Aria 2 inaccurate body fat readings

[Emilyinyyc]

I recently completed an in-depth bio metrics analysis using a BodPod, the most accurate commercial analysis on the market, and learned I had 17% body fat. The Aria 2 tells me I have 29.5% body fat. I am a fitness instructor and muscular body type and believe the first number is more accurate. Is anyone else having this same issue? Or does my Aria 2 need to be returned?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Ginnaki It's great to see you in our Fitbit Community! I'm sorry to hear that your Aria is not providing accurate body fat percentage. Please make sure that you are stepping on your Aria barefoot and the scale is on a hard surface. Finally, re-calibrate your scale by taking out the batteries for 15 seconds and put them back in. Once this has been done, weigh yourself 5 times in a row and see if the issue gets fixed.

@RobbyC I'm so glad to hear that you managed to fix the issue and your Aria started to work properly again. Thank you for sharing the steps that helped you to get this issue resolved.

@Ginnaki I appreciate the time you've spent in order to have this issue fixed. I'd like you to try one more workaround that has been helpful. Please go to your profile settings and change your gender from female to male. After this, weigh yourself one time. Once this has been done, change the gender back to female and weigh yourself 5 times and see if you get more accurate body fat readings.

I'll be around if any questions arise! 

[golfer68]

Hi I have a Fitbit and have been manually tracking my weight and adding it to my chart, when I got a message about $30 off a Fitbit aria 2 scale. But having read many of this very long thread about its questionable BMI readings, I will wait until they fix the scale before buying one,.

thanks

[Ginnaki]

Hi,
The WEIGHT and BMI have always been accurate. And in our house there are 2 of us and the FAT PERCENTAGE is correct for my partner. So it’s a case of 50/50 accuracy in our example. I guess it’s your call, I still like the convenience of the fit bit app and how the scales connect with this. I am using the My Fitness Pal app; The food diary, in an attempt to lose a few pounds, and I use this to see how much fat I’m putting in my body, I just don’t rely on the scales for this info.
I like the product, and I just disregard the fat percentage readings. It’s still a great way to track your weight.

[Lily73]

Mine too! Have gone up in body fat % each time and I am now officially obese....which I really am NOT

[Newfitkitty]

Not sure if this might help but have you tried making sure the surface of the scale is clean? I don't know if feet smudges could play a part in getting the measurements to mess up or not. But I figure it is worth a shot in suggesting.

@golfer68 wrote:

Hi I have a Fitbit and have been manually tracking my weight and adding it to my chart, when I got a message about $30 off a Fitbit aria 2 scale. But having read many of this very long thread about its questionable BMI readings, I will wait until they fix the scale before buying one,.

thanks

Actually it is best to buy now. Not everyone is having this particular trouble. I had this trouble a long while back and what worked for me was on the app clicking the thing in the upper right corner and clicking on Aria 2 and then clicking on all the weights records and deleting each one. And maybe for the first week when I would weigh myself and it would get it wrong I would go to this site Calculate your Body Mass Index and once it gave me that percentage I would go back to the app and under the weight loss thing I'd enter in the weight and the bmi and delete the other one. It was a pain but it worked and the next week it has done better.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Ginnaki]

Thank you , but yes it’s all clean and smudge free 👍

Thank you for taking the time , I’ll look at this

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Newfitkitty]

---

@Ginnaki wrote:
Thank you for taking the time , I’ll look at this .

Ginny Marks

---

You are welcome and how do you store it away do you have it sitting flat or do you store it side ways? If you store it side ways then it will for some reason mess with it. I even go as far as to make sure that since I carry it to the bath room I am carrying it flat and not on it's side. Might have to do a couple of weigh ins' if you have it on it's side.

[Ginnaki]

Hi , thanks for the comments and advice . I too have done this. Thanks again .

