If you’re itching to get to our recommendations for the best smart scales on the market then simply click below. If not, read on for our buyer’s guide…..
In an ideal world we would all be perfectly in tune with our bodies, living each moment as it occurs and our weight would not be something we need to monitor or even think about. Cast your mind back to when you were a kid playing with a ball outside your house for example – you’d meet up with friends, constantly on the move and not worry about ‘calories consumed’ or ‘energy burnt’. Idyllic times and so simple!
As you get older though, that natural way of existing can lead to your downfall because it is extremely tempting to carry on living as a child would (i.e. eating when you want and relying on youthful exuberance to burn it off) even when nature is telling you to change your habits.
It’s a similar problem when it comes to weight loss itself and the monitoring of it. The simple option is to just lower your calorie intake and start exercising and then automatically notice the benefits when you look in the mirror after a few months or try on that tight pair of jeans again. However, in reality it is often not that easy, and you may find that you need extra motivation to get through a weight loss plateau.
We therefore tend to recommend using weighing scales to monitor your progress in a more scientific manner than the proverbial ‘finger in the air’. Chances are you have a pair of scales in the house already and these are likely to be perfectly adequate for logging your weight – for example, try downloading our printable progress chart to help with this.
Smart Scales – What Are They?
Another excellent option are modern electronic scales which include the ability to measure weight, body mass index (BMI) or even directly the amount of body fat you have on board. The best smart scales enable this information to be collated electronically and then uploaded automatically to your smartphone or the cloud for logging, tabulating and plotting out in an easy to read graph.
This technology is really useful because it takes away any excuse you have for not taking the measurement – you literally just have to step on to the scales for 5 seconds in most cases, and they do the rest. No piece of paper or calculator to work out BMI.
How do Smart Scales Measure Body Fat?
The ability to directly measure body fat (rather than simply estimate it from BMI) can be a very useful option. The best smart scales measure body fat using Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis or BIA.
BIA involves sending a very small electrical signal through your body and detecting the amount of resistance offered by different tissues at different locations. Body fat offers significantly more resistance to electricity than muscle or water and consequently impedes the signal more – this delays the return of the signal back to the scales and so an estimate of how much fat is present can be made. Clever eh?
Some caution should be taken with the absolute numbers which the body fat scales give out. By this, I mean that the absolute accuracy may not be as high as the professional machines used at some high end gyms and hospitals. However, as a relative day-to-day measurement of your weight loss journey, it will be accurate with respect to itself, and could prove invaluable in tabulating your progress.
Body Fat Smart Scales: Our Recommendations
At BDA WeightWise we often get asked for our opinion on the best smart scales available on the UK market. It’s a tricky one to answer categorically because there are always new options coming out with more and improved functionality. However, in general we can honestly say that some of the brands consistently punch above their price points, and these are the options we tend to recommend.
In the next section we highlight the best smart scales currently available for home use.
Insmart Body Fat Bluetooth Scales
The InSmart Body Fat Scales are a fantastic value for money option and worth considering for your body analysis.
First up – the exterior design – these wouldn’t look out of place in one of the world’s top spas! A simply gorgeous tempered glass top surface, with a highly stable platform to stand on. The Insmart scales contain four sensors (2 per foot) for the bio-impedance analysis and also a very attractive main colour display which shows all the relevant information clearly and well laid out.
The built-in monitoring allows your heart rate to be measured as well as your balancing ability, and then there are a full suite of weight-based readings such as weight itself, BMI, fat levels (subcutaneous and visceral) as well as muscle mass, water levels and biological age.
Smartphone App
The Insmart also hooks up to a smartphone app called “Fitdays” via Bluetooth and this allows all the pertinent data from your weight loss programme to be stored and then plotted in a variety of useful ways. In particular, we like the overall body view diagram which gives a snapshot of your current body fat and weight situation. Keeping it in mind like this enables you to remain committed to achieving your goals – just don’t get too obsessed!
In conclusion, we have been impressed with the Insmart Body Fat Bluetooth Scales which provide excellent functionality for a very reasonable price. Yes there are more expensive options, but we don’t think you necessarily have to fork out more. Our main quibble with the Insmart is that they operate on standard batteries rather than containing a rechargeable battery. However, the batteries last a long time before requiring changing (>6 months) and so this is not the end of the world.
The Insmart Body Fat Bluetooth Smart Scales are a great value set of scales for commencing and maintaining your weight streamlining programme. Buy with confidence.
FitTrack Dara Smart Scales
The FDA are the USA Federal food standards agency and they have fairly stringent procedures on which companies and products get granted their approval. The FitTrack Dara Smart Scales are an FDA-approved set of smart body fat scales and combine a minimalist design with one of the widest ranges of diagnostic data measurements available on the market.
The Dara scales incorporate 17 different vital body health metrics which are all derived from the bioelectric impedance analysis. These include the usual weight measurement and BMI as well as muscle mass, hydration and the all-important fat diagnostics. One thing we particular like about the FitTrack Dara is that it has been designed with a wide range of body types in mind- if you are an active individual or muscular then the FitTrack algorithms can adjust accordingly – other scales do not have this ability, and so the flexibility is welcome.
