Skulpt Aim Measures Body Fat Percentage and Muscle Quality

The concept behind the Skulpt Aim is a good one, at least on paper: rather than taking a single bio-electrical measurement to determine body composition, take individual measurements of various muscle groups. Track progress on individual muscle groups and use a weighted average for the overall composition and tracking. Unfortunately, due to no systems engineering and poor manufacturing quality, the Skulpt Aim does not deliver on its promises. After about 6 months of use and unending frustration, I have discarded this device in trash, which is where it belongs.First of all, the Skulpt company is a marketing machine! They even have Tony Horton and Scott Herman pitching their products! Searching reviews will generally show very positive reviews; however, most of these reviews are nothing more than re-hashing the positive marketing information from the Skulpt website. The company does not host any user forums where users can share their real experiences. Everything is nicely "cleansed" by Skulpt, including any negative comments on their Facebook page. Looking at the Skulpt team on their website shows that very few people are engaged in any type of engineering. No one is identified as a systems engineer. Most of the team are VPs, marketers, or communications types -- everyone dedicated to get you to buy the product rather than produce a good product.When I first got my Skulpt Aim, the first thing I noticed was poor manufacturing quality. The top of the unit was loose and separating from the center "glow ring". Amazon offered me a discount to keep the unit rather than return it, so I opted for the discount and a little super glue.The Aim device is closely coupled with the Skulpt App that runs on an iPhone or Android device. In fact, you must run the App to really use the Aim. The Aim communicates with the App via Bluetooth. Since there is no systems engineering for this product, the communication between the devices is an unending source of problems:- The Bluetooth interface is routinely reset causing synchronization problems- The Aim randomly loses the Bluetooth pairing- The synchronization process on the App fails and terminates- The Aim requires synchronization when it was successfully synchronized previously.- Synchronized data does not appear on all devices running the App.Over the course of 6 months, the battery capacity of the Aim declined rapidly. (Battery capacity is the number of amp-hours stored by the battery and represents how long the device will run on a full charge.) I would always store the Aim in its charging cradle to ensure it was fully charged. Initially, I was able to take measurements of all muscle groups on both sides of my body and still have 2 bars left on the battery indicator. The battery capacity declined to the point where I could not measure all muscle groups without the device shutting itself off with a drained battery indication. Then, I started taking measurements on the left side one day, followed by the right side the other day. Battery capacity continued to decline to the point where half-body measurements were no longer possible. Eventually, I could not even take the quick measurement of just 4 muscle groups. My Skulpt Aim package indicates that the Aim is "Long-lasting - rechargeable battery lasts up to two months." Clearly this claim is nothing but more marketing lies! There is nothing indicating how frequently the Aim is used during that time or how many measurements should be expected from a full charge. The battery is not replaceable, so when battery capacity degrades to the point where measurements cannot be taken, the unit essentially becomes junk!During the 6 months, Skulpt would release firmware and App updates. Many of these updates were filled with bugs. One firmware update would cause the Aim to refuse to turn on even if it was fully charged - the glow bar would just turn red. After about 3-4 attempts, I could eventually get the device to turn on. After taking measurements and turning the device off, it would find it would turn itself back on after about 5 minutes. This is not the smartest firmware update for a device that has battery capacity issues!Eventually, the battery capacity degraded so much, I could no longer process a firmware update. The device would turn itself off prior to the update completing. The charging cradle is just a charger for the internal battery -- the cradle does not power the unit directly, it only charges the battery; the battery powers the unit. So because of the power design, it was not possible to even process the firmware update even if the device was in its charging cradle -- the fully charged battery was drained before completing the firmware update.After 6 months of buggy firmware and Apps, degrading battery capacity, and bad manufacturing, the Skulpt Aim essentially became useless. So, I discarded it in the trash. I have never been so happy to rid myself of such a frustrating product.

