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

Weigh to go, these are our favourite bathroom scales for tracking all your body metrics

Alex Lee,Siobhan Grogan
Friday 16 June 2023 17:14 BST
<p>The latest smart models can measure body fat, muscle mass, water percentage, bone mass and more</p>

The latest smart models can measure body fat, muscle mass, water percentage, bone mass and more

Our Top Picks

Ah, the humble bathroom scale – an enemy to many. No one really enjoys stepping on the scale, waiting for the numbers to flash up. But for those looking to gain, lose or maintain their weight, bathroom scales are a necessary evil, and now they’re smarter than ever. 

The best bathroom scales don’t just measure your body weight, they also detect a range of metrics, from your BMI, body fat percentage and muscle mass to your nerve health and heart rate. And, these days, entry-level smart bathroom scales cost roughly the same as traditional analogue or digital scales.

Smart scales use something called bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to send a safe (and pain-free) electrical current from your bare feet through your body, encountering different levels of resistance when it travels through your muscle, fat and bone. This electrical current provides you with a huge amount of valuable data on your body. Though manufacturers advise that people who are pregnant or have a pacemaker shouldn’t use these types of scales.

Although scales that use BIA won’t give you precise measurements, they will still give you a good trend-line indication of whether your body fat and muscle mass is going up or down. “Should I expect BIA to give me an accurate value on day one? No,” says Jonathan Wells, professor of anthropology and paediatric nutrition at University College London. “But would I expect it to give me a good indication of whether I am gaining or losing muscle and fat? Yes,” he adds.

We’ve been testing a bunch of smart (and digital) scales over the past few months, and have rounded up our abs-olute favourites below.

How we tested

We’ve been testing bathroom scales over the past several months, looking at how they track data, what smart features they have, how they look in our bathroom and how easy they are to use.

We’ve considered their design, cost and usability. Can you add profiles to each scale? Can you weigh objects and pets? Is the app informative and easy to navigate?       

The best bathroom scales for 2023 are:

  • Best bathroom scale overall – Eufy smart scale P2 pro bathroom scale: £39.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best bathroom scale for in-depth analysis – Withings body comp smart bathroom scale: £178.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best budget smart bathroom scale – Etekcity body fat bathroom scale: £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best digital bathroom scale – Eono by Amazon digital body weight bathroom scale: £16.99, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best bathroom scale for weighing luggage – Xiaomi mi body composition scale 2: £30.67, Amazon.co.uk

Eufy smart scale P2 pro

best bathroom scales
  • Best: Bathroom scale overall
  • Measures: Weight, body fat percentage, BMI, muscle mass, fat mass, water mass, bone mass, protein, BMR, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, body age, skeletal muscle, lean body mass, body type
  • Power source: 4 AAA batteries (included)
  • Additional features: Connects to Eufy Life app via Bluetooth and wifi for setting goals and tracking progress
  • Number of profiles: Unlimited
  • Colours: Black
  • Why we love it
    • Heaps of data
    • Affordable
  • Take note
    • Quite a narrow surface

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, 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 there out of the box (including a tape measure). Our only slight niggle is that it’s quite a compact machine – it’s easy to put away, but the platform is fairly narrow.

  1. £50 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Withings body comp smart scale

withings smart scale.jpg
  • Best: Bathroom scale for in-depth analysis
  • Measures: Weight, fat mass, muscle mass, visceral fat, heart rate, pulse wave velocity, vascular age, nerve health, BMI, water percentage, bone mass, steps (with Withings fitness tracker)
  • Power source: 4 AAA batteries
  • Additional features: Health Mate app to set goals, track progress and offer health insights
  • Number of profiles: Up to 8
  • Colours: White, black
  • Why we love it
    • Packed with sensors and data points
    • Excellent, detailed app
  • Take note
    • Expensive
    • Unneccessary subscription

Withings is the market leader when it comes to smart body scales, having been manufacturing 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.

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Etekcity body fat bathroom scale

etekcity.jpg
  • Best: Budget smart bathroom scale
  • Measures: Weight, body fat percentage, BMI, muscle mass, fat mass, water mass, bone mass, protein, BMR, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, body age, skeletal muscle, metabolic age
  • Power source: 3 AAA batteries
  • Additional features: Connects to the VeSync app via Bluetooth for tracking measurements and setting goals
  • Number of profiles: Up to 8
  • Colours: Black
  • Why we love it
    • Good value
    • Tracks a huge number of body composition metrics
  • Take note
    • Inconsistent metrics on occasion
    • Only works with Bluetooth

You don’t need to spend a pretty penny to track your body composition metrics with Etekcity’s body composition scale, which 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.

