Body Measurement

I’ve been lax in keeping track of my quantifiable health data since I moved from Baltimore. I’ve never been a big fan of having a scale at home since I can get obsessive over checking my weight which can lead to unhealthy decisions. Using the scale only weekly and at the gym was a big part of how I got into shape.

But, my Crossfit gym doesn’t have a scale, and I’ve been interested in capturing details more than just my weight, so I cracked and bought a Nokia Health (formerly Withings) Body Cardio1. I was apprehensive before buying, but my verdict after a few weeks is that it’s exactly what I want in a scale by being much more than scales have been in the past.

Here’s a quick summary of my favorite things about it:

  • Is wifi1, not bluetooth, so it directly sends data to your profile on Nokia’s health webapp
  • Tracks weight, body composition (lean muscle mass, fat mass, body water weight, bone mass), BMI2, heartrate, and Pulse wave velocity
  • Does the above while differentiating between individuals in a household

I have a profile, and so does Lindsay. My son climbs on the scale just about every day, but just to play. His measurements just get collected in a “no profile” bucket, and I clear them out every few days.

Like many, I’ve been focusing on dropping fat after the holidays, and I’ve done exactly that, averaging a pound and a half loss since mid-December. I think a lot of that is thanks to the accountability provided by having these measurements.

  1. I did run into an issue where the app and documentation said that an account wasn’t needed to get the scale on my wireless network. I figured it’d have me create an account later in the process. It didn’t, and when I called support, the rep had me create an account, and go through the process again, and it worked just fine. ↩︎

  2. Setting aside arguments about the value of BMI, it’s a metric that’s interesting if you’re tracking other metrics and don’t get too hung up on it. ↩︎

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