Visceral fat determining device

Abstract

A visceral fat determining device is disclosed which can be used easily at home for example and can obtain information on visceral fat. The visceral fat determining device comprises: input means for inputting personal data that represents vital characteristics of the patient; a data processing unit capable of performing various calculations; and a display device capable of displaying the personal data and results of the calculations. Upon inputting of a waist size which is a girth of trunk of the patient, and a hip size which is a girth of buttocks of the patient, quantitative information on abdominal visceral fat of the patient is given through a calculation based on WHR which is a ratio of the waist size to the hip size (waist size / hip size).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 018,874, filed Feb. 26, 2002, entitled VISCERAL FAT DETERMINING DEVICE, which is a national phase application based on PCT International Application No. PCT / JP01 / 03213 and in turn claims priority to Japanese Pat. App. Ser. No. 2000-116381, filed Apr. 18, 2000. The entire disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 018,874 is herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates to a visceral fat determining device capable of obtaining information on visceral fat, which is part of internal body fat of a human body, through a simple operation. BACKGROUND ART [0003] Attention has been paid to human internal body fat in view of health maintenance. Specifically, increase in the internal body fat promotes adult diseases for example, and therefore monitoring the internal body fat can lead to prevention of these diseas...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a visceral fat determining device that can calculate the amount of abdominal visceral fat based on the ratio of the abdominal girth to the gluteal girth (WHR) of a patient. This device can provide information on the health of the patient by measuring the amount of visceral fat in the abdomen. It can also measure the body fat ratio of the patient and display it on a screen. The device is easy to use and can help prevent adult diseases by monitoring the abdominal visceral fat. Additionally, the device can calculate the estimated value of the abdominal visceral fat cross sectional area based on the inputted personal data and a statistical processing of actual measurement values. This estimated value can be used to better understand the health of the patient.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, even if BMI or the body fat ratio gives a value which does not indicate any health problems, it is not necessarily possible to determine if there is any health problem in relation with the visceral fat.

However, such a diagnosis using CT scanning or the like is only possible with a large scale apparatus installed at a major hospital, and the results can be obtained only after a certain length of time necessary for measurement and data analysis.

Therefore, the method is not available as a handy means for obtaining visceral fat information at home for example.

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