Samsung Galaxy Watch's Bio Active Sensor data can help reduce obesity: AJCN

Samsung's advanced BIA sensor module inside Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 series, is capable of measuring body skeleton mass, body water, body fat mass, and Body Mass Index (BMI)

Over the last few years, particularly during and post Covid-19 induced lockdowns around the world, obesity has become a huge concern not just among senior citizens but also among young adults and children too.

Due to overconsumption and lack of physical activity, the body begins to accumulate too much fat and if left without intervention, immunity takes a beating and people will be prone to fever and cold. Also, a passive lifestyle will eventually affect the functioning of critical organs such as the heart, kidney, and liver.

In 2021, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Watch4 series with an innovative proprietary BioActive Sensor module, which houses an Optical Heart Rate sensor paired with an Electrical Heart sensor and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor that offers data to improve our health and take measures to reduce obesity.

The advanced BIA sensor inside Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 series, is capable of measuring body skeleton mass, body water, body fat mass, and Body Mass Index (BMI).

Though this feature offers pretty insightful details of body health, there was little information on how it works and how it churns out numerical data, and how reliable they are.

Now, Samsung in collaboration with the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) has finally come up with conclusive data that tells users can trust the data produced by the BIA sensor on Galaxy Watch4 and Watch5 to reduce obesity.

Body Composition details, food intake, and all exercise details can be viewed on the Samsung Health app. Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit

AJCN study shows Galaxy Watch’s BIA measurement had between a 97-98% correlation with the two reference medical devices on fat-free mass, fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, basal metabolic rate, and total body water.

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With data from Galaxy Watch's BIA module, users can monitor their body composition and improve their health by changing their diet and exercise behaviours.

To monitor the diet, Galaxy Watch owners can use Samsung's Galaxy Health app. Here, it offers a Food intake feature and users can record the meals for the morning breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, evening snack, and dinner.

For India, the menu list has local cuisine names with servings and related calories count. Though I wish Samsung could add more options, particularly related to South Indian cuisine, the company offers the custom option to add food names along with nutrition details and calories per serve details.

The only thing missing is that Galaxy Watch4 and Watch5 series owners still can't use ECG (Electrocardiogram) feature, as Samsung is yet to receive regulatory approval in India.

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