The Best Bathroom Scales To Help You Watch Your Weight

Whether you need to lose a few pounds, put weight on, or simply stay in shape as you get older, using a bathroom scale regularly to weigh in can be an invaluable way to achieve your body weight goals. Using a scale in the privacy of your own home is more convenient than using one at a medical facility or a health club, and weighing in regularly at home will help you to stay on track between your health checkups, allowing you to adjust your habits and ensure that you progress in the right direction.  

Digital bathroom scales facilitate the use of what is known as a ‘strain gauge load cell’ to measure your weight when you step onto them. The force of your weight pressing down onto this gauge is converted into an electrical signal, which is then translated into an accurate weight reading. Some smart bathroom scales also enable you to measure other metrics such as body fat percentage, body water retention, and muscle mass. This is achieved using imperceptible electrical pulses, which travel through the body through the soles of your feet. The level of resistance these pulses meet allows the scale to work out your body composition, before displaying it on the screen or sending it to a connected smartphone app.

To help you to find the best bathroom scale to manage your weight, take a look through some of the essential features you’ll need to help you to find the scale that is best suited to your weight management needs:

Weight Capacity

When you’re looking for a new bathroom scale to help manage your weight, you’ll need to first of all make sure that it is compatible with your current weight. Before looking at any other features, check out the maximum user weight capacity of the scale. If you’re too heavy for the scales, the likelihood is that they will simply not work, but they could also become damaged and thus leave you with a useless product you cannot return.

App Compatibility & Connectivity

If you are using smartphone apps to track your weight management and fitness, then it makes sense to have a bathroom scale that can connect directly to those apps and update them with your latest data. Scales that offer connectivity tend to register a wider variety of readings, which can make it much easier to understand your weight losses and gains and make greater sense of general trends and slight fluctuations.

If you are looking for a connected weight management bathroom scale, make sure that it is compatible with your favorite fitness and health apps. While most scales will come with their own dedicated app in order to send and receive your data to your smartphone, you will need to make sure that there is compatibility with your other apps such as Fitbit, Google Health, and Apple Health, for example.

Body Metrics

Most smart scales will do a lot more than just give you a weight reading. If you opt for a smart scale with several different body metric readings, you will be able to adjust your weight management plan more accurately. Some examples of useful body metric readings you may like to have included are body fat percentage, muscle mass, body water percentage, as well as bone mass. 

Calorie Estimator

Calorie control is essential to good weight management. Bathroom scales that provide calorie estimations will let you know how much you’ll need to consume to remain at your current weight. By setting yourself a lower target you can responsibly lower your weight or gain weight by eating more than the amount shown. 

On-Screen Display

While smartphones, apps, and graphs are all very well and good, sometimes you may just want to get a quick weight reading. If so, double check that your weight management scale is suitable for stand-alone use and that it will provide you with the information that you are looking for without the need for a connected device.

Multiple Users

Weight management is important for the whole family. With the ever-increasing rate of childhood obesity, it is more important than ever to accurately track your child’s weight. By choosing a smart scale that can register multiple users, you can register your child once and then quickly and easily weigh them without having to re-enter their information. 

Pros:

• Convenient – bathroom scales are extremely convenient to use. Simply choose a time in your daily or weekly routine and weigh yourself. While some people may dread weighing themselves, it is much easier to do it in the comfort and privacy of your own home.
• Tracking – regularly weighing yourself with your bathroom scales designed for weight management allow you to effectively track your weight over the long term to ensure that you meet your weight control goals. By tracking your weight over the course of several weeks, months, and even years, you can spot trends and act before it’s too late.
• Encouragement – when you can see how much weight you are losing, it can be a great stimulus to keep up the good work. Checking your weight with your weight management bathroom scales may also push you to work harder if you haven’t made the progress that you thought you had.
• Multiple readings – when you consult your key biometric readings, such as body fat percentage and muscle mass, from your smart bathroom scales you’re more likely to be able to tailor your weight management plan for more effective and efficient results. You will be able to see the areas in which you are making progress and also those that need more work.

Cons:

• Obsession – it can be tempting to weigh yourself too often using weight management scales. For most people this shouldn’t really be a problem, but for some people this can become borderline obsessive. Make strict rules with yourself about when you are going to weigh yourself and try not to fixate on every little detail.
• Doesn’t replace medical advice – with their high accuracy and multiple biometric readings, it can be all too easy to get whisked away with all of the information provided by your weight management bathroom scale. Remember to regularly consult with your health professional throughout any weight management plan. While your scales are certainly an invaluable aid to weight management, they cannot replace professional analysis from your physician or other healthcare providers.