fitbit aria scale kind of sucks - am I wrong?

Options
nikilis
nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
ok so I got my scale yesterday. looks great. works fine for me.

BUT

say my friend or my mom just wants to get her weight and body fat once, or doesnt want to sign up to FITBIT.COM, they cant get the bodyfat.

AM I WRONG?

if not that is TOTALLY ridiculous. its a REALLY REALLY expensive scale and it has features blocked for anyone who doesnt sign up to the site.

IF THATS TRUE, HONESTLY, IM SENDING IT BACK CAUSE THAT TOTALLY SUCKS.

also I think the scale cal only hold one wifi name / pass at a time, so moving between places (i.e my beach house and home) is also a bit of a fail.

thoughts?

Replies

  • nikilis
    nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
    Options
    251216485434607816_7TMAYtRM_c.jpg
  • rosieg1979
    rosieg1979 Posts: 99 Member
    Options
    You are wrong. Scales need to know height to calculate body fat. All body fat scales are the same and can only calculate weight for a "guest"
  • rosieg1979
    rosieg1979 Posts: 99 Member
    Options
    Plus your scale will store 16 measurements and then upload them all when it gets back to its home WiFi.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    Options
    My difficulty has been finding a very flat surface for them in the house. I get huge variations in weight. Seems my floors are all wonky. Lol. X
  • rosieg1979
    rosieg1979 Posts: 99 Member
    Options
    They need a really solid surface, so concrete/tiles as opposed to carpet / laminate
  • rachaelfisher1
    rachaelfisher1 Posts: 69
    Options
    ok so I got my scale yesterday. looks great. works fine for me.

    BUT

    say my friend or my mom just wants to get her weight and body fat once, or doesnt want to sign up to FITBIT.COM, they cant get the bodyfat.

    AM I WRONG?

    if not that is TOTALLY ridiculous. its a REALLY REALLY expensive scale and it has features blocked for anyone who doesnt sign up to the site.

    IF THATS TRUE, HONESTLY, IM SENDING IT BACK CAUSE THAT TOTALLY SUCKS.

    also I think the scale cal only hold one wifi name / pass at a time, so moving between places (i.e my beach house and home) is also a bit of a fail.

    thoughts?

    I just purchased one - it's great.
    You're being too picky. If you knew anything about BF %, scales require height for a measurement. If you are looking for an accurate BF % get a DEXA scan. As for the wifi situation, not too sure how that works - could be possible to link it to different places but you'll need to test it.
  • runfreddyrun
    runfreddyrun Posts: 137 Member
    Options
    here's what i hate about it:

    1) the body fat is way off, which is expected in a scale. and i think because my MF in general is high the scale isn't as accurate with that. i weigh myself every day but i only record when my weight goes down. so that's alot of deleting things in MFP

    2) i don't have a fitbit but there is no way to link one and not the other. so every day it sends over blank data for steps, sleep and whatever else

    3) even though i don't have the fitbit, it was doing some weird exercise adjustment where the days i exercised it would subtract (or maybe add?) a few hundred calories which would jack everything up. i get it doing this with the fitbit, but since i only have the scale it shouldn't be making adjustments.

    i'm sending it back. it's a cool scale but not worth the high price for the way it syncs with MFP.
  • nikilis
    nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
    Options
    ok so I got my scale yesterday. looks great. works fine for me.

    BUT

    say my friend or my mom just wants to get her weight and body fat once, or doesnt want to sign up to FITBIT.COM, they cant get the bodyfat.

    AM I WRONG?

    if not that is TOTALLY ridiculous. its a REALLY REALLY expensive scale and it has features blocked for anyone who doesnt sign up to the site.

    IF THATS TRUE, HONESTLY, IM SENDING IT BACK CAUSE THAT TOTALLY SUCKS.

    also I think the scale cal only hold one wifi name / pass at a time, so moving between places (i.e my beach house and home) is also a bit of a fail.

    thoughts?

    I just purchased one - it's great.
    You're being too picky. If you knew anything about BF %, scales require height for a measurement. If you are looking for an accurate BF % get a DEXA scan. As for the wifi situation, not too sure how that works - could be possible to link it to different places but you'll need to test it.

    very easily they could have made it possible for someone who is not going to want a fitbit account to get their BF%. it could be put into my fitbit account under an ??? to be named and have the height added, or added a simple foot tap option to put in the height.

    I did test the scale in different locations. it doesn't work. fail.

    I do know about body fat, if you knew anything about technology, you would see that they have applied draconian and restrictive methods to a scale that out prices its competitors by 2 to 1. its a premium product with built in restrictions and limited connectivity - thats not acceptable at that price. fitbit has a tendency of doing things like this that are dishonest. they make it look like the fitbit one syncs directly to the iphone but actually thats untrue.

    Clearly I know something about bodyfat, which is why I'm tracking that mainly instead of weight. there's no such thing as too picky when you buy pretty much the most expensive consumer marketed scale. it should work and be easy. its that simple.
  • rachaelfisher1
    rachaelfisher1 Posts: 69
    Options
    [/quote]
    very easily they could have made it possible for someone who is not going to want a fitbit account to get their BF%. it could be put into my fitbit account under an ??? to be named and have the height added, or added a simple foot tap option to put in the height.

