Withings WiFi body scale review: weight data and cool graphs
Withings WiFi body scale review: weight data and cool graphs

            
  
  
  
    

    

    
      There's a certain subset of people who love to see data and graphs, especially …
    

    

    
            
              
            
          

    
  



  

  
      
    
    
                      
                      
          
Those who know me or follow my coverage know that I tend to take an interest in fitness-related gadgets and software. If it provides me data about myself and my activities, I'm on board. The BodyMedia FIT that I reviewed last year and RunKeeper on the iPhone are two of my favorites for this reason, but there's always more to be learned—if I can do that without having to do any of the dirty work, even better. 
That's where the Withings body scale comes in. It's not a brand new gadget, but it recently came into my life as a result of a disturbing increase in chatter among my peers. You could say that the peer pressure got to me, and now I'm a Withings convert. 
What's so special about a scale that comes equipped with WiFi? It's not just so you can tweet your body weight every day (though you could if you really wanted to). The scale allows you to track trends in your weight as well as body composition changes over time—graphs and all—and you don't even have to lift a finger to enter that data into WeightBot or PhysicsDiet to get them. Not only that, but the free service that comes with your physical scale integrates with a plethora of other services (including WeightBot, in fact) so that your data is everywhere you want it to be. And all you have to do to get it is step on the scale.
It's pretty and expensive
At $159, the Withings scale isn't exactly something you'll find in the bargain basement bin at Walmart. It's not a cheap scale, and if all you want is a device to spit a number back at you before your morning coffee, then there are thousands of other options that are more affordable. It's even a bit expensive if you compare it against some of the basic body-fat-analyzing scales out there (the old one that I retired after getting the Withings scale probably cost me about $90 back in 2004). 

          
                      
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
But for a WiFi-equipped gadget that comes with free support, a free Web service, and free mobile apps, the price of the Withings scale is not all that terrible. It gets a bonus, too, because it looks nice; the scale has a smooth glass surface and there are white and black options—very Apple-like.

    
          
                

The scale requires four AA batteries to operate, and it reports its own battery life back to you via the Web (which we'll get to in a second). Based on our own experience, a set of batteries will certainly last more than a month for two people weighing in every day, and sometimes twice a day (hey, we like data points, okay?). According to the battery indicator, it took four weeks for our scale to go down from 100 to 94 percent battery. 
Others have reported anywhere from 3 weeks to several months when it comes to battery life, which is still shorter than what you'll get with a less feature-rich scale (I don't think I have ever changed the batteries in my old scale in seven years). But if you rotate out a set of rechargeable batteries, you'll at least be able to live with yourself a little better than if you're constantly tossing four AAs at a time.
Initial setup
In order to set up the scale, you must first connect it to a computer via USB and download an application from Withings' website. 

    
          
                

Once downloaded, the program will connect to your scale and allow you to set up things like your WiFi network and input the users who will be weighing themselves, as well as an account that you'll use online to track your data. If there are any firmware updates available for your scale, the application will make sure your scale has the most recent version. 

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
The reason you should input the users before starting is because the scale can automatically tell different people apart based on weight and body composition, but it needs something to go off of for the first weighing (plus you can give yourselves names so you know who's who when you weigh in). It's pretty good at detecting which user is which, even if the weight you enter yourself doesn't quite match up with what the scale sees for you—as long as you're different enough, it'll figure out that the male who weighs 210 pounds is a different person than the female who weighs... less than that. 
Once you have the device set up, you can configure how you want it to work via the account preferences on the Withings website. This is where you'll be able to see your scale's battery life, serial number, and software version, and you'll be able to change things like the language, whether you want it to send anonymous debug data, and whether you want it to ask you to force zero at weigh-in.

    
          
                

You can change these things at any time without throwing off what's already been recorded for you, but the changes won't go into effect until your next weigh-in since the device is essentially sleeping between uses. 

Graphs on the Web and in your pocket
Here's where it gets really fun. Once you've weighed yourself a few times, you'll be able to view a graph of your weight changes online, as well as data about your lean and fat mass. When viewing the data on the website, you can choose between the users (the scale can support up to eight) and see everyone's data. 