This device is about the size of a pack of cards. One side sports a small screen, the other has numerous metal contacts. On the sides are buttons. As the screen itself isn’t touch, you use the side buttons to advance through the menu and select an option. Meh. This is my first gripe. For a $200 (!) device, the screen and tech is very decade-ago. It’s barely readable, low resolution, and the interface is uninspired.First, the device must be paired with an Android or Apple smart device. The compatible devices are limited, and it cannot be used standalone or with a PC. In fact, even though it will give a reading in “guest mode” you can’t access that mode until it has been synched with an aforementioned device. I am a Windows Phone user, so I grabbed a small Android Galaxy Tablet from the pawn shop. Cool.The setup process is simple. The Skulpt syncs to a smart device. It stores readings on that device, and displays the historical data in a couple of different ways. It’s … okay. Not great. As GUI programming goes, they get a C+. Barely. The included charging stand fits the device okay, but you have to supply your own USB charger. It has a cable.To the meat. The device measures fat percentages and “muscle quality” of individual muscles. The default is to measure 4 muscles (bicep, tricep, ab, quad) on just one side and give an average. You can measure any muscle at any time, or do all of them at once. This is accomplished by wetting the contacts on the rear of the device and holding it on the muscle, waiting for the LED illuminated sides of the device to turn blue (cool, because you can’t see the screen while measuring some muscles… glutes…). If you want to do every muscle, you’ll need a friend to get the upper, and maybe lower back. One amazon review states that doing it right after a shower is great, because you don’t have to keep rewetting the contacts. This sounds good.So the app on the android does NOT have any images of where exactly to hold the device. Instead it has these frustratingly stupid 15 second clips. The first half of the clip is not just telling you to wet the contacts, but you have to watch this dude walk to the camera, give a stupid grin, wet the contacts, walk away… (yawn) etc… and then for maybe 1/16th of a second you can see the person hold the device where it goes, then it’s gone. It’s HORRIBLE. I was the VP of operations at a tech company in Sunnyvale, and if I saw anything like this on one of our products, I would have fired that person from not only that job, but future jobs. Baffling ill-conceived garbage aside, once you figure out where to put the device, you firmly hold it down without flexing and wait. If you’re lucky, it gets a reading. All too often, I wasn’t lucky. An average of 3 tries (up to 8, sometimes 1-2) I would get a reading.I really had hoped that the reading would be a continuum. Like an ultrasound. It would just keep collecting data as you held it down, move it a bit, discard the outliers and get a strong average. It doesn’t work like that. The good news is that the readings are repeatable within 1.5 percent for me. Not bad. Usually a bit better yet.Getting body fat readings on individual muscles is TELLING (to the extent this device is accurate… I’m assured it is, but can’t test it against anything). I can see that my gut is 30%, and my quads (which are awesome) are 11%. This makes sense. I can see the areas I have trouble with, and the ones I don’t I assumed I was around 22% body fat, but according to this, I’m 17-18. It’s hard to say… I feel fatter than that, but on the other hand, I have lean defined areas. Body fat is TOTAL body fat, not gut or peck fat.I like the device with those caveats. I’d love to see one compared independently to a skinfold and DEXA. It’s a decent first-gen attempt at filling a niche that has virtually no competition.

I have always had a high BMI rating. Even when my ribs are visible my weight to height ratio reads "overweight". This is particularly annoying when using strength training to lose weight, as the increased muscle mass only makes the "BMI-to-actual" ratio more skewed. Since obtaining my Skulpt Aim, I can now measure accurately, and know when I actually have gotten below 25% body fat (my current actual body fat is 16%, whereas the BMI chart estimates it would be 24.8% at my current weight!). Recent software updates have made it easier to use, I can control the device from my phone, so I don't have to fumble with the buttons on the Aim. A video appears before each muscle measured showing proper placement, so my measurements are consistent and accurate.

Got it a few days ago. Initial impression is that it varies too much from one reading to another. No problems really with sync, update or getting a reading. It misses sometimes but works the next try.Improvements would be:Have a light to confirm it's charging.Be more accurate, it can be anywhere from 1-3% different from one reading to the next. Same spot, same time.From one day to the next I lost 2% bodyfat? Impossible. Which do I trust or baseline off of?