I started getting curious about techie smart fitness gadgets and apps after an almost accidental success with my Fitbit. My husband wanted one for himself for GPS use when running so he didn't need to carry his phone and suggested I get one for my birthday. At first I was hesitant, but quickly became addicted. (See my blog on the Fitbit here.) Anyway, thanks to targeted marketing (which sometimes I really don't find that creepy and actually appreciate), a smart scale advertisement for the Nokia Body+ Scale popped up on my facebook feed. I obsessed over it for a long 3 days before I found myself in Bed, Bath, and Beyond hunting it down while clinging to my coupons. I did a little research and compared a couple of models while standing in the aisle and decided on the Nokia Body+ model. It was attractive because it did so much...tracked daily weight, body fat, percentage water, percentage bone, muscle mass, and BMI. It does a little more when it can sync with your calorie tracking app and health wearable but I found that this didn't sync with the Fitbit - so that was a big downer, but it does sync with MyFitnessPal (my calorie-tracking app). The app for the scale comes for free with purchase and the scale and phone sync over your wifi network at home.
Needless to say, I quickly became addicted to the scale - in a good way. Weighing in every morning became an exciting ritual as it helped me track progress and get excited about goals. This was actually the feature that I found to be the BEST about the app and smart scale. In order to track your weight from day to day on a traditional scale, you would need to remember your weight from the day before or write it down. This becomes difficult at 5 in the morning when I typically rise - virtually impossible However, with the smart scale I got an instant update of my weight today compared with yesterday. For example, today I weighed in at 0.4 lbs less than yesterday. This helps me be more analytical about my successes and failures at restraining my eating. According to my calorie-tracking app (MyFitnessPal), I did well yesterday, staying within my limits and goals for calories - and I see it on the scale when I do that. I definitely think that these two apps when combined (Health Mate and MyFitnessPal) prove conclusively the much debated "calories in - calories out" argument. Basically this argument is whether or not the amount of calories in versus calories out determines weight loss. I find this to be conclusively evident when using a calorie tracker and smart scale. There is a direct causation between how well I did with my calorie goals yesterday and my weight loss or gain the next morning. To be honest, while I find its many features such as muscle mass and bone mass to be of whimsical value, I find I rarely consult them and don't find them to be a drive factor - although it is nice to know what my body fat and muscle mass goals are. (I still need to do a lot of work!) What I find the most useful is the daily tracking and linking to the calorie tracker. They help me restrain my eating and up my minutes of cardio, yoga, and other exercises in order to reach my goals. Overall, I find the smart scale to be an extremely fun, useful, insightful, and helpful tool for fitness, wellness, and weight loss. I have shared a screenshot of the weight tracking and body fat percentage tracking pages on the app to share with you. (The actual screen included weight and body percentage numerical values - I have cropped these out to save face! LOL!) Overall, I give this scale 5 stars. I a huge fan and will continue to use this and other fitness/wellness/weight loss techie gadgets and apps in the future...I'm totally hooked! In fact, I'm on my treadmill desk writing this using my Fitbit to track my calories out! Remember if you are trying to lose weight - calories in equals calories out! Numbers don't lie! Good luck on your journey and comment below your thoughts! Happy Trails! -Betty Lynn
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AuthorBetty Lynn is an writer, educator, artist, illustrator and yoga teacher living in the suburbs of New York City. Archives
October 2019
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