My Honest Review of the Withings Body Scan Smart Scale

Fitness is a $90,000,000,000+ per year industry. They always have their hands out asking for money for the latest supplements, programs or gadgets that will finally get us the results we’ve always wanted. 

Most of the time, these fall flat of delivering on their promises. That’s why the Withings Body Scan is such a breath of fresh air. It not only delivered on my expectations, but exceeded them. 

I’m writing this article for two reasons. 

#1 This truly has been one of the best investments I’ve made in my own fitness journey. The accurate results I get show me my progress (or lack thereof sometimes) which helps me keep going or make necessary adjustments to my diet and exercise regimine. 

#2 It’s underrated and unfairly reviewed. I love reviewing fringe products. Things that people aren’t positive about. The Withings Body Scan has relatively terrible reviews on Amazon with an average of just 3.6 out of 5 stars. 

It is not a 3.6 star product. Let me show you why.

The 4 Big Reasons I Love the Withings Body Scan Scale

Here’s why I justify the $399 price tag.

Reason #1 What Gets Measured Gets Managed

This is a famous Peter Drucker quote that is extremely applicable to fitness. 

The Withings scale helps us measure so much more than our body weight. 

Yes, you can measure just body weight with a cheaper scale, but that’s not showing giving you the full story.

Reason #2 It Tells the Full Story

Measuring the success of a workout or diet program solely by the number of pounds on a scale is simply ridiculous.

• Muscle gain can offset body fat loss. A typical scale can’t tell us if that’s the case. I’d gladly stay the same weight if it was all muscle 🙃
• We might be losing muscle instead of fat! It depends who you ask, but most people would not want to lose 20 pounds if most of it was muscle. Some people lose muscle quickly and at higher ratios than body fat. A regular scale doesn’t show that. 
• We don’t know where the body changes are happening. The Withings scale does a full body scan that shows which body parts are gaining or losing muscle and which parts are gaining or losing body fat. 

Here is what the body fat and muscle mass scans look like.

That is so much more valuable to me than gross pounds lost!

Reason #3 Weighing Yourself Daily Boosts Your Odds of Success

Whether it’s a regular scale or a robust one like the Withings Body Scan, studies show that weighing yourself daily leads to an increase in the chances that you’ll hit your goals (source)

The accountability and feedback from daily monitoring seem to encourage healthier behaviors and quicker adjustments in diet or exercise

Cool, but why do we need an expensive scale?

I found that using the Withings Body Scan scale makes me WANT to weigh myself daily. The feedback from the app showing the body specific changes and muscle growth vs. fat loss make me much more interested in using the scale each morning. 

As James Clear says, reducing the friction of a habit (in this case, making it enjoyable) increases the likelihood of continuing it. 

Reason #4 The App Is (Chef’s Kiss)

The Withings App is brilliant. 

It logs so much more than weight and body composition. 

• Water mass
• Cardiovascular health and age
• Visceral fat index (the bad stuff)

It also integrates with the most important apps like Apple health and several sleep tracker apps.

Is The Withings Body Scan Accurate?

I’ve used a lot of different body fat calculators over the years. 

I’ve paid $100s for the professional DEXA scans and spent more on fancy calipers and handheld body composition monitors. 

The Withings results are similar to the DEXA scan results I’ve received over the past several years. 

The body fat % is lower from the Withings scale, but not by very much. 

Are they perfectly accurate? I believe so, but truly, I’m not concerned. Why? Because it’s consistent.

Maybe I’m not 17.4% body fat BUT the scale consistently measures in that range. It is the daily measurement and comparison that is important to me. The raw number is just my baseline. 

Most of the 1 star reviews on Amazon center around the scale being “inaccurate” or “showing inconclusive results.” 

I’ve never once had inconclusive results. I’m unsure why so many people reported that.

It was somewhat difficult to get it set up with my wifi, but once I did, I’ve had no issues.

I think it’s safe to say that some of these reviews are from people who are disgruntled that the scale showed them a number that they didn’t love. 

Trust me, if you’ve never measured your body fat, you’ll likely be surprised at how much higher it is than you thought. 

For instance, I have visible abs when I flex but my body fat was 19.4% on my first measurement 😬

In the end, I’m paying $399 for a dramatic increase in the odds that I’ll get the fitness results I want. That is worth much more than that. I highly recommend it.