Just the other day in Kawasaki-city, I bought a bathroom scales at Bic Camera, a major retailer of cameras and electronics equipment. This experience reminded me that, up until about 10 years ago, such "scales" were only used to measure body weight. Thanks to recent evolutions in these devices, however, things have really changed.
First, before you even step on the scales to weigh yourself, you record your age, height, gender and other personal data in the unit. After inputting that information, you finally climb on the scales and, naturally, your weight figure appears. But that's not all. You also get readings on your body fat ratio and visceral fat ratio.
As you might expect, the body fat ratio indicates the breakdown of muscle and fat in your body mass. So, even if your weight is low, a high body fat ratio is evidence of not being healthy.
The visceral fat ratio display is even more sophisticated, and indicates the degree of fat that has accumulated in your internal organs. Here again, even if your weight and body rat ratio are being kept under control, a high visceral fat ratio is considered to be bad news for your long-term health prospects.
So, I was quite surprised to learn just how many high-tech functions are being loaded onto bathroom scales these days.
By the way, the common term for such scales in Japan is "health meter." As this suggests, the once common bathroom scales is steadily becoming a super support item for daily health care in the true sense of the word.