I simply don’t trust my current scales (Salter). They were cheap at the supermarket last year, and while they claim to measure body fat, I don’t think the numbers make sense. The last 4 days, my weight has remained constant at 77.2Kg, and the body fat and water content numbers have varied between 18.7/55 and 22.4/51.8. I weigh myself at the same time every day (after going to the loo) and I don’t eat anything before I get on - I don’t see how the weight can be the same to the nearest tenth of a kg and the fat/water be so different.
I’d like to replace them with a scale that is believable, and ideally one that will upload these numbers somewhere. Absolute accuracy isn’t necessary, just consistent from one day to the next. I have a watch/band that syncs to Google Fit, so if it could sync to that I guess that would be most convenient. I’m happy to buy from Hong Kong if it’s cheap enough, but otherwise would prefer a UK retailer.
Any suggestions?
These variations are not so high that Another scale doesn’t have them either. I thinks it’s a normal grade of variation. These scales are not highly accurate and your body composition changes a bit because of what eat and how much. I wouldn’t buy another one. IMHO.
I’m with TE on this - these scales use the ability to conduct through your feet (or other parts of the body) in order to reach the metrics they purport to show. This conductivity changes due to a lot of variables and as such there is only so much accuracy they can give even if you try to be as consistent as possible about when you weigh yourself. The only metric I find consistent is weight.
I have the Garmin scales and the only thing that is good is that my weight is uploaded to their ecosystem and then synched to my devices, and after all that - the only really good thing that is useful is the ability to see weight trend over time.
These Garmin scales are probably on the upper price end of scales that can do this - I think there are some recommendations on alternatives on DC Rainmaker which may be worth exploring views on.
I thought the day to day variations was why the advice was to look at the long term trends?
I’m undecided whether I’m going to go for body fat scales, mainly due to cost and only being important if it’s something I’m going to address. However the Nokia Body+ Cardio that the guys have mentioned recently on the podcast are on Amazon UK, and Jonathon has suggested that the Garmin Smart Scales are tracking the Nokia Scales too.
If everything was variable from day to day, then that would make sense to me. But where the weight stays exactly the same and everything else moves around, one or the other has to be plain wrong. The error bars on a reading of 20 +/-2 are 10% - there’s more noise than signal!
If that’s just how these things work, then I’ll stick with what I’ve got (and my spreadsheet for recording it). I was hoping that there would be something a bit more repeatable out there!
I have the Nokia smart scales, and only look at general trends.
The body fat percentage tells me that I am 13%, but I 100% sure that it is under reading (I have big lean legs, but less lean up top, so maybe having an impact on the resistance readings)
The main benefit is the wifi data uploading, so just step on them as soon as I wake up and then look at it later.
Also as my wife uses them as well, it auto detects different users and uploads accordingly.
Check out the YUNMAI scales. I have a Yunmai Mini bought on Amazon relatively cheap. Syncs over Bluetooth to their own app and also can connect to GoogleFit, Fitbit and Samsung Health. I found the reading to be fairly consistent. They also have an “athlete” setting which seems to match body fat % to caliper tests I’ve done.
I spent way too long researching scales a while ago. Most of the expensive brands seemed fairly average, so i looked at Yunmai and Renpho.
I landed on Renpho, as there were reports online of the Yunmai Android app containing spyware and requiring a lot of permissions.
I’ve been happy with the Renpho so far. Haven’t compared them to a Tanita scale or DEXA scan though like on the podcast.
I have mine syncing through to Garmin… Renpho → Fitbit → My Fitness Pal → Garmin… A little convoluted, but seems to work consistently.
Duncan, I picked up the Nokia Body+ from Argos 2 weeks ago. Been doing the same as you, same routine every morning, and am impressed with its consistency. Fluctuations are within 10ths of a percent and I’m so far confident that it’s tracking well. It uses a Withings (who I believe own the IP despite it being Nokia branded) app that syncs immediately from the scale, and can feed in to Samsung health and MFP. I just checked the app and Google Fit is supported too.
Give me a shout if you want more info, screenshots etc!
Thanks for the plug on the Renpho scale. Amazon.ca has them on sale currently and they are much cheaper then the Nokia one (easier to sell with the wife). I have ordered one!
No probs… For me, the brand name scales seemed quite overpriced and had poor to lukewarm reviews anyway. Renpho reviews were good, and price was more than reasonable (think i paid around $40 AUD) for glass scales.
The Android app is also not too bad… You can even export all the metrics (weight, body fat %, etc) to CSV, so you’re not entirely trapped into their own app if you wish to analyse your data.
I use the Fitbit Aria, and its great for weight, but I have little confidence in the fat-measuring bit. Admittedly over time it does show fat coming down, but used on a daily basis it’s almost a random-number generator. That’s harsh, but it does show swings of fat that just don’t feel right to me, knowing the exercise and nutrition I do.
But, looking at data over a month, I do think the trend is reasonable.
All measuring devices have variation in them, if they are useful or not depends on what you are trying to do with the information. I have conducted Gage R&R studies on different measuring devices ( air decay, volume, scales etc).
I’m in the UK and I have the Tanita BC 543. I’ve only recently started to try and consistently track measurements each morning and similarly I was surprised at work I thought were unusual fluctuations in body fat whilst weight remained constant but was this shouldn’t be concerning and look more at longer term trends.
I understand it’s now not advisable to use athlete mode on these scales but seeing as that’s how I set it up I’ve left it in that mode accepting that the body fat readings are in no way accurate compared to something like a Dexa scan but I’ve no idea how you’d go about getting that done in the UK.
I found the Beurer scale in Argos for about £40. It is good, although the app has a lot to be desired. It can be temperamental.
Can it write to the Apple Health app?
It can if you give permission in settings.
There is a company called BodyScan - https://www.bodyscanuk.com - I have used them a few times but pretty expensive compared to the US.
I did a few tests between normal and athlete mode on my Nokia scales. When I went to athlete it added about 10% muscle and dropped from 12.5% body fat (which feels accurate) down to 5.5% (I wish!). I think it’s probably for more power athletes than endurance?
I’ve also used body scan in London and found them excellent, albeit expensive compared to the USA. I live in Scotland and there’s nowhere up here that will do a dexa without a doctors referral so I just dropped in to body scan whilst I was passing through London