    
          
                

(A note about lean and fat mass measurements: The Withings scale measures your body composition in the same way that other scales do—via bioelectrical impedance analysis—which isn't the most accurate way in the world to get a body fat measurement. There are numerous ways this can go wrong, but I found it to be mostly consistent with my expectations most of the time. Like other scales that measure your body fat, it's best to take the number as a reference point and not the Word of God about how much lard you're trucking around.)

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
If you happen to have a CSV file of past weight data that you have recorded from some other app or service, Withings will allow you to import it on the website so that your graph is even more filled out. Similarly, you can export the Withings data to CSV if you decide to import it into another application or service. The company makes it very easy to use your own data as you see fit; you're not chained to Withings if your scale breaks in a freakish home disaster and you decide to use something else. 
On top of what's available on the Web, you can also download native apps for your iOS device or Android phone to see that data on the go. On the iPhone, you can set the free app to send you push notifications whenever there are new data points, and you can switch between users too.
My only beef is that I'd like it to require fewer taps to switch between users—most of the time, I only want to see myself, but having a housemate who loves showing off his data and whose phone is always dead means that I'm constantly having to switch back to myself. It requires five taps and one scroll to switch users and get back to the screen where I can see my numbers, and I'd like it to be closer to two. 
Once you're looking at the right user, the app is pretty straightforward:

    
          
                

The dial at the bottom lets you scroll through previous weigh-ins so you can see your past numbers, and if you turn the phone to landscape mode, it will show you the same graphs you can see on the Web:

    
          
                

The iOS app even makes use of multitouch gestures so you can pinch and zoom on the graph as you see fit to make it shorter or longer (this feature is more useful if you have many more data points, like if you've been using it for months or years and you only want to see this month's trends). 

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          

Sharing and integrating with other services
That's just the beginning when it comes to the places you can view your data, or even share it with others. There are some handy instructions on how to make a dashboard widget on the Mac, or you can stick that HTML widget on your blog or website. In fact, the sharing options are quite plentiful—so many, in fact, that we can't really go into them all. 

    
          
                

If you have friends who have Withings accounts, you can have your graphs show up when they log in (and vice versa) for some healthy motivation-building competition. If you want to publish your weight changes to Twitter or Facebook, you can do that easily. If you are an active user of Google Health or Microsoft's HealthVault and want to share the data with your doctor, you can have it transfer the info automatically. But even if you don't use any of the services pictured in the screenshot above (which is what you see when you click the "Share" button on the Withings website), there are tons—tons—of other services that can import your Withings data.
For example, my aforementioned favorite running app, RunKeeper, allows users to input their weight and body fat as part of the site's overall services. But if I don't want to enter that stuff manually, I can go into my RunKeeper settings on the website and enter my Withings login to link the two accounts. Now, RunKeeper can import my Withings data in realtime when it comes in, and show me its own graphs as they relate to my running progress:

    
          
                


    
          
                

Similarly, Withings can integrate with a ton of popular weight loss/fitness applications and websites, such as LoseIt and WeightBot. So, for example, if you like the WeightBot application more than the Withings application on your iPhone, you can still use the Withings scale to gather your data and WeightBot to view your trends. 

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    

        
        
          
          

    
          
                


    
          
                

Truly, you can do whatever you want with the data that the scale gathers, and you don't have to share it with the entire world if that's not your thing. And the best part is that you don't have to enter it yourself—it's all just happening  on its own when you weigh yourself. 
Conclusion
Are there some ways in which the Withings scale (and its corresponding services) could be improved? Yes. For one, some users within your household might want to keep their weight data to themselves and not share it with the whole family all the time. Currently, it seems like there's no way to separate out the data from different users on the same scale on Withings' website—perhaps the company could find a way to have each user that the scale identifies create an individual account on the site. (Edit: Several readers have told us now that this is incorrect; there is, in fact, a way to separate out the accounts for users on the same scale.)
Still, the Withings scale is good at what it does and makes it dead simple to monitor your own body trends. If you want to transmit your info to the entire world via WiFi, that's your choice, but you can also use it privately on a range of services. And even though it's $159, it's the good kind of $159—the useful kind that is beneficial to your health and your life, unlike the $100 someone might spend on a Maylong tablet. 


          
                  

                  
          


  




  
  
          
  

  
    

    
      Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. 
    
  



  
    
    
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