Bathroom scales are hardly a thing of beauty, nor are they usually high tech. Never something I'd look at and think, "Yeah, I like that square thing taking up valuable space in my tiny bathroom."
I confess I didn't grow up with a scale in our house for most of my life. Later in my high school years, I vaguely remember some kind of body fat measuring scale that terrified me. You had to enter in your height and age and create a "profile" for it. There were only two profiles allowed to my knowledge and so I never messed with the thing, scared of screwing up my parents statistics. My best friend's family had a scale, but the mother is a doctor and so of course their scale was one of those monstrous, overwhelming medical ones that you had to click the little bars across to find your weight. I only remember playing with it as a child. Suffice to say I rarely weighed myself. Why would I want or need to?
In college I bought my first scale. Being poor and paying my own way, I splurged for the cheapest one I could find at the grocery store. It was a tiny, off-white, horrid little thing with the typical red arrow that pointed to what my self-esteem would be for the day or the week. That scale was not my friend. I left it at college after my first year, 25 lbs lighter than when I came. Once back home, I inherited my parents' old and clunky Weight Watchers scale. Up until a couple weeks ago, that was my scale; laid on it's side, wedged between the wall and dryer. It mostly collected dust and dryer lint except when I would pull it out, my curiosity overthrowing my better judgement, "What do I weight now that I ate my weight in oreos?"
source: beetsblu.com
When Beets Blu contacted me about gifting Todd and I a scale in exchange for a review, I was hesitant for many reasons. I already had a perfectly functioning scale! Not to mention that I try not to weigh myself too often and we don't really have space for such a thing to permanently make residence on our already cramped bathroom floor. I pondered how "cool" this thing could really be. It's a scale for goodness sake and I don't write reviews for things I'm less than thrilled about (unless obligated to write a review whether it's a good review or a bad one). I actually drafted a "Thank you so much for thinking of me but..." However, I did end up agreeding...solely on it's appearance.
The Beets Blu Smart Scale is sleek. It's thin and flat and glossy black with silver metal rectangles that measure my body fat, muscle, and water percentage when my feet make contact with them. It has a digital display that is backlighted by a fancy blue hue. I had to download the corresponding app and enter in my gender, birthday, and height. I also had to enter whether or not I had an "athletic body composition" (something I am still unsure of...I chose that, no, I did not) as well as whether I wanted to "Lose/Maintain" or "Gain".
The app instructs me each time I open it to weigh in the morning. Take off all my clothes, be sure my feet are bare, use the toilet, etc. just in case I forget I suppose. Once I have the app open (it must be open on your smartphone to record) I pad my right foot firmly on the scale. It flashes "0.0" and I step up. The scale makes an initial beep with my weight then after a few seconds a second beep that signals it's measured my body composition and is sending the information to my phone. I step off.
What I didn't know is that if my phone is not on vibrate, a robotic lady voice loudly announces my weight and measurements. The first time this happened I almost jumped out of my own skin! Wide-eyed, I embarrassedly glanced around to see if by chance anyone else was in the bathroom with me and almost collapsed in a fit of laughter, stark naked, and alone. I pretty much always have my phone on vibrate so the first time this happened was about one week into using the scale. I did not know this was a feature. I do not like this feature. It's happened twice now, the second time as horrifying as the first.
The app on the smartphone charts muscle, fat, water, and bmi by default but can also include lean body mass and bones. It can arrange the information by days, weeks, or months and I can look up my stats by month, then by day. It's very comprehensive. It shows a green arrow for good events (like losing fat and gaining muscle) and red for bad events (the opposite). I imagine if I had it set to "gain" these would be reversed. Each person in your house can download the app and have their own profile. If you don't want the app to record your stats then just hop on the scale and it will show you your weight, without recording anything. Good for the inquisitive guest.
The only thing I don't like about this scale? I now feel compelled to weigh myself daily (you can even weigh twice a day as it specifies a "morning" and "night" weigh-in.....*cue eye-roll*), which I don't like, but man, the graphs are addictive you guys!
This scale, at your own risk, is available at Amazon.com and retails for $74.95. Find out more at
*DISCLAIMER* PRODUCE ON PARADE IS A PERSONAL BLOG WRITTEN AND EDITED BY MYSELF ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. MY REVIEWS ARE COMPLETELY BASED ON MY OWN OPINION OF THE PRODUCT REVIEWED. THESE PRODUCTS WERE SUPPLIED TO ME AS GIFTS TO TEST AND REVIEW. OTHERWISE, IF I MENTION A COMPANY BY NAME AND THERE IS NO DISCLAIMER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST, I AM MERELY WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING I LIKE, PURCHASE AND/OR USE. THE FACT THAT I DO RECEIVE A PRODUCT AS A GIFT TO TEST AND REVIEW, WILL NEVER POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE CONTENT MADE IN THIS POST.
