Smart scales, worth?

heylance

Hey everyone,

So this morning my scale is acting funky, showing my weight ~ 30 lbs less than it actually is so I am in the market for a new one. I'm looking at smart scales that track weight, measures BMI and body fat %, etc... I'm wondering if anyone who has one actually finds this useful or worth the investment rather than buying a cheap scale that just measures weight.

DarinGettingHawtin2013

I'm interested in seeing the feedback because my scale is also wrong (great discovery at the doctor's office!). So, is the techno-scale a worthwhile gadget?

GrinnyMae

Home scales that measure body fat are not accurate. But I have a Fitbit Aria scale and I like that it syncs with my Fitbit app and MFP site. I also think the body fat measure is useful for tracking trends over time. Even if the % it spits out isn't completely accurate, I can still get a sense if my BF% is going down over time.

rsclause

+1 for the Aria Fit Bit scale. I can go back over the last two years and look at trends or my weight & BF on any given day. I find the BF accurate enough for me, it goes down when I lose and up when I gain. I started to see my abs when it got to 15%.

notthekaratekid

No, I recently purchased a scale that claims to measure bf %, water weight, and muscle mass and found out today it was roughly TEN percent off at my gym, using on of their more accurate "In body" scales which prints out body fat %, muscle, water, etc just like one of the at-home smart scales.

If you are wanting a more accurate read, then might I suggest going to your local gym or nutritional center .

trigden1991

All the scales that measure your bodyfat use BIA which is notoriously inaccurate and can be manipulated by a number of factors. In my opinion they are not worth it. A standard, good quality, well reviewed scale is all you need. I always go digital.

Vailara

I personally like my Omron body fat scales. I know they are not very accurate, but they do seem to be fairly consistent (no wild fluctuations, especially compared to the scales at the gym which were all over the place!) so I feel I can get some idea of progress. I have the type where you stand on them and also hold a handle out, because I felt that was covering more of my body than either the handheld or stand-on scales alone. Mine also supposedly estimate a visceral fat level, which was something I was really concerned about. To be honest, it also makes the whole thing a bit more fun and engaging, having those numbers to track and progress to measure!

melissa5142

I just got smart scale about a month ago. I do doubt the accuracy of the BF% reading, and use it more of a guideline to see trends over time than actual BF%. However, I do really like the smart scale because it links to an app on your phone and all data is stored in the app automatically. That makes it fun!

Aaron_K123

BMI is literally just your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared. Your height doesn't change so all you have to do is take the number the scale says and divide by your height in meters squared (which is a number that you only need to figure out once) and thats your BMI. You don't need to pay money for that as a "feature".

I'm 6' tall and 164 pounds which is 74.5 kilos. So my height in meters is 1.83, squared that is 3.35. 74.5/3.35 is 22.2 which would be my BMI.

So if I want to know my BMI for some reason I switch my scale to kilos (or do the conversion quickly by just dividing my weight in pounds by 2.2) and then divide by 3.35. Basically if you know your weight and you know your height you know your BMI, just takes a tiny bit of basic math.

CurlyCockney

My scales tell me me weight and bodyfat %, and displays a graph to show the trend (of weight). I don't actually pay much attention to this because it bluetooths it to all sorts of apps and graphs so I look there. It also tells me the room temperature, CO2 levels and today's weather forecast, and I take more notice of them. I like gadgety things that do more than one thing though. If you're just interested in weight, you won't need all those bells and whistles.

Have a look at a review site (or Amazon reviews).

ETA it measures my heart rate too.

hawkmancody

I just have one of those old counterweight scales like the doctors used to use. Accurate and does not require batteries

sgt1372

The cheap electronic scale that I bought at Costo almost 10 years ago works fine and is a acurate "most" of the time. Weigh myself daily each morning after going to the toilet and calc the 7 day moving ave to watch the trend. For BF%, I get a DXA scan or get weighed hydrostatically. Don't need anything else.

amusedmonkey

There is one benefit to bodyfat scales that I haven't seen anyone talk about. Of course the exact number may not be accurate, and it's true that trend can be useful, but what I find them most useful for is that if you weigh in every day your weight is going to fluctuate. Now with body fat scales you have two values instead one. You have your weight and your body fat percentage. Often when you are retaining water and gaining weight the body fat will show lower! It gives you that little assurance that everything is gonna be alright and you aren't going to gain all of your weight overnight like your brain is trying to tell you. The trick to this "water weight watch" as I call it is to weigh in wearing the same clothes every time (or none). Different clothes have different conductivity, muddling the numbers.

Ming1951

I too have the aria scale. I like that it syncs each time I step on it to my apps and mfp. Not sure how accurate they are but I'm only concerned that my weight continue downward.