8 best bathroom scales for a smarter way to track weight and fitness

Intelligent, good-looking, dependable. No, we’re not talking about our significant other, we’re talking about the Eufy Smart Scale P2 Pro, which is all of those things, in one, easy to use, affordable package.

Not only does it look sleek, with its polished mirrored glass surface in either black or white, and its clear LED screen, but it helped us measure a whole host of metrics. We could see our weight (of course), our body fat percentage, water mass, muscle mass, and even our levels of subcutaneous fat (stored just beneath your skin), as well as our body’s age and our basal metabolic rate (BMR, the rate at which the body uses energy while at rest).

There is so much accessible information inside the app, too. You can set mini goals for weight and body fat percentage, receive daily weigh-in reminders and see all your data plotted on a graph. We also liked that we could see a 3D model of our body and rotate it at every angle.

Best of all? It doesn’t cost an eye-watering amount, and there’s no extra monthly subscription – everything’s ready to go out of the box (including a tape measure). Our only slight niggle is it’s quite a compact machine – it’s easy to put away, but the platform is fairly narrow.

You don’t need to spend a pretty penny to track your body composition metrics. Etekcity’s body composition scale is an affordable pick and frequently falls below £20. It’s a smart-looking machine with an old-fashioned-looking LED display but it does the job.

Like other Etekcity products, it works with the VeSync app, and measures a whole host of body composition metrics, such as BMR, subcutaneous fat, protein and metabolic age, as well as your body fat percentage, muscle mass, bone mass, water mass and protein percentage. It also has a baby mode, so you can measure your baby’s body weight and BMI – other body composition metrics are turned off if you use this mode. We liked that we could even weigh our dog and parcels as light as 100g.

The app was simple and easy to use, and we liked that we could see every single body composition metric plotted on a graph. We could set goals and even sync the app to apps such as MyFitnessPal.

The numbers occasionally felt a little off compared with higher-priced models, and we wish it worked with wifi as well as Bluetooth, but we still managed to get a good trend line over time. This is a good machine with a relatively small price tag.

Withings is the market leader when it comes to smart body scales, having manufactured them for more than a decade. The body comp is Withings’s latest scale, and it’s a sleek and stylish device that comes in black or white glass, and it told us all about our body composition.

The comprehensive machine was a doddle to set up with the app, connecting directly over wifi, instead of Bluetooth, meaning it automatically uploaded all our data to the app without us needing to have our phone nearby. We were able to track our weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass, lean mass, bone mass and water mass. The game-changing metrics, though, is that it can also track your visceral fat (the fat around your vital organs), vascular age and your nerve health. All of this data flashes up on the LED screen, and you can change what you do and don’t want to see inside the app, including the weather and air quality.

In the app, you can see your trends over time on a graph. Withings breaks down your body composition metrics into a percentage or unit of measurement, and tells you whether a specific metric, such as your muscle mass or fat mass, is going up or down. Withings also gives you quick missions to complete in the app – from stepping on the app to doing 30 minutes of activity. There is a premium subscription that gives you access to workouts and nutrition programmes, but it’s not necessary in the slightest to get the most out of the scales. 

The scale can store results for up to eight people. It can tell who is who, based on their weight and composition, so we didn’t need to change profiles, and it also has a specially designed baby and puppy mode, which can measure a baby or pup’s weight when you step onto the platform with your loved one in your arms. It’s a neat little machine, and really easy to use.

Xiaomi might have started life as a smartphone manufacturer, but it’s really started to make a name for itself in the realm of home gadgetry in recent years. This scale is a slick-looking machine – it doesn’t look like it has a display until you step on and the digits pop up on its white surface, as if there weren’t an LED screen.

It can do a boatload of things. Not only were we able to measure all our body composition metrics, including body fat percentage, visceral fat, muscle mass, protein and water, but the smart scale was even clever enough to weigh objects up to 10kg, making it ideal for luggage. We were even able to do a balance test, to see how long and how well we were able to stand on one foot.

