This paper investigates the effect of absorption loss by a human body to the received signal strength with respect to on-body transmitting antenna positions in on-to-off wireless body area networks. This investigation is based on measurement results obtained from experiments performed on human bodies (male and female) using planar inverted-F antennas in an anechoic chamber. The total absorption loss by the human body is also presented through the SEMCAD-X simulations. Our investigation showed that the received signal strength becomes lower when the transmitting antenna is mounted at a specific position where more absorption loss is experienced. The statistical analyses of on-to-off body channel characteristics based on the measurement results are presented. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ⓒ