind that my experience with pretty much every Body Composition Device has been far from perfect but I still feel they are a useful tool in helping me figure out what direction I need to take my training and eating in as I chip away at this never ending quest for strength, health and an esthetic balance.

So in this product video review I take a look at the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor and see just how well it does in terms of reading my overall body composition. I did buy mine from Amazon so if you are interested in a body monitoring scale like the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor then you can find it located here.

Here is what the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor claims to offer:

• Measures 7 different fitness indicators: body fat percentage, BMI, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, visceral fat, body age, and weight
• Accurately measures body fat percentage using proven bioelectrical impedance method.
• Easy-to-read digital screen displays body weight up to 330 pounds in seconds.
• Stores up to 4 individual profile settings so the whole family can track their progress with 180 days of memory.
• The breakthrough design is clinically proven to be just as accurate as much more expensive methods used by physicians and other health professionals.
• By utilizing advanced sensors, you get a precise reading quickly in the comfort of your own home.

So does the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor really deliver on these claims? The problem I have with devices like this is that I do not have your typical build for a 46 year old male. I am currently 6 feet tall at about 200 pounds and sitting right around 7-8% body fat with a lot of muscle mass not only for my age but for any age. Most of these body composition scales want to know information like your age, gender, height and of course they will read your body weight when you step on them. The reason they need this info is because they use this data in conjunction with the sensor readings to run a formula based on all of the information combined. Much of this information is based on database information they have already collected for people in your similar age group, height group, gender and even your body weight range. So in other words the scale is to some degree making some assumptions based on what it already knows to be true for the average person who matches your criteria. But what is true for the mass average may not be even remotely close to where I am at.

The problem I have is that I am not average, and so the scale will assume that since I am a 46 years old male that is 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, I must have a fair amount of body fat on me so my readings will be influenced by that assumption.

One big problem with the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor is that it does not have an athletic mode setting. This setting would allow it to make the assumption that I have a more athletic build and therefore more muscle mass with less overall body fat and so the readings would be more accurate for someone like me.

I did play aorund with age setting on the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor to see if that would give me a more accurate reading and it did help a little bit but at the end of the day I was scoring well between 14-15% body fat, and with a body age of somewhere between 50-60 years old! I am not even going to talk about BMI since BMI take virtually nothing into consideration other than gender, height and age.

Make sure to watch my Full review video below as I go into much more detail for the Omron HBF-516B Full Body Composition Monitor and Sensor and show you how to use it along with some comparisons to some similar devices I use to measure my body composition.