However, there were a few issues with the mi 2. We found it inflated our metrics by a percentage point or more, compared with the other scales on this list, so, we can’t be certain of its accuracy or reliability. However, you will get a trend-line over time. It’s also a Bluetooth-only scale, so you’ll need your phone nearby to sync your weigh-ins.

We also weren’t massive fans of the app, as it all felt a little cluttered. Lastly, there aren’t any batteries in the box, so, we had to dash out to get four AAA batteries before we could set it up. Having said that, we love the object weighing feature, and it’s a pretty affordable option.

For those with a Garmin smartwatch or fitness tracker looking to cover their body composition from all bases, there’s the Garmin index S2 – a really powerful bathroom scale that looks elegant, with its curved corners and full-colour display, and works extremely well with the Garmin Connect app.

The scale shows a lot of data on the screen – it’s basically all squashed onto the display rather unnecessarily. The date and time, wifi strength and battery level is on show constantly, as is your body weight, BMI, body fat percentage, bone mass, muscle mass, body water and how it trends on a monthly basis.

There’s both Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, so your data is always synced to the app, even if you don’t have your phone handy nearby. Unlike other smart scales, you don’t get too much extra data if you go to the app – everything you can see on the app, we were able to see on the screen.

There is one annoying quirk, however. To use the scale, you have to tap it with your foot each time you want to use it. It felt a little archaic, and sometimes it didn’t even register our foot tap. It’s also a little pricey, considering the Eufy P2 pro offers more comprehensive data than the Garmin for a fraction of the price. That said, as a whole package, it integrated nicely with the Garmin ecosystem.

This innovative scale isn’t just sustainable, it’s also a game changer for the disorganised. It doesn’t need batteries to work, but is instead self-powered by pressing the raised button at the bottom of the scale with your foot before stepping on for the big reveal.

It’s a no-frills machine, and results were delivered immediately and consistently, despite our reservations about it being a battery-free option. Weight can be viewed in stones, pounds or kilos. The LCD display is large, but it’s not very bright, so keep that in mind. The plastic surface platform is comfortable to step on, and we didn’t have to take our socks off to get a measurement.

There are no extra options to view body fat or BMI, but these scales are a hassle-free choice if you just need the basic numbers. Our only minor gripe is that, because the power button is positioned centrally, we weren’t able to weigh boxes or bits of luggage, because the button would get in the way. Other than that, it’s a nice eco-friendly buy.

Fitbit used to have a bunch of bathroom scales in its repertoire, but now only one remains – the aria air. While it’s technically a smart scale, connecting to our Fitbit app in a snap, it’s not the most useful if you’re after a body composition smart scale. That’s because the aria air only measures your body weight and BMI.

While the company used to make BIA-based scales, it’s ditched them in favour of a purely body-weight-only scale, meaning you don’t have to take your socks off to take a measurement. That makes it a little less useful than its composition counterparts, but we liked how simple it was to use and that the Fitbit app showed us our weight trend on a graph.

It has a matte glass finish, so, we found that it got marks on its surface quite frequently, but it looks nice in the bathroom, came pre-installed with batteries and had a handy touch-button to change the measurement from stones to kilograms. Be aware, though, this is a Bluetooth-only scale, so you’ll have to keep the Fitbit app open when you step on the scale, or it won’t register.

It’s a simple machine but, for Fitbit users, it’s a nice, basic option that will pair well with the fitness tracker for a more holistic look at your body metrics.

This is a neat, slimline (no pun intended) scale that offers everything most users will ever need. Ideal for those who don’t want to bother with an app, the neat silver and clear-glass scale weighs in stones, pounds and kilograms, and also measures body weight, BMI, body water, bone mass and body fat. Results are clearly displayed on the large digital screen, though, we sometimes found it hard to remember the numbers before they were replaced by the next set of measurements.

It memorises four different users, so is great for the whole family, although, you do need to keep the instructions to hand to set up each profile, initially. Once up and running, we found the scale extremely accurate, and especially appreciated the fact it could be set to athlete mode to acknowledge different fitness levels.