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Banjomanaz]

This is the response I got to the my post about how to make you scale work.  Hilarious - @Banjomanaz "I truly appreciate your comments and feedback. Thank you for providing the tips and made your scale to provide more accurate readings".  

[JuanJoFitbit]

@golfer68 It's great to see you in our Fitbit Community! I appreciate your feedback and comments since this helps us to keep improving.

@Ginnaki Since the issue persists, let me go ahead and forward your case to our Support team and they'll be happy to investigate and provide a solution. You will receive an email from them soon.

@Newfitkitty Thank you so much for your help and contribution in this thread!

See you guys around!

[MichaelS91]

I just recently got my aria 2, about a week ago now. I just learned that there is a setting, when you go to your aria 2 in devices, click on "users", then choose your name, and you can set it to "lean mode". The body fat % is only a guess, more or less, but mine was saying upwards of 18%, which I know is not accurate. After setting it to lean mode, it now says I'm at about 15%, which is about right  so, if you're more athletic, or know you are leaner than it's saying, try adjusting that setting, and see what it does. 

[Ginnaki]

Hi , thanks for the comments and advice . I too have done this. Thanks again .

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[JuanJoFitbit]

@MichaelS91 Welcome to our Fitbit Community! Thank you for sharing the solution that helped you to get this issue resolved.

@Ginnaki Thank you for getting back! I would like to follow up on this and would like to know if our Support team provided a solution.

Looking forward to your response! 

[Ginnaki]

Hi

Yes everyone has been very helpful , Thank you .

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Ginnaki You are very welcome! Thank you for posting the update here.

I'd like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you can share your experiences, meet people and create new topics.

Hope to see you in our Fitbit Community! 

[ca-runner]

I have the same thing going on in my house. Bike/run/lift weights every day my entire life. I consider myself an athlete. My old scale told me I was 22%. This one puts me at 33% which is obese. I told my sister that I was going to charge down the street two blocks to Fitbit's HQ and complain. She told me to please video tape it because for sure it would go viral. Crazy white lady complaining about her body fat percentage. Super confused though.

Wondering why changing the setting would change the body fat measurement. It's measuring water percentage in your body. Why does changing the setting make a difference? Or does it just make us feel better?

But 2.5 pounds is nothing compared to the 11% body fat variance I have from my old scale to my new one.

Can you change it to lean mode for one user or does it change it for every user?

Nope. I was hoping that was the problem. Maybe I really am an obese person in a size 6 who exercises every day.

Moderator edit: merged replies

[richardm32000]

Just bought mine a couple weeks back.  Too bad...i needed a scale anyway, but disappointed that its not more accurate. 

Does anyone have an issue with body fat percentage fluctuating....it cant be right.  Its ranged from 10.1% to 14.4%....see attached.  This cant be right!

how do you put it in "lean" mode?

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Ginnaki]

Hi
Using your I Pad, or chosen device, select the account settings in fit bit app, select the scale, select people using this scale , select yourself , then change the mode.
Hope this helps

[richardm32000]

Thanks!

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Thanks for the help!

Moderator edit: merged reply

[GritsnGravy]

I'm having the exact same issue, I got my Aria 2 6 days ago and literally every day my body fat % has gone up.

Here are the results. 

Day 1: 89.6 KG, 17.6% BF

Day 2: 88.9 KG, 18.2% BF

Day 3: 88.4 KG, 18.3% BF

Day 4: 88.3 KG, 18.4% BF

Day 5: 87.1 KG, 18.5% BF

Day 6: 88.7 KG, 18.6% BF

It's absolutely maddening!! I weigh myself roughly the same time every day, place the scale in exact same part of floor, always have dry feet.

I'm a 6'1 guy, I lift weights 3 times a week, quite a bit of cardio, eat plenty of protein and get plenty of sleep and am generally in a 500-1500 calorie deficit. 

When I look at the breakdown and saying that all my weight loss(prior to last day) has been pure muscle loss and not only that - that I'm GAINING fat mass is absolutely frustrating.