Like I always point out with these types of posts, I am not in any way sponsored or affiliated with Garmin, so I bought this product with my own money, and this is my unbiased opinion.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let’s talk about the expensive scale I showed on my YouTube channel the other day when unboxing it.
First, why did I buy a new scale and specifically this scale? I had a basic (it might actually be from Amazon Basics) scale that worked, and my only frustration was that I thought maybe it was getting stuck (it wasn’t), so this was really an impulse purchase. I have had body fat scales before, and I don’t put much emphasis on the body fat measurement it provides, and I am aware they are typically not accurate, so that feature is interesting, but not the highest priority. I actually just picked it because it pairs with Garmin Connect.
Initial setup is easy, as long as you don’t put batteries in backwards because you’re doing it right before going to bed. Once the batteries are in, you finish setup and pairing with your phone and the Connect app, so this is not a good scale for a non-Garmin user. It will run a software update if there is one, so I sat on my bathroom floor for a little while before it was ready to go.
My first thought when using it was that it is a little different than my other scale. With most scales I’ve used, there is an audible click to wake it up and zero it, but on this one, I just had to tap it with my foot for it to wake up. After that it works just like any other scale. I step on, it logs my weight and locks it in, then the extra features come in to play.
The scale gives you BMI, body fat, water, muscle, and bone amounts, and it also provides the weather. The really interesting thing here was when I weighed myself at night and in the morning. My weight went down, but my body fat percent went up, which after thinking for a minute made sense, because we lose water weight over night. Do I think the body fat percent is 100% accurate? No, but I do think it is more accurate than the other ones I’ve used, so I am looking for a trend and not relying on the actual percent it is giving me. An example of why it isn’t accurate is that my bone and muscle mass also decreased very slightly over night (the weight), which is why I don’t ever trust this measurement 100%.
The feature I really like is that it connects with Garmin Connect, and you can also pair to other outside apps from there. I am a data geek, and I was trying to track my weight in a note in my phone, but this does what I want without doing anything other than stepping on the scale. In one place I can see not only the measurements, but also the trends, because weight fluctuates, so I’m just looking for a downward trend in it.
My final thoughts? It is cool, but probably not worth $150. Body fat scales are never going to be super accurate, and I’ve heard that some people have trouble with multiple users on it. Is it cool? Yes. Will I use every feature? No, but I do like the tracking and additional data. I could also see a negative to the amount of data and tracking for some people, because weighing yourself daily is not ideal for everyone, and this really is built for someone that wants that data.