GoKawiilKris Carlon / Android Authority
I own a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, and bar a brief hiatus from my wrist late last year, I’ve been using it since its launch in 2021. While it’s starting to show its age and newer Galaxy Watches have certainly surpassed it in terms of specifications, the newer health-focused features of its successors haven’t tempted me to upgrade. In fact, despite it being five years old and four generations behind, there’s one Galaxy Watch 4 feature that still hasn’t been topped: the body composition monitor.
Do you use the Body Composition feature on your Galaxy Watch? 43 votes Yes, I use it regularly. 30 % Yes, I use it but only when I remember it exists. 21 % I tried it once or twice. 14 % No, I find it far too awkward or unreliable. 2 % No, I didn't even know it existed. 19 % I don't own a Galaxy Watch. 14 %
Introduced with the Galaxy Watch 4, the body composition feature is completely unique in the smartwatch world and is available on every Galaxy Watch launched since. It uses the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor to estimate the amount of body fat, muscle, and water in your body. It does this by sending a weak electrical signal through the wearer, who completes the circuit by resting two fingers on the watch’s two buttons. The watch then reads the resistance caused by the bones, muscles, and fat in the body to calculate the overall composition.
While this method is used by many other products, including smart scales, it’s not a 100% accurate way of understanding one’s actual physical makeup. This is true for every metric monitored by a wearable. However, this doesn’t mean the feature isn’t useful; it certainly has been for me.
Matching the improvements I’m feeling to the data
Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority
I haven’t been particularly kind to my body in recent months. I haven’t had a great night’s sleep in ages, and I’ve gained some unwanted weight and dropped several levels of fitness as a result. It’s not a place I enjoy being, so I’ve decided to focus on my fitness once again.
That’s a pretty nebulous statement, so let me detail my two main goals: I want to build muscle while decreasing my body fat percentage. Many wearables can now monitor various aspects of fitness, but tracking muscle and fat percentages is more challenging. This is where the Galaxy Watch comes into play.
Body composition data allows me to compare the hard numbers to the improvements I'm feeling.
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