Nine years ago I started losing weight. I've kept it off. Along the way, I learned that weight alone is a poor health metric. BMI is worse. What matters more — waist-to-height ratio, for instance — this scale doesn't capture, but nothing in this category does, so that's not a knock.
For most of those nine years, I used a Tanita scale. It measures body fat, muscle mass, bone density, and visceral fat via bioimpedance. It did its job. What it couldn't do was stream data to an app. Not a dealbreaker, but convenience has value.
I bought the Withings Body Comp thinking it used multiple connection points for better measurement accuracy. It doesn't. Feet only, same as the Tanita. My mistake for not reading closer.
One month in, here's where I land.
The good: Withings easily streams data to its app. While I historically weighed weekly, daily fluctuations are noise — I'm back to daily weighing. In time, this will reduce. More importantly, my DEXA scan values align reasonably well with those reported by Withings, thanks to the option to set my body type. That's meaningful. Bioimpedance scales can drift badly from reality. This one hasn’t so far.
The friction: Withings wants a subscription. I don't. I want to step on the scale, have my numbers recorded, and go about my day. The core data streaming is free, but the app pushes the subscription angle, and the notification defaults assume I want to be reminded of things I don't. Turn those off immediately. The scale also has small plastic feet that easily fall off. I've already lost one to bathroom chaos. A minor thing, but annoying.
Three stars. Solid hardware. The DEXA correlation earns it real credibility. The subscription nudging and my own misreading of the specs cost it the rest.
