Aria scale - Get it or not get it?

[CRSunrise]

I was considering getting myself an Aria scale when I have the money, and I was wondering what other people thought about it.

[GershonSurge]

I love mine. It takes the hassle out of tracking my weight.

It is most accurate on a hard floor when it's not moved much. Don't turn it sideways or it will need to recalibrate which takes weighing yourself a few times. It's best to only step on it once instead of checking two or three times.

I'm becoming convinced the body fat error is consistent, so trends are likely accurate.

[JamieS_Wisco]

I love mine.  Step on it every morning and I can see the trends.  I think it has been totally worth the money spent.

[Dominique]

I’ve had one for the past three years and it has served me well. It’s expensive, but you pay for the convenience of the integration into the Fitbit "ecosystem". You need to be aware of the fact you will need a wifi router that supports the older 802.11b protocol and that some people are having great difficulties setting it up with their router (for that reason, buy it from a place that will let you return it at a minimal cost, just in case). The Aria only does two things: 1) weight, 2) body fat %. For estimating body fat, it uses the bioimpedance method, which has known limitations. I’ve become a fan of Trendweight, a free service that pulls out weight and body fat data from your Fitbit account and displays it in a more useful way (IMO) than Fitbit does. The Aria is one of only two "smartscales" supported by Trendweight.

[JohnRi]

I own two of them, each at different locations.  They are a little tricky to setup, you must make sure you have a laptop or pc with WIFI, and you wifi router must support the old 802.11b wireless network.  Most routers today are configured for 802.11g and 802.11n, or newer.  Your router can support 802.11b, it just will mostly have it turned off.  So you'll have to get on your router and change this.

As far as accuracy, the scale works great, reports your readings to fibit, and your app on your phone syncs.  Can be tricky if you set it up to support more than one person.  The second one decided my much lighter wife was me, and suddently I hit my weight loss goal!  Wish it was that easy.

But I step on it once a day.  That's it, done.  Most of the time I don't even look at the reading.

I find that fat % is pretty accurate.  Mine says I"m 25%, and I match up with pictures of those around 25%.  So I think it's right on target.  At least close enough for me.  I've watched my fat % fall from 36 % to 25 % as I have lost 30 lbs since I got my scale.

I was wary of the cost, but I wanted to monitor my fat % as I got closer to my goal.  I've used the data to increase my diet as I get closer to my goal to avoid losing lean mass, and only lose fat.  It's tricky, but if you watch the numbers, you can catch when this happens, and eat more to correct the problem.

It's a great tool.  But like any tool, you can use the right way, or you can not.  It's just more data to look at...

[SunsetRunner]

If used as a tool it's wonderful.

When it determines your mood for the day.. due natural fluctuations not necessarily weight gain.. put something over the display to not see at the number and watch the trend at the end of the week or day so it doesn't ruin the day.. 

It's a tool to stay on track and able to make changes where necessary if needed.