Weight Is Only Part of the Equation {Beets BLU Smart Scale Review}

When it comes to shaping your body through diet and exercise, sometimes people put too much emphasis on their weight alone (I’ve been guilty of doing this in the past too!). Of course weight tells you part of the story, but it’s not the whole picture.

(Source: Yahoo Health! via Shutterstock)

Case in point: There’s a woman whose 5’6″ and weighs 140 pounds. She sporadically eats healthy but mostly eats a diet high in simple carbs, saturated fat, and sugar, and doesn’t get consistent exercise. Perhaps she’s lucky in that she has good genes allowing her to easily maintain a healthy weight, but she might also be “skinny fat” and have some internal things going on with her body that she’s not yet aware of (like high cholesterol or being at risk for Type 2 diabetes).

On the other hand, there’s another 5’6″ woman that weighs 140 pounds, but she eats a diet plentiful in whole foods and healthy fat & carbs. She also maintains an exercise schedule, and has an athletic build.

Woman 1 may look completely different than the second woman even though they share the same height and weight. The second woman is probably much healthier than the first with better health biometrics, including a higher percentage of muscle mass.

So you see, weight isn’t everything – and thanks to new technology available to us health conscious consumers, we can get on a scale and see not only weight, but other data like fat percentage, muscle mass and body water.

Enter the Beets BLU Smart Scale. A couple of months ago, the company sent me the scale to try. If I had to share my thoughts on it in one short sentence, I’d say: It’s kind of awesome.

One thing I absolutely love about the scale is its ease of use. I had previously owned another scale that monitored similar data, but it was much harder to use. I had to push buttons to switch users from my husband to me, which sometimes wasn’t all that easy. Although this other scale kept track of past weigh-ins, it wasn’t simple to access that history, so instead I would take pictures on my iPhone of my weigh-ins for future reference (annoying).

With Beets BLU Smart Scale, the data from my weigh-ins automatically sync to my iPhone as soon as the scale gathers the info. It keeps tracks of all previous weigh-ins so that I can easily access them to do things like compare where I was 3 weeks ago from today. The app shows me my weight, fat percentage, muscle mass, BMI and water weight.

All you need to do is have the app open when you hop on the scale, which was really simple to download and set up. The app also displays graphs that showcase differences in weight, BMI and fat percentages, along with quick-access info as to how much your data has changed over the past week and past 30 days.

I’ve been using the scale a couple times a week, and the only con that I’ve experienced with it is that here or there when I initially hop on it, it’ll give me a weight reading that’s 3 or so pounds up from the last time I got on. If I get off, then get on again, it’ll read my weight as lower and more accurate the second time around.

The other thing to note is my fat percentage info. I’m in the middle of a health challenge (which I’ll recap once it’s over), and at the start of the challenge, my body fat was measured with a tool similar to this:

(Source: Best Buy)

The analyzer read my body fat as being around 5% more than the scale does, which is quite a significant difference. I recall getting my body fat tested with a similar tool a couple of years ago at a gym I used to go to, and I believe it read it as being around the same percentage as the scale. I can’t be completely sure as to which one is more accurate, but I think I’ll stick with my scale stat on this one! 😉

I think the cool thing about having a smart scale is that instead of just being hyper-focused on weight, you have the means to more of your health stats and can also work towards other health goals. My current goals are to decrease my fat to under 20% and to increase my muscle mass. I’m not sure if I have a specific number in mind, but my current muscle mass is at 35.9%, so it’d be cool to hit the mid-36% mark. I also have performance-based goals in mind, including a longer plank hold and higher push-up max. I’ll keep you posted on those in a few weeks!

For anyone interested in pricing info, the scale is currently retailing on the Beets BLU site for $79.95.

Disclaimer: While Beets BLU sent me a complimentary smart scale for review, as always, all opinions expressed are genuinely my own. 

Tell me… Do you weigh yourself regularly and/or own a smart scale? Share a current health goal of yours!