Withings: Wi-Fi Internet Connected Body Fat Monitor and Scale

Last Updated on April 20, 2020

I just found the perfect gadget for people who want to lose weight and be in control of their body all the time. I’m talking about Withings WiFi Body Scale, a body fat monitor and scale which can send date to your iPhone, iPad or to your computer using a Wi-Fi connection. Knowing what you’re doing and being able to track your progress is so much fun! However, it’s a bit of a pain to do it with conventional means. I’m looking at my mother: she has to keep track of her blood pressure. She measures it three times a day and writes down the values in a spreadsheet. Then she makes a chart and she discusses it with her doctor. I’m not interested in tracking my blood pressure. I just want to record my weight, so I can see how it fluctuates over bigger periods of time. I’m fine with using spreadsheets, but I have days when I forget to record the measurements.

The Withings Wi-Fi scale is just what I need to be happy. I’m shopping around for a new scale and although I found many good-looking, cheaper ones, I’m tempted to buy this one because it’s so much more than a simple scale. It will be almost like a new toy for me. I had no idea such things like wi-fi body scales exist. I discovered this one by chance, while looking for something else on Amazon.

What makes the Withings Wifi Body Scale a cool gadget and a useful tool for body weight tracking

The scale performs a body analysis which is more than simple weighing: fat mass and lean mass measurements, plus BMI calculation. This is nice: you can set objectives for each of the parameters, then work towards accomplishing them. You can compare your data with reference values given to you by your doctor.

You can monitor your weight and fat mass straight from your iPhone or iPad, thanks to the free app available in the iTunes AppStore.

You can access your health data online, through a secured web dashboard. Data is sent and stored automatically into your account. You can log on from anywhere to access your data. You can generate graphs. This is cool because I’m a visual person. I like graphs and charts. If you want, you can download a .csv file with your values, which you can import into Excel and play with it as you like.

The scale features automatic recognition for up to eight users. You can share it with your whole family, yet enjoy privacy for your data, as each member will have a personal access password. If you want to share your measurements with your doctor, you can do it. The scale offers the ability to upload your data to third party websites. You can share it on Twitter or Facebook, for instance.

The Withings scale and fat monitor is more accurate than regular bathroom scales. It has four sensors and graduations of 0.2 pounds. The maximum weight accepted is 396 pounds. I’m not THAT fat and I hope I never will, so I don’t care about the maximum weight. However, I know people who can’t use regular scales because they exceed the maximum weight, which is lower in case of cheap scales. Anyway, I’m annoyed with my current scale, because it lacks accuracy. It has 1 pound graduations and I believe it can be wrong by about two pounds.

Using the scale is similar to using regular digital scales. You need to tap on it first, then the display starts showing a flashing 0.0 lb. When the figures stop flashing, you need to step on the scale. For body fat measurement, you need to be barefoot, otherwise this doesn’t work. Even so, some users reported that body fat measurement is not quite accurate.

Withings WiFi Body Scale and Fat Monitor Features

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  Withings Wi-Fi scale and fat monitor: this is how the iPhone app looks like

  Size: 12.6 x 12.6 x 0.9 inches

• Weight: 6.7 pounds
• Batteries: the scale needs four AAA batteries (included in the box)
• Material: glass
• Stylish and slim design
• Wifi connection
• Automatic monitoring on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android devices, personal computers
• Multiple users, with automatic user recognition and privacy
• Ability to set objectives
• Data sharing

Withings WiFi Body Scale and Fat Monitor Reviews from users

There are 200 reviews on Amazon for this scale. Most of them give the product five stars. However, there were a few users who weren’t happy with their purchase.
Here’s what a happy user had to say:

The scale works well and reports results reliably and accurately to the mywithings site, which syncs to my iPhone and iPad in a matter of minutes. I recommend this product to anyone with a home wifi network and supported iOS devices.

Another happy user said he also bought the blood pressure monitor from the same company:

It influences me to eat lighter meals when I see a few pounds higher on the graph on my Ipad. I have also purchased their blood pressure monitor which is a very good product. This company has done a great job of putting out a quality product and utilizing the wifi technology. I recommend it strongly.

This comes from a user who gave it four stars:

Personally, my motivation for buying the scale was to be able to measure the effectiveness of my new workout routine over time. Sure enough, between individual readings, the values seem to jump all over the place. But, looking at trends over time, I get a pretty clear picture of my relative fat mass.

Pros and cons from another person:

Pros: Easy to set up, calibratable, WiFi (how cool is that!), low power consumption (three AAA batteries), capable of supporting 8 different users on one scale, claims to measure body fat, though I’m not convinced of its accuracy yet.
Cons: Not confident in the body fat measurement claim.

People who gave negative reviews were unhappy mainly with the poor customer service:

Great Product until you have an issue. They are impossible to reach, do not answer emails, have a terrible FAQ section and never answer their phones.

This is a hard one: I like the scale very much, but I’m a little bit afraid. What if I receive a defective unit? How easy will it be to replace it? Until I make up my mind, if you want to check the Withings WiFi body scale and fat monitor for yourself, go to Amazon.