    I did test the scale in different locations. it doesn't work. fail.

    I do know about body fat, if you knew anything about technology, you would see that they have applied draconian and restrictive methods to a scale that out prices its competitors by 2 to 1. its a premium product with built in restrictions and limited connectivity - thats not acceptable at that price. fitbit has a tendency of doing things like this that are dishonest. they make it look like the fitbit one syncs directly to the iphone but actually thats untrue.

    Clearly I know something about bodyfat, which is why I'm tracking that mainly instead of weight. there's no such thing as too picky when you buy pretty much the most expensive consumer marketed scale. it should work and be easy. its that simple.
    [/quote]

    If you want 100% accuracy on BF% you should get a DEXA scan. I understand where you're coming from - but the way I see it is that you're the one who purchased the product for yourself, and it allows you and other household members to record their BF% and weight which is what it was designed to do. I guess they obviously didn't look into the guest side of things, for one reason or another.

    As for connectivity, if you will be using the scale on a regular basis in different locations I guess that is a big negative for you.. i'm sure what other scales offer that accessability.

    And for the syncing, my fitbit one auto syncs to my iphone whenever it is within bluetooth range. Same with my home laptop.

    I wasn't having a dig btw.
  • auzziecawth66
    auzziecawth66 Posts: 479 Member
    Options
    I personally thought it was crazy to charge that much for something that no matter what at this point (due to the technology that they use) will have limited accuracy. That being said I have a body fat scale that I use at home and take all results with a grain of salt (literally since salt intake affects results lol)
    I would love to get one of those bodpod scans they are suppose to be really accurate.
  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
    Options
    Those bodyfat scales are unreliable and a complete waste of money.
  • troy0
    troy0 Posts: 37 Member
    Options
    You are wrong. Scales need to know height to calculate body fat. All body fat scales are the same and can only calculate weight for a "guest"

    Sorry but you are wrong. Several bodyfat scales can have profiles for more than one user with height data etc and even automatically detect which user is standing on them. Even entry level Tanita bodyfat scales have this feature.

    To the OP, maybe you have the wrong iPhone, the fitbit one does indeed sync directly with the iPhone but you need the 4S or above for this to work due to the bluetooth stack being upgraded from that model forwards.
  • nikilis
    nikilis Posts: 2,305 Member
    Options
    And for the syncing, my fitbit one auto syncs to my iphone whenever it is within bluetooth range. Same with my home laptop.

    nooooo... really? what iphone do you have?
  • rachaelfisher1
    rachaelfisher1 Posts: 69
    Options
    And for the syncing, my fitbit one auto syncs to my iphone whenever it is within bluetooth range. Same with my home laptop.

    nooooo... really? what iphone do you have?

    Iphone 5 - as the person said above, i think you need 4S or above?
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    Options
    You are wrong. Scales need to know height to calculate body fat. All body fat scales are the same and can only calculate weight for a "guest"

    Sorry but you are wrong. Several bodyfat scales can have profiles for more than one user with height data etc and even automatically detect which user is standing on them. Even entry level Tanita bodyfat scales have this feature.

    To the OP, maybe you have the wrong iPhone, the fitbit one does indeed sync directly with the iPhone but you need the 4S or above for this to work due to the bluetooth stack being upgraded from that model forwards.

    I have the scales and it does automatically detect which user is on them but they have to already be on the account too. So I can get on then next minute my husband and it knows when it's me or when it's him and even says our names.
  • AgentSanchez
    AgentSanchez Posts: 2
    Options
    I actually created an account because, frankly, the way that you all are looking at the Aria is off.

    First, The Aria is NOT designed to be the most fully-featured standalone body composition scale. It's designed to be fully featured with the addition of the FitBit cloud site. It's designed to automatically know who is using the unit and then automagically upload the data, where it is instantly available for analysis/trending/graphing/etc... Simply put, all you do is step on and all your info is logged without your intervention. That is the ENTIRE POINT of this unit. Of course it's not going to stack up to other standalone units if you're not using fitbit.com, but it destroys them in terms of convenience and usability if you are. If you aren't going to use the fitbit cloud service (free), then you purchased the wrong analyzer.

    Second, these units will NEVER be extremely accurate simply because there are too many variables at play. That being said, I feel that if I maintain consistent habits and weight myself at consistent times, it should give a good trend line and allow you to assess what is working and what is not. As an example, I've lost about 4 lbs in the last month which I found concerning because I should have lost at least twice that. In looking at fitbit.com data, however, I can see that my lean body mass is being reported as somewhere between 5 ad 8 lbs heavier in that time. It's showing approx 10 lbs of fat loss - I'm not saying that I've lost exactly 10 lbs of fat but I think the key is this... I was worried that my diet was stalling completely, but the Aria gave me enough data to reasonably conclude that my lean body mass is increasing while fat content is decreasing, meaning it's working.

    If you're trying to get more than that out of these devices then you're probably going to be disappointed... If seeing a 5% drop in body fat in a month is not completely accurate, that doesn't mean it isn't a good indicator and it sure as hell is motivating.

Categories