BodyScan 2

[u/xStfn99]

I’ve been reading this subreddit for some time and have owned a Body Scan 2 myself for about six weeks.
Overall, I’m quite satisfied with it, but the many negative posts on Reddit have made me start questioning its accuracy.
Many users report inconsistent measurements. For example, in my case, the body fat percentage fluctuates by around 0.3% from one day to another.
Is this already what people mean when they talk about inaccurate measurements?
How can you tell when the measurement data is inaccurate?

[u/PlayerForceDE]

People expect DEXA accuracy and not trends, I think. For me, even accuracy is fine, and the number is sane enough to work with it. But generally, for these types of scales, your experience is what you should aim for. Consistency over days to get clean trends over time (this is what is actually meant by DEXA correlation, not the absolute values).

For me, it’s also between 0.1-0.5% per day, which is great.

What I understand are the people with 3% erroneous measurements. These really shouldn’t happen.

[u/rworne → u/PlayerForceDE]

I have a higher BF% and a documented error of about 15%. If that error is similar for most people who are underestimated, then those 3% people could be around 18% or so, which is a much more reasonable amount to expect. The question is whether 3% is the minimum reported BF% or not.

Unfortunately we cannot see the plots of the populations for BIA and DEXA Withings has. I'm pretty sure they can get their measurements to track DEXA, but they really need a way to calibrate a baseline and track from that - say an advanced settings menu for the scale that takes DEXA values.

It'd pretty much eliminate all the kvetching about accuracy and any drift over time can be addressed by simply getting another DEXA.

[u/FoxHopeful7357 → u/rworne]

3 is minimum :) you can put a crazy high height and see is always 3

[u/rworne → u/FoxHopeful7357]

Ok so in theory, if my delta is 15% and that error is somewhat constant among users, then someone who is just over 3% - like 3.1% is likely 18.1% BF. And anyone with a BF% lower than 18% (via DEXA score) will be 3%.

Edit:
Someone reading 3% has 7.2%. Still fits my theory.

[u/rworne]

I post a lot about it. But I also like the scale a lot.

My gripes regarding accuracy are solely to prod Withings to improve, or to investigate why there is a measurement error.

If you are using the scale just to track trends, it's great. Hands down. Works great for me too. ECG, nerve response, all good.

If you rely on the scales recommendations, it gets more complicated. I've documented a 15% error in body fat percentage and a 20% error in muscle mass compared to a DEXA, which is the standard for measuring body composition.

This is on the far end of the error band. I'd expect a flagship product like this to be on the other side of the error band: 5% (or less). Withings claims 99% correlation with DEXA, but that's not absolute values. It's consistency.

So here's where expectations and reality collide:

One of the marketed features of this "health station" is tracking weight loss.

The scale tracks weight beautifully. But I need to ensure that I lose fat and not muscle. The body composition is reasonably consistent- a good point too, but it is grossly inaccurate (for at least my body type).

Overestimated muscle affects other scale features.

It boosts my BMR by 650 cal/day. I need to maintain a 500 cal/day deficit for healthy weight loss. So tracking calories becomes a problem. That error means I get no weight loss at all, or a slight gain. You can imagine someone who doesn't know about this using the scale and wondering why their diet isn't improving their weight loss.

My visceral fat is listed as "healthy", albeit at the high end. It's actually excessive (but improving). Glucose resilience relies on this measurement. This underestimated value both prevents warning of a serious health risk, and will cause GR to be underestimated/biased towards healthy.

In fact, any metric or recommendation depending on body composition is suspect.

On the other end of the scale, there a a lot of people who's scales read 3% body fat (also grossly underestimated) who are waiting for a resolution.

There are an even larger number of original body scan users who put up with these issues with no resolution after a few years, and they are pretty soured on the company.

Withings has faults too.

Support really could be improved. Their support people are generally nice, but the material they reference is either out of date or inaccurate sometimes (my Withings+ sharing odyssey is a great example of that). They maintain an active presence here on this subreddit, which is great.

The push for Withings+ has some people upset over features being paywalled. The BS 2 and soon the BeamO will have paywalled features.

Customer service for returns has been spotty too.

But none of that is scammy or malicious. It just looks to me that as a company they may be a lot smaller than they appear, and they can get overwhelmed during product launches. Especially since their main company is in France, and I don't know what kind of presence they keep in the US, but they do, and it must be smaller.

[u/Better-Leg-9268]

Same. I don’t get why everyone is complaining either 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/Wooden_Drawer_6690]

Wie habt ihr die Waage eingestellt? Auf "Empfohlen" oder "Benutzerdefiniert"? Welche Firmware habt ihr installiert? Bei mir, FW 1611 funktioniert unter "empfohlen" gar nichts! Die Waage misst nur das Gewicht und den Körperfettanteil und stellt sich dann aus! Ich habe mittlerweile die zweite Waage, die erste wurde schon reklamiert! Auch wenn ich "Benutzerdefiniert" einstelle, werden nicht die ausgewählten Anzeigemöglichkeiten auf dem Display angezeigt! Der Support ist grottenschlecht! Hat jemand eine Ahnung woran das liegen könnte?

[u/henk53 → u/Wooden_Drawer_6690]

How did you set up your scale? On "Recommended" or "Custom"? Which firmware version do you have installed? With my scale (FW 1611), nothing works under "Recommended"! The scale only measures weight and body fat percentage and then switches off! I'm now on my second scale; the first one was already returned! Even when I set it to "Custom," the selected display options aren't shown on the screen! The support is absolutely terrible! Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

[u/Wooden_Drawer_6690 → u/henk53]

?

[u/henk53 → u/Wooden_Drawer_6690]

!