How Future Samsung Galaxy Watches Might Accurately Track Stubborn Belly Fat

Visceral fat tends to accumulate deeper in the abdomen around vital organs, which is why it presents a much greater health risk compared to subcutaneous fat that sits just below the skin. Visceral fat is also the hardest to shed, while most people think it's just belly fat that refuses to go away.

Tracking it accurately is difficult without clinical approaches like MRI and CT scans, but Samsung has come up with a new method that could enable a future Galaxy Watch to help you track visceral fat a lot more accurately.

Galaxy Watches Already Have Most of the Required Hardware

Wareable has spotted a new Samsung patent titled "Method and system for estimation of abdominal fat." The patent describes an ultra-wideband or UWB radar being used to scan the abdomen for estimating subcutaneous fat.

This data would then be analyzed against Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) data as well as other basic metrics such as weight, height, age, and gender, to more accurately estimate total abdominal fat.

Once there's enough data to form a complete picture, the system would utilize it to distinguish the visceral fat from what sits just below the skin, to provide a more detailed analysis of the user's entire body composition.

While the patent itself doesn't detail what device this system could be introduced in, the Galaxy Watch would be a safe bet. The wearable already has BIA sensors that can measure and track body fat percentage, fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, BMI, BMR, and other metrics.

Samsung would only need to get a UWB radar in there and combine all of those functionalities to make the Galaxy Watch one of the most capable body fat tracking wearables on the market. UWB hardware won't be too difficult to integrate into the smartwatch, as Samsung already makes small smart tags that support UWB.

What is visceral fat and why is it dangerous?

Visceral fat accumulates deep inside the abdomen around vital organs like the liver, pancreas, and intestines. Unlike subcutaneous fat located directly beneath the skin, high levels of visceral fat significantly increase the risk of serious health issues, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

How does UWB radar help in fat estimation?

Ultra-wideband (UWB) radar technology can penetrate layers to scan the abdominal area. In Samsung's proposed patent, this technology is utilized to scan the abdomen and accurately measure subcutaneous fat layers as part of a broader body composition assessment.

Will current smartwatches receive this feature via an update?

No, because this advanced tracking method relies on incorporating specialized hardware—specifically a UWB radar sensor—into the device, it will likely require upcoming hardware generations of the Galaxy Watch line.

🔎 Ultimately, Samsung's innovative approach to incorporating UWB radar technology into wearable devices marks a promising step forward in consumer health tech. By bridging the gap between everyday fitness tracking and clinical-grade body composition insights, future smartwatches could empower users to monitor hard-to-reach health metrics like visceral fat right from their wrists.