There are a couple of minor niggles. The scales have a lovely clean design, but the on board display only shows your weight (either in kg or stones/pounds) and it does tend to not show enough decimal places for the latter, rounding up to the nearest pound. We would prefer a bit more information to be shown on the scale display rather than firing up the app.
FitTrack App
Talking of the FitTrack app, this is a pretty good example of the genre and shows the key information well. However, some of our readers have reported problems when there are multiple profiles and phones in use in your house – getting your particular phone to sync can take a while and is a bit of an art. If you are the sole user then this may not be an issue for you.
In summary, the FitTrack Dara smart scales offer a clean design with a good app but are towards the upper end of the price band. Are they worth the expenditure? Well the accuracy of the weight measurements is excellent, but you need to decide if the simple display is what you require and whether phone sync problems could get on your wick. We think there are better options out there, but cannot deny that the FDA recommendation offers peace of mind.
We have been impressed with the accuracy of the FitTrack Dara Smart Scales when we have compared with professional ‘Gold-Standard’ Boditrax machines. However niggles with phone syncing drop the rating down slightly. We love the settings for different body types which the FitTrack offers.
Withings Body+ Smart Scales
Withings are well known in the health industry for providing a decent suite of smart fitness accessories and gear.
Their Body+ Smart Scales are an excellent example of how to couple stunning design with features you can actually use and a smart phone app which shows progress in a clean and uncluttered way.
One of the main reasons that Smart Scales can be inaccurate is how you position yourself on the scales. Small differences from day to day can sometimes cause inconsistencies in measurements. Withings have therefore patented a technique of ‘position control’ which tells you precisely if you’re standing in the correct position on the scales or not. This is extremely useful.
The display on the Body+ scales is great – although it is not colour, it provides a useful ‘at-a-glance’ visual illustration of your progress for weight, fat composition, muscle and water. We really liked this as well as the fact that you can track stats for up to 8 users on the same scales. Perfect for a family with individual weight loss goals.
The free ‘Health Mate’ smartphone app is one of the best we’ve seen and we found that it synced well against each profile. This can be done via Bluetooth or via Wi-Fi to the cloud – most other scales just use Bluetooth which can be temperamental. We also like that the scales can interact with the common weight loss tracking app MyFitnessPal. Useful collaboration there.
In summary, the Withings Body+ Smart Scales are the best on the market at the moment as an overall package. We found them to be reliable and the patented position control a really useful feature to get the all-important consistent measurements from day to day.
We feel the Withings Body+ Smart Scales are the best option to buy for a consistent weight loss monitoring programme. The Health Mate app worked well under our tests and we loved the look of the scales and the overall design. Having multiple profiles to use was also very good for family engagement.
Little Balance USB Bamboo Smart Scales
From a practicality point of view, we wholeheartedly recommend these Little Balance Body Fat Scales. The main reason for this is the fact that they are the only smart scales we’ve found which incorporate USB charging. You can charge them up in 3 hours using a standard USB-A socket on a laptop or phone charger and then they will give around 6 months of use before requiring recharging. Excellent job Little Balance!
Measuring 30cm x 30cm with nice curved edges, the Little Balance scales are quite eye catching due to the use of environmentally friendly bamboo. This gives them a tactile feel when you are standing on them and puts you in mind of saunas and other relaxation treatments – definitely a nice way to start or end your day, and they are not a chore to use.
The display is extremely basic though, just showing your weight on a monochrome LCD screen. you will need to use the accompanying Fitdays smartphone app to get the full body composition analysis results.
The Little Balance scales offer a total of thirteen indicators with BMI, body fat percentage, muscle mass and bone mass amongst them. There is also a special mode for ‘athletic body types’ which adjusts the measurements if you’ve got a very fit or muscle-bound body shape.
We found that the Little Balance scales worked very well as a set of family scales, with up to ten different user profiles and automatic recognition of each person – very clever!
The Little Balance smart scales are up there with our favourite scales on the market. They work very well for both weight-loss dieters and athletic body shapes, and the 10 different user profiles were very useful, with automatic recognition. The scales are easily recharged and you don’t have to worry about batteries – bonus! They just lose a point for the low quality on-board display, but we highly recommend them if this isn’t an issue for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Most Accurate Scale for Body Fat?
For an absolutely accurate measurement of your body fat composition, you should not rely on home smart scales. A DEXA X-Ray scan can be arranged by your local GP and is the most accurate measurement you can obtain. The DEXA uses a small ingestation of ionizing radiation which can then be picked up by the diagnostic machine in order to accurately determine where your fat is located and the composition of your body. It also gives a good overview of your bones and muscle and can be used to diagnose osteoporosis.
What is the best body composition scale?
At BDA Weightwise we have been impressed with the Boditrax system for body composition analysis using biometric impedance analysis. For home use, the Withings Body+ smart scales offer good agreement with this and is our main recommendation.
