If you’re looking to improve your health and fitness, there is a plethora of technology on the market to help make the journey a bit easier. The Withings Body Smart is a scale that helps track not only your weight, but key metrics like BMI and heart rate. It’s inexpensive and easy to use, while the companion app helps make better sense of all the tracked information.
Withings Body Smart
The Withings Body Smart is a great way to monitor your weight and much more. As a smart scale, all the information is synced to your Android or iOS smartphone. It can track weight, BMI, heart rate, body composition, and basal metabolic rate. The scale supports users up to 440 pounds (200kg) and can be used by up to eight members of a family. There are several different modes to customize the scale, including Eyes Closed mode which won’t show your current weight on the screen but will still transfer the data to the app.
What Is the Withings Body Smart?
But like other devices in the home, the scale has received a smart and modern update. Withings pioneered the smart scale, and the Body Smart provides an inexpensive option to harness health technology. Tracking your weight is just one part of the equation.
Step on the scale without socks, and it can also track helpful familiar metrics such as heart rate and BMI. But it will also take a closer look at your health by taking other measurements, including your body composition between muscle, fat, and bone, along with a visceral fat index. It also tracks basal metabolic rate, which shows how many calories your body burns while at rest.
Visceral fat estimates the fat stored around your organs. A higher number can indicate a higher risk of some chronic conditions. I found body composition especially useful because you may see how much of your body is muscle or fat.
The scale itself is available in black or white and looks great. Measuring around 12 inches (32cm) square, it’s designed to be ultra slim and be placed almost anywhere. A tempered glass platform is strong, sturdy, and large, designed to withstand users up to 440 pounds (200kg). The bottom of the smart scale is covered with a strong, paint-free plastic.
Near the top of the scale is a 2.8-inch color screen. While I was worried the screen might be difficult to see, especially without my glasses in the bathroom, I could read everything displayed, even in the brightest light. The whole thing is powered by four AAA batteries that provide an average of up to 15 months of use before needing to be switched out.
While the scale is made for hard surfaces like a bathroom, Withings also includes carpet feet if needed.
Getting the smart scale setup just takes a few minutes. You’ll need to download the companion Withings Health Mate app foriOSorAndroid. That’s where the health data collected by the scale will be synced too, either by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
After entering a little bit of information about yourself, you can get started. As a huge plus, the app syncs with Apple Health and Google Health. Since most of my information was already in Apple Health, it transferred to the Withings app without effort.
The scale is also very accurate. I had two old scales that I know are accurate, and the Body Smart recorded my weight within 0.1 pounds of those.
Eyes Closed Mode Just Makes Sense
The Body Smart is more than just a single-person device. Up to eight members of your family can be recognized by the scale. After a new person uses the scale, you’ll head to the app to enter a little more information about them, then their data can be tracked, too. Both my daughter and wife enjoyed being able to use and customize the scale to their liking.
A wide variety of different modes are also a highlight of the smart scale. The Athlete Mode adjusts the measurement algorithms to better work with your body composition. In Pregnancy Mode, you’re able to opt-in to track your progress throughout the pregnancy and see tips in the app. Once they’re born, Baby Mode allows you to get their weight by just standing on the scale and holding them.
But by far my favorite option was Eyes Closed Mode. It helps mitigate an age-old problem while trying to get fit—seeing the numbers on the scale. In this mode, when you step on the scale, instead of your weight, you’ll see a motivational screen and other information like the weather forecast and air quality index. All the information is still recorded in the app to view later.
That has been the biggest help and motivator for me while using the Body Smart. Losing weight is something I know I need to do after several health setbacks that included major surgery and a complicated recovery process. All of my doctors said that losing weight would help my health in the long run, especially with my sedentary lifestyle.
I’ve taken the first steps of watching what I eat and exercising much more, but it’s great to be able to track my weight daily without the fear of actually seeing those results each time.When I’m ready to see my progress, I can open up the app. It sometimes hasn’t been great, but it’s very nice to do that on my own terms.
The app is another highlight of the ecosystem. I’ve always used Apple Health to record and view health information, but the Withings app is just as well-designed and easy to use. In the Home tab, you can see all the latest measurements made by the scale and imported in from Apple Health.
If you wear an Apple Watch, you’re able to see workouts and other information. And the app is designed to focus on trends instead of just the hard data—which anyone who is trying to lose weight knows can be difficult to manage. My weight data is still there, but it’s more motivating to see trends for the week, month, quarter, and year to better understand how I have improved.
Another nice feature of the app is that it includes some short articles to help you better understand the smart scale and various fitness topics like why it’s essential to be active.
Unfortunately, to make the most of the app you will need yet another subscription. For $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, you can unlock the Withings+ tier. The major feature there is the Health Improvement Score, which shows your overall health.
The subscription also gives access to more health-related content like workout videos and recipes, but it’s always disappointing to see a subscription for added features of a hardware product. If the extra tier content were included with the Body Smart purchase, it would make it an even more well-rounded ecosystem.
Withings Body Smart: Helping You on a Fitness Journey
Let’s face it: improving your health and fitness isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work and commitment. The Withings Body Smart can’t force you to do the tough work, but what it does is truly helpful. You can see data like weight and much more, including BMI and heart rate.
And with the Eyes Closed Mode, you can lessen your anxiety of stepping on the scale. No matter how you customize it, the smart scale can help show you that all your work is paying off. And that makes it worth every penny.
