Withings WiFi Body Scale Review

February 27th, 2011 kwills 3 comments

Withings WiFi Body Scale Review by Kelly Williams

If you are bored with the old-fashioned bathroom scale, the Withings WiFi Scale offers the ideal solution. Not only will this new scale accurately tell you your weight, but also it provides a wide variety of additional functionality. The Withings WiFi Body Scale has a variety of advantages over a traditional scale, as it is not only a digital wireless monitor for body fat, but it also has WiFi capability. In this Withings scale review, I will discuss my experiences with this innovative product.

You may already be wondering why a scale needs WiFi. However, as it turns out, the features that WiFi provides a scale are rather useful. The scale can upload and store your vital statistics online through the power of the Withing’s WiFi connection. You can also upload and access this information on your iPhone. This means that you can access this information anytime you need it. Your weight, BMI and body fat data are all easily accessible online through the Withings WiFi website.

You can get it here from Amazon for the cheapest price here.

The Withings WiFi Body Scale is Stylish

I was happy to find that in addition to its advanced technological capabilities, the Withings WiFi Scale also has a sleek and stylish design. It comes in your choice of white or black and fits into décor of most bathrooms. I chose the white colored scale and felt that visually it looked like it could fit right into Apple’s product line. This is definitely the most sophisticated looking scale I have ever owned.

One important thing that you need to know is that you do need 4 AA batteries to operate the scale. However, it seems like the battery life is pretty decent. I have been using my scale for 2 weeks now, and I haven’t seen the batteries go down very much. I am guessing the batteries will last at least six months if not longer. You don’t need to be too concerned about battery life, because once you access the Withings website, you will find that your battery life ratio is conveniently displayed. Therefore, you will be able to replace the batteries well before they actually run out.

Check out this sleak Withings product video to see more:

Click here to get the body scale from Amazon.

How to Use Your Scale

When you first get your scale, you will need to connect it to your computer and access the company’s website http://start.withings.com. It’s actually pretty easy to connect the scale with just a USB cable. Either a Mac or PC is compatible with the scale and its software. Once you have navigated to the Withings WiFi website, you can input your WiFi network information and the applicable user data. This process will likely only take about 5 minutes.

At the initial set-up, you can also set-up an online account that will give you access to your statistics. To start you can just enter your account details including name, age, gender, and weight. Up to eight members of your household can also track their weight on the scale. When you are on the Withings website, you can easily input the basic information for all users.

To initially weigh yourself, just tap the scale gently and the Withings scale will light up. If you are doing it right, you will see “0.0 lbs” flash briefly. Just simply step on your scale to see your weight. Keep in mind that you do need to have bare feet if you want to also see your body mass since electrodes are used. While the word “electrodes” might sound a bit intimidating, don’t worry measuring your body mass is completely painless!
When the scale is accessing your weight, you will see a bar on the display move from left to right. This means that your scale is uploading your information.

If for some reason an arrow appears in the corner of the screen, it means that you need to try to better center yourself on the scale. On the scale’s LCD screen, you can see your weight, body fat ratio and then your BMI. All these numbers are then recorded to your online account page. Through the power of WiFi, transferring your weight, fat mass and BMI to the web is absolutely automatic.

Suggestions for Best Results

By the way, I first tried using the scale on the carpet and the reading was inaccurate. I would definitely recommend using a flat bathroom floor. The scale does come with “carpet feet,” but they didn’t seem to work for me. Perhaps my carpet is too shaggy.

Also keep in mind that the scale is water resistant, but not waterproof. This means that obviously you don’t want to do anything like let your bathtub overflow onto the scale. If you have an area in your bathroom that tends to remain dryer, this might be the best place for your Withings WiFi scale.

Accessing and Sharing Your Statistics Online

Once your weight, fat mass, lean muscle mass and BMI have been measured, the Withings WiFi capability allows you to upload this information to your blog, Facebook or Twitter accounts. However, uploading your data to social networking tools is not necessary. You can also choose to just store this information on a web dashboard. This will allow you complete confidentiality if you choose.

Further, you can easily produce graphs showing your statistics. If you wish this information can be printed for your medical records or to share with medical professionals. For those people who happen to have a nutritionist or dietician who is monitoring their weight, these graphs will serve as the perfect tool. If you are a hardcore early adopter and happen to have statistics available from previous digital scales, you can even import that excel document data into your current chart and online information.

As I previously mentioned, this scale will also help you to learn about your body mass. This is one aspect of health that isn’t even provided on normal scales and it is a real selling point for this product. Tracking your body mass allows you a way to view your target health from new perspective.

At the Withings website, you can also easily download free apps for your SmartPhone. It is also possible to make a dashboard widget or an HTML widget for your blog. You can even link your data to a training peaks account, Microsoft HealthVault account or Google Health account. I found that there are other weight loss sites that the Withings is compatible with as well.

If you want to buy this product click here for the best price at Amazon.

Conclusion

I believe that using the Withings scale will definitely assist people who are seeking to lose weight and improve their overall health. An additional feature that I really liked on the website was that you can input your personal weight loss goals. Through this means, you can see if you are getting close to achieving your goals. Of course, Withings automatically offers you convenient graphics showing you your changes in weight.

Overall, this scale and its digital functionality are much easier to use than I expected. However, if you are confused at all with the process, you can connect with users in the product’s online forum. There are plenty of users who are happy to offer suggestions and tips.

After using this new product and writing this Withings scale review, it is clear to me that this product may very well change the way that people weigh themselves. Having the ability to digitally track your weight and body fat changes online provides a whole new way of seeing the progress of your exercise and weight loss regime. If you are interested in purchasing one for your self I highly recommend clicking here to get the best price at Amazon.

Let me show you what other current owners have to say about it:

I have had my scale for about a week and a half. The set up was quick and easy, I actually did it on my lunch hour. That includes setting up an account online and figuring out the basics of the website.

So far I really LOVE this scale. I love the fact that I can upload my data to multiple websites…especially Google Health. The thing I love the MOST is the fact that it weighs you to the tenth of a pound. I find it very encouraging to see the numbers move down even a little each day. On our old needle dial scale, it was difficult to tell if your weight changed within a two pound range each day….this gives me a definite number and it feels so much more accurate.

I would highly recommend this to someone closely monitoring their weight.

Review Paraphrased for size — view original review here.