Skulpt

[cbrunny]

My wife bought me a Skulpt for my birthday from Kickstarter. The device finally arrived yesterday. It's pretty neat. Website: http://www.skulpt.me/

Basically it's a little handheld device that you press against your muscles and it analyzes your composition in that immediate area to determine body fat % and muscle quality.

Turns out I'm fat. Like really fat.

I know I'm not the most fit person in the world but I didn't expect to have figures in the low 30%s coming out when I tested it. Though it does say to use first thing in the morning and not right after a workout, and I used it at the end of a day, right after a workout. I didn't test it again this morning, though I suppose I should have.

Is this tool necessary? Hells no. But as an aid, and a neat novel way to track progress, pretty cool I think.

 

[mizzou]

I don't understand how that is even useful. I don't need a machine to tell me my flabby stomach is high in fat

 

[SP33Demon]

It'd be interesting to see how accurate it is vs a DEXA scan machine or calipers. How much is this thing?

 

[cbrunny]

It'd be interesting to see how accurate it is vs a DEXA scan machine or calipers. How much is this thing?

I think ~100 USD.

I have calipers too but I'm pretty sure I am using them wrong. Calipers can't give you info on the "quality" of your muscle. Though to be clear I'm not really sure what that means in the first place. I don't think it relates to the strength of the muscle. perhaps the density? Dunno.

 

[deadlyapp]

As far as I can tell, it is measuring the resistance of the tissue underneath the device, so it likely is more accurate than something like caliper measuring if it is well calibrated. With that said, the condition of your skin (eg sweaty, dry, etc) probably has a large effect on the results. I'd also be interested in knowing at what depth it essentially scans at.

I suspect that this probably reads well higher than a DXA, which I consider as the most "accurate" method of composition testing but typically reads much higher than caliper or water displacement methods.

I also gave up on these people when they said this:

A high muscle quality is like a lean piece of steak. As any one who has ever eaten or seen a piece of steak can understand, a fatty, tough cut of steak (e.g., chuck) will have a much lower MQ than a lean, melt-in-your mouth cut (e.g., filet mignon). For a given amount of muscle mass, that fatty, chuck steak will not contract nearly as effectively as the lean filet mignon.

Lean and melt in your mouth do not compute.

 

[vi edit]

I have no idea what they are trying to say there. The filet is a non-weight bearing muscle and has no connective tissue to it. That's why it's tender.

Weight bearing muscles tend to have more collagen that has to be rendered down through cooking. They can be "lean" or fatty depending on cut and animal and really has no impact on "quality" of muscle.

 

[marmasatt]

I don't understand the point of this thing.

 

[cbrunny]

It's a fitness toy for data nerds like me

 

[deadlyapp]

I don't understand the point of this thing.

It's just another way to benchmark your body. There are plenty of people who benchmark by doing body composition testing, but most of them are arcane and not 21st century solutions. this sounds like it's bringing it into more of a current, data driven, app accessible system, which is nice, but for most people probably unnecessary. I've done a couple of body comp DXA scans and at $40 a pop, if you did it every 3-6 months it would get extremely expensive.

 

[Sixguns]

It's a fitness toy for data nerds like me

Let me know how you like it. Ive had my eye on it for awhile but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

 

[cbrunny]

I tried it again this morning first thing. It's tough to use when groggy after just getting up. Plus you have to spray it with water to ensure good contact which makes it cold first thing in the morning. Also it apparently doesn't like chest hair very much. Tough to make it take a reading with my fur. Maybe my wife is right....

Anyway, this morning's results seemed far more in line with what I was expecing. High 20%s in body fat, but varied depending on the part of body. The really interesting thing though was the muscle quality scale. It's still not entirely clear to me what this is measuring, but it is very clearly showing a dramatic difference between different parts of my body.

So I think that's another use case besides benchmarking. It will tell you which muscle groups are perhaps under-sized/under-utilized, which should allow you to adjust your fitness regime to suit. I can see that even fitness buffs would have a use for something like this. Can help to balance the muscle groups, leading to a more overall fitness.

In addition, one downside is that it is definitely going to be a device that takes time to learn to use. As simple as it is (and it is VERY simple), if you take a measurement then move the device and inch and measure the same muscle again, the results can be dramatically different (not always; depends on muscle group).

I think it will take some time to get used to having the device pressed on the exact same spot every time you use it.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I have no idea what they are trying to say there. The filet is a non-weight bearing muscle and has no connective tissue to it. That's why it's tender.

Weight bearing muscles tend to have more collagen that has to be rendered down through cooking. They can be "lean" or fatty depending on cut and animal and really has no impact on "quality" of muscle.

Yeah I took issue with that as well. I don't know about you, but I actually look for the fattiest ribeyes in the supermarket because my experience is that they cook up juicier and more tender than the super lean cuts.

As for this device, I think I'd rather not give myself something else to worry about in terms of fitness. That's all it would do for me. I'd put it somewhere on me and it would say that I have a high fat percentage or low muscle quality there and that would drive me insane. I'll continue with my "do I like what I see in the mirror" method thanks.

 

[deadlyapp]

I tried it again this morning first thing. It's tough to use when groggy after just getting up. Plus you have to spray it with water to ensure good contact which makes it cold first thing in the morning. Also it apparently doesn't like chest hair very much. Tough to make it take a reading with my fur. Maybe my wife is right....

Anyway, this morning's results seemed far more in line with what I was expecing. High 20%s in body fat, but varied depending on the part of body. The really interesting thing though was the muscle quality scale. It's still not entirely clear to me what this is measuring, but it is very clearly showing a dramatic difference between different parts of my body.

So I think that's another use case besides benchmarking. It will tell you which muscle groups are perhaps under-sized/under-utilized, which should allow you to adjust your fitness regime to suit. I can see that even fitness buffs would have a use for something like this. Can help to balance the muscle groups, leading to a more overall fitness.

In addition, one downside is that it is definitely going to be a device that takes time to learn to use. As simple as it is (and it is VERY simple), if you take a measurement then move the device and inch and measure the same muscle again, the results can be dramatically different (not always; depends on muscle group).

I think it will take some time to get used to having the device pressed on the exact same spot every time you use it.

That's one of the reasons why I like DXA scans so much: