Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale

For me and my husband having a good set of scales / body analyser was a must.When you are lifting weights, and training hard it's very important to see when you are burning fat or destroying muscle tissue.Although we recommend this scales to any family, regardless if they're training or not.Fitbit Aria has proven to us to be the best set of scales we have owned.We also use it as the family's scale and its even helping our daughter look after and maintain a healthy weight.With her puberty change she was adding weight on non-stop, and she felt bad but did not realise it was a hormonal change… with the Fitbit Aria my daughter is more conscious of her body without an unhealthy obsession. The charts and keeping a healthy track of her progress is helping her a lot.Instead of talking to you about how stylish it looks etc… I'm just going to go through the basic MUST KNOWS that I wish I would have known.I really hope it helps.-Ready to set up straight out of the boxThe scale arrives with pre-installed batteries.All you need to do is place them on a flat surface and pull the small plastic tab sticking out of the battery compartment to power on the scale.Do this and do not touch it or anything until set up is fully completed or it will get "stuck" and you will have to re-set.If any step of the set up goes wrong for any reason, and you need to re-set, take the batteries off for two minutes and Aria re-sets from the start of the process to a "ready to continue OK" state. Yes it has a mind of its own upon set up. ;)-Set up on computer is also a piece of cakeI have it working on my Windows 10 All in One without any issues.Account set up has clear steps to follow all the way through.-Really easy to set up with your router.Just make sure your router is set at 2.4 GHz frequency.On the set up it was a little temperamental not wanting to connect to our Wi-Fi, it simply kept thinking and thinking, so at this point I took the batteries out for 2 minutes and started the Wi-Fi set up from scratch.While off I logged out my account, the logged back in, re-entered the password and it worked straight away.In case it helps I also have a MAC address restriction on my Wi-Fi, so only the devices I give permission to connect can use the Wi-Fi even if they have my password (to avoid cheeky neighbours from using my Wi-Fi) and I thought this would be a problem but it's not.I took the restriction off, found the Aria Scale, noted the MAC address and then I added it to the permitted list. I have never had any issues.-Rated top scales for accuracyJust make sure you are placing them on a flat/hard surface as bathroom floor or wooden floors.(So it will not work on carpets)Aria scales have four load cells sensors to measure your weight.Body fat information is measured through electrical impedance, which is the measure of the opposition that a circuit presents to a current when a voltage is applied. So the sensors send a signal and see how much resistance your body provides. Body fat has a different density to muscle and water so the measurement picks that up.It finally calculates the % with the reading and based on the weight and data you have on your account.Because the weight gets updates automatically every time you weigh yourself, the measurements are more accurate too.The scale measures body mass using bio impedance analysis. Indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes form a pattern on the top of scale and sends a small, safe signal through the body to measure impedance.This sensors help the scales provide more accurate measurements.Most of body analysers and scales simply calculate body fat with the weight, height and age without measurements from any sensors.You can also set up the mode, so the scales are on "Regular" or "Lean".“Lean” mode is intended for body builders and athletes with a lower body fat % compared to their muscle mass. This setting is ideal for my husband and improves the scale’s accuracy.Each user can have their own setting.-It will synchronise with your fitbit tracker accountI have my android app as well as my desktop version.In one app / account if I click on my devices I can see both my Fitbit HR and my Aria scale.When I'm looking at my Fitbit HR stats, I can see my weight and my weight goal process all in same page ;)Both my husband and I are both very happy with it.-Myfitnesspal friendMy Aria scales are also synchronised with myfitnesspal account so from my app I can check my macros and my weight progress.Making my life a lot easier.-No more pen and paper / record booksYou weigh yourself and it gets automatically tracked.It does not matter if you use it once or 10 times a day.-Multi usersOn the Aria Account, a main user/the main account can invite another 7 users.You will need a different email for each person and they will all have to confirm the account from the invitation email and create their own account.Weights in between users can or cannot be seen by other users of the scales.You have the option to choose if your progress and measurements can or cannot be seen by others.For instance at home I am the main user.On my app I only see my weight and my weight progress, my weight goal etc, my husband sees his data and so on…So we have our privacy ;)But on my account on my PC, which I am set up as the main user, we have chosen to see all of our weights and all of our progress, so me and my husband sit down and share and compare our progress. He always beats me though ;)The online account can also be set to private so no other Fitbit Aria can see any of your stats.So even though there is an Aria community, you don’t have to be part of it, if you don’t want to.It also says it's not good for weighing children, well… keep their socks on so body mass sensors cannot run or work on them and just "guest" weigh them ;)Guest users are all those who have not been set up with their own accounts, as little children or my sister when she comes round and asks me to let her weigh herself.A guest user will simply not get their body fat calculated, but the weight measurement will be stored on the main account as a "Guest" entry.-Scales measurementsOn scales: weight and body fat %. With nice blue illuminated digits.On app: water, fat and muscle, weight loss / weight gain progress.You can also choose from stones and lb or kg.-Min and Max WeightsIt can measure a Maximum Weight of 158 kg / 350 LbsMinimum weight for accurate reading 10kg / 20 lbs.-It's smartWalk up to the scale, go on.It will tell you to step off and it will ask the 1st 3 digits of your name with a ?So for an example, if you're MIKE, the scale will display MIK?Do nothing if it recognised you OK.Step once to tap the scale and change the user, until you reach yourself.I find it gets it right most of the time ;)-Very easy to storeI keep mine upright (sideways) in between two units I have in my room, every morning I put it on my wooden floor, take my measurement and again I store in a very narrow, out of the way, safe space. I have 4 children so I don’t want the scales to be in the bathroom for them to be playing around with ;)Because I have it stored upright/ sideways when not in use, the scale goes through a calibration process every time I go to use it in the morning. Instead of weighing me once, it will simply take two consecutive weigh-ins.This takes a few seconds and you will know that your Aria is calibrating when you see the "SENSING" message appear on the screen.-Guarantee2 Full years of peace of mind with Fitbit quality.***REVIEW UPDATEToday we have had to change our router and of course once the new one was installed we have had to add all our Wi-Fi devices again.With our MAC filter too (what a task)As our ARIA was connected to our old Wi-Fi name with our old password, we have had to do all the set up again.It has turned out to be a lot easier than expected.Steps to change WIFI on Aria;Go to;www dot fitbit dot com slash uk slash setup slash ariaAll together and properly noted of course ;)Download the software (pink big box)Save and RunChoose your new Network nameEnter New PasswordTake one battery off your AriaCount 10 secondsPut battery back onAria says "SET UP ACTIVATED"If it doesn't take the battery off again and count to 15 ;)Follow the steps on the set up program running…A few clicks here and there and… Connected!I hope this update becomes helpful.***As an overall we are really happy with this scales and after owing around 4 body analysers scales, our Aria scales are the ones that are lasting us longer and taking the most accurate readings.I personally recommend Aria scales to any family.****JULY UPDATEI still very much like my Fitbit Aria, but as you all know besides only accepting 8 profiles (which is not the issue) Each one of them needs to be set up from main PC account, with an individual e-mail.From main account you send invitation, open the e-mail accept invitation, create profile….)When you try and create a profile for a child, even if your intention is to weight them with their socks on and just record the weight, Fitbit will not allow you to as there is a minimum age requirement (I think it was 13).So up until now, with our Fitbit Aria, we have only weighed our children as "guests" so entries are only available on the online account and all are under a guest reading.But when you have three little ones of very similar ages (5, 6 and 7) the reading can get confusing and… Mixed up.Hence reason why I was looking for a more family friendly scale ;)As I have now found the perfect scale to weigh my kids with, and has an amazing APP as well as many more features as up to 10 users...With the following readings;Body water %Body fat %Bone %BMIVisceral fatBMRMuscle MassI thought I would share it with you.The link is: Body Fat Scale,ZJchao Bluetooth 4.0 Body Bathroom Scale Measures Weight, Body Fat, Hydration, Muscle and Bone Mass with Auto Recognition This scale is on the £50 mark and I find it ideal to track my little ones weight record.I am sticking with my Fitbit Aria (as I have already purchased it)But for my kids, this affordable but complete scale, has impressed the whole family.

I bought the Fitbit Aria scales after using my sister's set of Withings Wi-Fi scales while visiting her recently. I've lost a large amount of weight this year (30kg+) and as I've gotten closer to my goal I've become more concerned about things like Bodyfat %, particularly as I recently started barbell strength training. I was impressed with the Withings device but Fitbit Aria promised to do the same job for £24 less so I decided to take a gamble on the untested product.The scales themselves were extremely easy to setup - just make sure your router can operate in b/g/n mode, which is compatible with legacy Wi-Fi devices, and you shouldn't encounter any problems. Setting up a profile is easy and once you've stepped on the scales once, everything will sync without issue. I also set my partner up on the Aria and while it seemed to get a bit confused about her readings, it was correctly assigning new ones by the next day. Being able to track through historic graphs of weight and composition data is a very useful tool for analytical minds like mine!The Fitbit Aria seems a bit more accurate than the Withings scales and gives the same weight reading as a basic set of John Lewis digital scales I own and the mechanical scales at the gym. The Withings device consistently had both of our weights at around 1.2kg higher than other scales - a bit disheartening when I stepped on it the first time. Body composition readings show less variance too but it's hard to know exactly how accurate this method of measuring fat vs lean mass is. The data follows the pattern I'd expect based on my diet and exercise regime - perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part though.So what's keeping the Fitbit scales from getting 5 stars? The food and exercise tracking tools that come as part of your Fitbit account. Other reviewers have noted that few, if any, British foods are available on the system, a problem I overcame by syncing Fitbit to my MyFitnessPal account. This seemed to work fairly well but then another issue emerged - Fitbit doesn't seem to allow static calorie targets, either modified by exercise or otherwise. Instead, it has a constantly shifting "Calories Burned" value that changes the number of calories you should eat. This is clearly designed to work based on the activity levels calculated by wearing a Fitbit Wi-Fi tracker but without one, the system breaks down - the Calories Burned value seems to be completely arbitrary.Unfortunately I don't own a Fitbit, which quickly turned into a source of great irritation. By the end of a day where I walked for about an hour, spent half an hour doing light domestic chores and did an hour and a half gym session, including heavy strength training, it showed me as 400 calories over my target (I eat a mostly Primal/Paleo-lite diet so this is extremely difficult to do!) whereas MyFitnessPal had me with a 500 calorie deficit short of target - that's a 900 calorie difference and eight months of consistent weight loss have shown that the MFP values work extremely well for me. The food and exercise tracking is essentially redundant - from the point of view of accuracy at least - unless you own a Fitbit tracker.For watching your weight and body composition, however, the Fitbit Aria scale does an admirable job and is, in my opinion, more accurate and easier to use than the largely similar Withings Wi-Fi scale. I can't help but feel that the food/exercise tracking not working properly without a Fitbit is a deliberate ploy to get people to buy the things as well (something I'm now begrudgingly considering) but perhaps I'm being needlessly cynical. Either way, I'd heartily recommend the product but unless you already own other Fitbit gear, you may want to stick to your existing calorie counting solution.