Charder MA601 Advanced Body Composition Analyser

What is Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis?

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis is a technique used to estimate body composition. A weak electric current is passed through the body, and the speed at which the current flows through the body determines the amount of fat, water and muscle content.

Advanced body composition analysers like the MA601 use BIA to provide a full breakdown of body composition. Traditional BIA body composition scales will use one frequency; the MA601 uses three.

Low frequencies can have difficulty overcoming and passing through cell membranes, so are well suited for measuring extracellular water. High frequencies can pass through cell membrane walls, so they can provide intracellular readings.

How does the MA601 work?

The touchscreen operation means the MA601 is user-friendly and allows you to see your body composition results in seconds.

With shoes and socks removed, simply step onto the scale and enter basic information, such as age, height and name/ID, and, when prompted, lift up the hand electrodes. Once the MA601 has completed your body measurement, basic results will be displayed on the screen. You can then press Print to see a comprehensive print-out of your results.

Why does the MA601 not have an athlete setting?

Traditionally, BIA devices have been less accurate for ‘abnormal’ populations such as athletes. A commonly used fix has been to offer a separate ‘athlete mode’, using specialised algorithms. Unfortunately, because there is no clear consensus on how to define ‘athlete’, oftentimes users wouldn’t know which mode to select, resulting in inaccurate results when used by ‘non-athletes’.

What’s more, sprinters and weightlifters are both athletes - yet their body types are very different, so an athlete mode that’s based on “endurance athletes” might be less accurate for “strength athletes, and vice versa.

What’s the difference between the MA601 and other Marsden body composition scales?

This scale provides even more readings than our Marsden MBF-6000/Marsden MBF-6010, including: Intracellular Water (ICW), Extracellular Water (ECW), Total Body Water (TBW), Soft Lean Mass (SLM), Fat-Free Mass (FFM), Body Fat Mass (BFM), Skeletal Muscle Mass (SMM), Percentage Body Fat (PBF), Body Mass Index (BMI), Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Total Energy Expenditure (TEE), Phase Angle, Fat-free Mass Index (FFMI), Skeletal Muscle Index (SMI) and Impedance.

Another benefit is that the scale also gives recommended improvements for each client, based on their results.