Why Using a Smart Scale is Better than a Standard One

Most people have a love-hate relationship with their bathroom scale — what with it smugly sitting in a corner, reminding you to check your weight every once in a while. The fundamental flaw with standard scales is they focus too much on the weight. So, after regular exercise, healthy eating, and lifestyle changes, when the scale doesn’t budge; it causes frustration and disappointment.

But getting fit is not a linear road, and everyone progresses differently when on this journey. Since a regular scale cannot measure that, it falls a tad bit on the useless side of things.

To counter this problem, smart scales were introduced, and they’re slowly taking over the world. But are they really worth it? Are smart scales more accurate than standard ones? Well, let’s find out.

What Is a Smart Scale?

A smart scale is an electronic device that is used to measure body weight. Initially, these Wi-Fi-connected scales didn’t offer much of a unique selling point. Most of their features were already found in standard weight scales. You could connect a smart scale to a smartphone app though. This transferred all your body weight information to an app and created a digital health record for you.

Later, as technology progressed, modern smart scales started providing additional information about body composition. Today, you can get the following information about your health from these scales:

• Body fat percentage
• Body mass index (BMI)
• Basal metabolic rate
• Fat mass
• Muscle mass
• Bone mass
• Body water percentage
• Heart rate

Unlike standard scales, the most advanced smart scales can also be customized with different modes. For instance, they will allow you to track your weight differently if you’re pregnant. Also, these scales can also share data with other smart devices, like a fitness watch or tracker.

Benefits of Using a Smart Scale

A smart scale has plenty of advantages to offer, and some of them are mentioned below:

Better Insights

With smart scales, you get data beyond just weight. You see, a standard scale cannot give you any information about your Body Mass Index (BMI), but a smart one can. Besides receiving such detailed insights, you can also store and track them on your smart devices. This allows you to monitor your health progress more closely using a smartphone app.

Convenience

Self-weighing with a smart scale is convenient compared to traditional scales. Since they provide consistent weight measurement changes, anyone can keep a rough track of how effective their healthcare routine is.

You can use the app to track how your diet and lifestyle affect your body. If you’ve been running, you’ll see improvement in your cardiovascular health. Similarly, your muscle mass will start to increase if you’ve been lifting weights.

Accuracy

When it comes to the accuracy of smart scales, there are two schools of thought. One believes them to be inaccurate compared to the traditional scale. But on the other hand, there have been studies proving the accuracy of these scales over traditional ones, claiming them accurate enough to be compared with in-person weight measurements performed by a trained individual.

Syncing Capabilities

Most smart scales available on the market allow more than one user to sync their data with the app. This means you can all keep track of and share your accomplishments without having to buy separate scales.

The Bottom Line

Using a scale to measure your body weight is an age-old practice, and smart scales put a modern spin on it. Compared to conventional scales, smart ones offer a much deeper insight into your health. They also let you track your fitness goals while managing your weight. So, a smart scale has the upper hand over standard scales when it comes to accessibility and features.