After four months with the Fitbit Aria WiFi Smart Scale ($130), I haven’t shed any significant weight. However, should I find the motivation to improve my fitness and diet, I do believe the Aria will provide an attractive and effective mechanism for tracking my progress. But let’s back up a bit…
As our homes and appliances collectively gain sentience via Internet connectivity, health gadgetry has become something of hot topic. The current crop of digital pedometers doesn’t do much for me, but a WiFi scale with automated tracking and charting is appealing. In this burgeoning new category, there are basically two manufacturers to choose from: Withings and Fitbit. And I went with the Fitbit Aria primarily because it clocked in $30 cheaper than Withings (at the time) and Fitbit has decent buzz due to the success of those aforementioned activity trackers (that don’t do much for me). So, while Withings may have a more sophisticated display, at the end of the day I’m just looking for two numbers — weight and body fat percentage. Assuming both products provide similar accuracy, which I can’t definitively address.
Having encountered a vast array of scales in my time, as a former wrestler and judoka, I’m quite pleased with the Aria’s fit & finish. It both looks and feels like a premium product. As it should, given it’ll run you double the cost of a typical scale that includes body fat measurement. Unfortunately, my first Aria arrived via Amazon poorly packed and unable to determine body fat. And, through that issue, we learned that Fitbit does not provide phone support. Further, their email response time was lacking, and I’d already worked out an exchange with Amazon before they managed to get back to me about 60 hours later. But with those issues behind us, it’s been smooth sailing — setup (via a Mac) was a breeze and I merely hop on the scale every day or so. Almost magically and instantaneously my Fitbit iPhone app charts are updated. (Android is also supported).
Something to consider with connected devices like these, is that we’re largely dependent on the vendors staying in business… and protecting our privacy. Related, I have no interest in Aria achievement badges or sharing my weigh-ins with you on Twitter. (But the Aria does support up to 8 folks in your household and the profiles are private by default.)
I’ve been pretty happy with the Aria and Fitbit combo. The data from both devices dovetails nicely on their dashboard. Though I ended up using LoseIt for daily dietary tracking, but the LoseIt data feeds into the Fitbit dashboard.
Though I’m a bit suspicious of their body fat percentage reading. I know that the electrical measurement isn’t perfect, but it seems pretty far off.
Unrelated, I dig the new theme. Very clean and fast.
I picked up a Fitbit One and the Aria scale at the beginning of February after my wife and I both decided to lose some weight. With the combination of exercise (walking, mostly), revamped diet (using MyFitnessPal to track calories) and the scale for monitoring my weight, I’ve lost over 20 lbs and my wife’s lost 13.
The accountability is the biggest thing for me. Even on days where I haven’t lost weight, the scale records that information and I have it as a data point whereas I might be less likely to manually log those days myself.
It works very well, and I’ve been extremely happy with the Fitbit combo. So far it’s been very successful for me.
The real trick is to integrate the Fitbit with your Nest thermostat.
Whenever you weigh in above your target, the Nest should automatically raise your home temperature to sauna-like levels. In no time at all, the pounds will fall away.
I personally would love some kind of standardized bluetooth or something interface for gym treadmills so that i could suck in the results into my phone. I used to take pictures of my runs, but never got around to transcribing them.
I like Chucky’s idea. :-)
Using the Withings scale personally, but that’s because it came out before the Aria and was able to sync to calorie tracking services (Lose It!).
As for FitBit, can’t wait for the Flex to come out soon. Finally won’t have to worry about forgetting to move the device from clothes to clothes…
This has been pretty much my experience. I like it, haven’t lost much weight yet but at least I’m easily keeping track of where I am.
I have the Withings – like it – only complaint with all digital scales is that they overemphasize small weight gains, e.g. on a doctor’s scale, going from say 169.7 to 170.2 is barely going to be noticeable, but on a digital scale it looks like a big deal.
Other than that, anything that gets you to pay more attention to your health is a good thing.
That’s awesome, Chucky :)
I’ve been using a fitbit for almost three years and the Aria scale since it was launched. I have been very pleased with both products. They have both been extremely accurate. With the scales I compare it to what the doctors scales shows and the fitbit I walk a known distance. The Aria scale is within a half pound of the doctors and the fitbit is always within .01 of the measured mile I test with.
I really like how the scale sends the info over WiFi so I don’t have to worry about writing anything down.