Use This Health Scale to Get Ready for Summer

With the Winter months over and Spring in the air, now is a good time to get out of your cocoon (home) and focus on eating well and getting in some exercise before Summer begins.

I believe a good way to watch your weight is by weighing yourself daily…or at least 3-4 times a week.  It’s the best way to keep track of where your weight is trending and a visual reminder that you need to either cut back a little or keep doing what you’re doing.

I have found a scale that I really like and believe it or not, I actually look forward to using it nearly every day.  It’s the Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale and this health scale does so much more than just weigh you.  It’s truly a remarkable health scale and a great tool in helping me analyze trends as well as prepare for the day.

Withings Smart Body Analyzer Health Scale

The Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale is not your average scale, as you can tell by its name.  This scale measures your weight, BMI, body fat composition, and heart rate and gives you all this info. while you’re standing on scale!  How’s that for a scale?  But wait, there’s more!  

This health scale is so smart that it even evaluates the environment around it and gives your a ranking of your indoor air quality.  Why?  Because often times the air quality inside our home is much worse than the air outside.  The Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale monitoring indicates when it is a good idea to open up some windows to air out your room.

Pretty cool, huh?  The Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale makes tracking your statistics…and those of your other family members easy by automatically transferring the data to your user profiles set up in the free Withings Health Mate app.  The app makes it easy to see trends in your weight with a chart of your high’s and lows.

We Love These Features

Body Weight

• Measure your weight to the tenth of a pound.  For example, it might say 124.6 lbs.  This alone is motivating.  In traditional scales, you can’t see how close you are to the next pound.  With the Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale, you might not see that you’ve lost a pound, but even a tenth of a pound lost is in the right direction!
• Withings assures the most accurate reading within a range of 0.2 lbs.  Their Position Control and gravity compensation features help you stand on the scale in the right place for the best accuracy.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

• To make this measurement more accurate, you can adjust the settings in the Withings Health Mate app for the most accurate body type.  For example, if you’re very athletic, in settings under your profile you would select the Athlete setting so your fat mass would be calculated differently.  For example, according to the Walmart Diet & Exercise Wellness Center, for an athlete, weight gain might be due to muscle, not fat and should be calculated differently.

The article from Diet & Exercise Center goes on to say that Body Mass Index is a measure used by health professionals to estimate health risks associated with being overweight or even underweight.

What is BMI?  

BMI =  (Weight in pounds/Height in inches squared) x 703

I tried this calculation and it was the same that my Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale told me.  A healthy BMI is between 18.5 – 24.9.  Anything below is considered underweight and anything above is considered overweight to obese.  If you tend to carry your weight around your waist – resembling more of a apple type body, your chances of heart disease are greater.  Pear shaped bodies are at less of a risk.  For a quicker calculation, check this BMI calculator.

Heart Rate

• Just by stepping on the scale and waiting a little bit, the Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale can measure your heart rate by taking your pulse through your feet!  Your heart rate is a good indicator of your hearth strength and the measurement is automatically sent to the Withings Health Mate app for tracking.  This is such a handy feature.

 I think of my in-laws who need to measure their pulse throughout the week, this would save a lot of time.  You need to wait a little longer on the scale for the heart rate to be taken, but it’s worth to wait to get a good picture through time of your heart health.

Air Quality 

• The air is continuously monitored for quality.  It measures what you can’t see.  It will give you a CO2-level graph with important thresholds through the app, alerting you when it’s time to open the windows to let fresh air in.
• You can even check the CO2 levels by tapping the silver button in the middle of the scale…without needing to weigh yourself.

What to Wear?

•  The scale even tells you what to wear!  OK, not really, but every time you step on the scale, it alerts you of the daily weather for your city – it gives you the highs and lows and even gives a graphic picture of the sun or rain, dependent upon the conditions.

I LOVE this feature, in fact, it encourages me to weigh myself almost daily so I know whether it’s a shorts day or sweater day.  Believe it or not, in Southern California, our temperatures can definitely fluctuate from day-to-day.  Sure, I can check the weather on my phone or tablet, but my devices are rarely in my dressing room.

Weigh the Family!

With the Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale, up to 8 profiles can be tracked.  After you enter the weight, height, and birth date, the scale will identify each time who is stepping on the scale.  In fact, it even shows your name on the screen after determining your weight.  

If two members of the family have similar weights, two names appear on the screen, one on the left and one on the right.  Simply shift your weight to the side with your name and it will log the weight under the right profile.

The Withings Health Mate App

The Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale receives information from your scale via WiFi but if your scale is not in a WiFi area, you can also sync your data to your nearby device via Bluetooth and the Withings Health Mate app (Apple/Android).  I truly believe that weighing yourself frequently helps you curb your weight.  

People who don’t weigh themselves regularly, because they find it depressing or otherwise, could be doing themselves a disservice.  By they time they weigh themselves, they have gained 5-10 lbs. and knowing how hard it it is to lose weight, this could cause a lack of motivation.

Keeping track of my weight keeps me accountable.  When I gain a pound or two, I can look back at my history in the app and see the time periods when I tend to gain weight (like Easter!  Love those Cadbury eggs!) and lose it.  This knowledge gives me more control over what seems like a roller coaster in the world of weight control.

Pros:

• Measures weight, fat mass, BMI, heart rate, and indoor air quality
• Gives you a report of the forecasted weather so you know what to wear for the day
• Automatically sends data to your Withings Health Mate app via WiFi or Bluetooth
• Connects with your Withings Pulse O2, Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor for a fuller health picture in the app
• The Withings Health Mate App tracks your stat history for you and up to 7 other family members
• The app helps you identify trends so you can cut back before you gain too much weight
• Checks the indoor air quality of the room so you know when you need to air it out
• You can connect the app with Myfitnesspal to log your food intake and further empower healthy eating intake

Cons:

• It’s pricier than a normal bathroom scale

The Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale is available through Walmart.com for $165.41 with free shipping.

A Mom’s Perspective

I absolutely love my Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale.  It helps keep me accountable day-to-day and I believe it’s a powerful ally in maintaining my weight.  A study reported in USA Today concurs that daily weigh-ins help people to maintain their weight.  

A big dinner can be upsetting to see its effects the next day on the scale, but you’re more likely to cut back when you visually see the weight gain.  Near daily weigh-ins on my Withings Smart Body Analyzer health scale, morning protein shakes, and drinking green tea are three essential tools in my artillery to maintain my weight.

Tell us what you think, is  or would daily weighing beneficial for you?