iHealth Scale Review

You’ve heard me complain about my weight many times.  Usually it’s when I’m telling you about a new recipe that is low-fat or healthy.  What I don’t tell you (and I’m not entirely sure why) is that I’m an avid runner and that’s one of the reasons I’m so self-critical about my weight.  In my mind, I run several miles so weight shouldn’t be an issue but we all know it is.  Exercise is just one component of maintaining a healthy weight and deciding to quit shoving food in my mouth is the other.  And that’s why I needed the iHealth Scale.

My previous scale was a mechanical scale.  The kind that you had to manually adjust to set it exactly at zero.  I never really knew what my weight was, I more knew the range because the lines were so close together and too hard for me to read.    Unlike that old, inaccurate scale, the iHealth is digital and has big numbers that even I can see.  The iHealth Scales allows you to track your fitness goals by connecting with your iPod, iPhone or iPad through Bluetooth technology to the HS3 app.  The HS3 app allows you to track your weight, calories consumed and calories burned and provides a graph of your progress.  If you’re a visual person like me, seeing your weight slowly decline on a graph is a huge motivator.  Knowing that potentially other people could see this?  Even bigger motivator.

The Good

What I liked about this scale is the accuracy.  With my previous scale, I had a range but never a precise measurement.  The iHealth Scale weighs me to the tenth of a pound.  Now I did find that if I stepped on and off the scale, my weight would be different but usually within .1-.2 tenths of a pound.  Typically this is due to movement as it’s really difficult to stand perfectly still.  When you weight yourself multiple times in one day, the app computes your average weight.

You can also set up multiple users with this app.  My husband, who just got his first iPhone (insert snickering here) was set up on my phone so we could track his progress.  For the fun of it, I also set up an account for my toddler so I could track her progress.

The visual effects.  The graph showing my weight changes is a huge motivator for me.  I can see the days/weeks were my weight was higher and think back about what was going on during that time period so I can make changes going forward.

The Bad

Each time you step on the scale, you have to connect your iOS device with Bluetooth.  The first time I tried the app, it worked perfectly.  The subsequent times, I’ve had a more difficult time connecting.  You can upload your weight manually but the beauty of this product is that it’s supposed to sync immediately.

It manually uploads every weight to one user.  One of the features of the scale is after the initial use, the scale can be used without being connected to your iOS device.  Your weight is stored in memory and can be uploaded to your device.  Sounds great, right?  Wrong.  The scale has no way of knowing if you, your husband or your dog stepped on the scale so it uploads every weight in memory to whichever user your iOS device is on.  Talk about messing up your graph.

The calories burned is way off.  For instance, I ran for 30 minutes yesterday.  According to the app, I would have burned 350 calories.  Well, I know from other calorie calculators that I only burned about 298 calories.  Why the big difference?  Because the app didn’t take into account my pace or my current weight.

My Impression

Overall I am happy with the scale and its ability to accurately weigh me.  It has a sleek design that will fit in with any bathroom décor, though it is a little bit bigger than what I am used to and it doesn’t slide easily on my tile floor.  I think with any app that is developed, there are several kinks that need to be worked out.  Hopefully the developers will continue to make improvements to the app so consumers will have more confidence in the results.

Where To Buy

The iHealth Scale currently retails for $69.99 and be found at www.bestbuy.com.

 “I have received the reviewed product from Best Buy for free.  Regardless statements and opinions are 100% mine (including that weight!) and yours may differ.”