Need to keep tabs on your weight or other body measurements? A smart scale can help. Withings Body Cardio Scale not only weighs you, it tracks your weight trends over time and monitors your heart rate, it can analyze your Body Composition as well as peer into your muscle and bone mass and your water composition. The scale connects to Wi-Fi to beam all your weigh ins right to your phone.
Withings Body Cardio Scale Review
Withings Body Cardio Scale is less than an inch thick and with a solid aluminum base, Body Cardio has no feet to adjust, making it the thinnest, most stable scale available. Withings says this design means it works just as well on any surface, from a hard floor to a carpet.
This scale is also powered by a rechargeable battery so you can just plug it in when the power is low. A small battery icon on the Health mate app keeps tabs on the overall power level.
Why get a smart scale?
The Withings folks says people who set a weight goal report losing twice as much weight. When you set a goal, the Withings Health Mate app coaches you with tips and encouragement to help you reach your objective.
Every weigh-in appears in the Health Mate app automatically, via WiFi or Bluetooth sync. With your weight, body composition, and heart health history, you can see what works, reinforce positive behaviours and stay focused on the big picture. It’s also pretty handy not having to write down your weigh ins daily. Up to eight users can be recognized automatically, and each will have their data independently synced to their Health Mate profile.
Setting up Withings Body Cardio Smart Scale
To get started with your set up, download the Withings Health Mate app from the App Store, or go to go to withthings.com to get the app and then follow the instructions
Then turn the scale on by pressing the small button on the right hand side on the side edge of the scale for three seconds.
The app is supposed to guide you through the set up, and while the app did try to find the scale on its own as soon as I opened it, it seemed to be unable to locate the device.
I tried a handful more times, and still nothing. I closed the app and re-opened it, and turned the scale off and on again. This time, when I searched for the scale, the app seemed to find it and I was able to connect quickly.
Bottom line, if you are having trouble connecting to the scale, close and reopen the app, and turn the scale on and off and that should resolve any issues. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to set up some of the features that you can have displayed on the scale when you use it every morning.
What to display on your Withings Body Cardio Scale
You can choose what kinds of things will be displayed for you when you weigh in. Your weight, naturally is foremost, but you can also have the scale show you your BMI, Fat mass, Heart Rate, Bone and muscle mass and even your steps or the weather forecast. The step count will come from pairing it with another compatible device; in my case my Apple Watch.
Frustration with displayed info
I did encounter a problem where I wasn’t seeing all my extra info on the scale itself. It seemed to be there in the app, but it wasn’t showing up on the scale screen. I couldn’t find any help on the Withings support page, so I called Withings customer support for help.
Even the customer service rep who took the call seemed mystified, telling me the scale is supposed to show all the data you choose, every time you get on it.
After a painful and lengthy call with two different reps, I was told the scale won’t show data beyond weight if the battery level is less than 20%. That surprised me.
I was told to recharge the scale to 100% for everything to work properly. I did that and still nothing, so it was back to customer service for a third call.
We had to reset the scale, which took forever. It seemed my old Bluetooth connection was the culprit for poor pairing; I had to go into my Bluetooth settings on my phone, forget the device and start set up over. While that got the scale measuring again, it wasn’t displaying info beyond weight, and now weather on the scale itself. It was showing up in the app, just on on the scale.
At that point the Withings rep suggested both cleaning the scale and applying moisturizer to my feet. Frustrated after lengthy phone calls and troubleshooting, I decided to leave things there.
Why track health data?
The scale will track a lot of data. That’s great, but you’ll also need to know what it means and how to interpret your results. I won’t get into a lot of that info here. Suffice to say I found this scale tracks a lot more info than I’m interested in measuring right now.
- Fat mass: Fat mass percentage can help anyone understand overall health
- Muscle mass: So you can target your efforts to lose fat or get stronger
- Water: Clues you into hydration and retention.
- Bone mass: To get a full picture of your body.
- Weight: Highly-precise measurements accurate to .2 pounds
Using the Withings Body Cardio Scale
Using the scale is no different than any other scale; step on and wait. Your results are displayed on the small digital readout on the surface. The scale will show you when it’s ok to step off by flashing the number at you. Then all your data is beamed to the Health Mate app. You’ll need to be mindful you’re standing on the scale for as long as the device needs you to, otherwise it won’t beam your info to the app.
What do flashing triangles/arrows mean on the display?
If you see flashing arrows or triangles at the corners, that means your weight isn’t evenly distributed. The arrows will show up in the corners that you’re leaning towards; if they’re in the bottom of the screen, lean a bit forward.
Other Withings features
The Withings Health mate app will help you log your food intake with the built-in nutrition tracking feature. Pregnancy Tracker guides expecting mothers through their pregnancy with health-related, obstetrician-reviewed advice, tips, and personalized weight tracking.
Baby Mode allows parents to easily keep an accurate list of their child’s growth simply by stepping on the scale while holding the baby.
Overall review: Withings Body Cardio Smart Scale
This scale tracks a lot of cool data; probably more than I need.
I do like the form factor; the scale is thin, sleek and seems very accurate (it matches other scales in my home so I will assume).
When it comes to downsides, getting the scale set up was frustrating to the max.
I was frustrated that the scale didn’t seem to work very well on a day-to-day basis, in that it wasn’t showing me all the metrics I selected on the scale itself. I had to reply on the app for that.
Getting the scale reset and then set up again after my troubles took literally hours (and three calls to customer service) before it worked and even then I couldn’t get all the data shown.
Overall I found this scale buggy and deeply frustrating to use. For that reason I’m not recommending it; in my opinion you’d be better off with a scale like Fitbit’s Aria 2, which has been in use daily in my bathroom, bug free, for years.
This is significantly more expensive than our average bathroom scale. It sells for about $199CAD from Apple or Best Buy.
*A note about Affiliate Links: Occasionally I will include affiliate links in my reviews. I do this partly for convenience of the reader (since I’ll almost always include a link to the company website or similar anyway) in case you want to read more or purchase but I also may get a small commission from the click, which helps me keep the blog running. If you chose to use this link I thank you greatly for supporting the blog. There’s no obligation or cost to you for using this link.