The app was simple and easy to use, and we liked that we could see every single body composition metric plotted on a graph, and not just our bodyweight and body fat percentage. We could set goals and even sync the app to apps like MyFitnessPal. It was a good machine with a small price tag. The numbers occasionally felt a little off when 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.

  1. £19 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Eono by Amazon digital body weight bathroom scale

Eono by Amazon digital body weight bathroom scale indybest.jpg
  • Best: Digital bathroom scale
  • Measures: Weight
  • Power source: 2 AAA batteries
  • Additional features: Extra large platform, 15-year guarantee
  • Number of profiles: N/A
  • Colours: White
  • Why we love it
    • Large surface
    • Quick weighing
  • Take note
    • No body composition metric

This sleek transparent glass scale impressed us with its accuracy, given the low price. It features four high-precision sensors that delivered reliable results every time we stepped on, even when we tried the scale on different floor surfaces. We liked the fact it weighs as soon as you stand on the scale too, rather than needing to be tapped to be activated.

Weight can be shown in pounds, stones or kilograms, and the extra large platform means it should suit the whole family. It comes with a 15-year guarantee, a low battery indicator, auto-calibration and two AAA batteries so it’s ready to use straight from the box.

  1. £16 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Xiaomi mi body composition scale 2

xiaomi mi 2.jpg
  • Best: Bathroom scale for weighing luggage
  • Measures: Weight, fat mass, muscle mass, visceral fat, body age, BMI, water percentage, bone mass, protein
  • Power source: 4 AAA batteries
  • Additional features: Works with zLife app over Bluetooth for long-term tracking
  • Number of profiles: 16
  • Colours: White
  • Why we love it
    • Measures objects up to 10kg in weight
    • Slick design
  • Take note
    • Not the most accurate composition measurements
    • No batteries included
    • Cluttered app

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, 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. But 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. But we love the object weighing feature, and it’s a pretty affordable buy, too.

  1. £27 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Garmin index S2 smart bathroom scale

garmin index s2.jpg
  • Best: Bathroom scale for Garmin users
  • Measures: Weight, body fat percentage, BMI, muscle mass, fat mass, water mass, bone mass
  • Power source: 4 AAA batteries
  • Additional features: Connects to the Garmin Connect app via Bluetooth and wifi for tracking progress
  • Number of profiles: Up to 16
  • Colours: White, black
  • Why we love it
    • Bluetooth and wifi connectivity
  • Take note
    • Pricey

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 syned 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.

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Brabantia renew battery-free bathroom scale

brabantia.jpg
  • Best: Battery-free bathroom scale
  • Measures: Weight
  • Power source: Push to power button
  • Additional features: Can display weight in kilograms, stones and pounds
  • Number of profiles: N/A
  • Colours: Grey
  • Why we love it
    • No batteries needed
    • Simple to use
  • Take note
    • Only measure body weight

This innovative scale isn’t just sustainable but also a gamechanger 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.

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Fitbit aria air

fitbit aria air.jpg
  • Best: Bathroom scale for Fitbit users
  • Measures: Body weight, BMI
  • Power source: Included battery
  • Additional features: Connects to the Fitbit app via Bluetooth to see weight trends
  • Colours: White, black
  • Why we love it
    • A doddle to set up
    • Easy to understand your trend-line in the app
  • Take note
    • Very basic
    • Pricey for what it is
    • Only works with Bluetooth

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.

  1. £49 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Weight Watchers ultra slim glass body analyser scale

WW ultra slim glass body analyser scale indybest.jpg
  • Best: Slimline bathroom scale
  • Measures: Weight, body weight, BMI, body water, bone mass and body fat
  • Power source: 3V-CR2032 battery
  • Additional features: Memorises four different users' measurements
  • Number of profiles: Up to 4
  • Colours: White
  • Why we love it
    • Slim design
    • There’s no app, so it’s super simple to use
    • Cheap
  • Take note
    • The lack of an app means it’s hard to keep track of your stats
    • Few profiles

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.

  1. £18 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Bathroom scales FAQs

How do smart scales work?

Smart scales help to give you a clear picture of your health and fitness by offering additional metrics besides weight, including body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, muscle mass and more. They do this by sending a small, non-harmful electrical impulse through your body to measure the resistance, or impedance, your body gives against the current in bone, fat and muscle. They must be used barefoot and it is important to note that they should not be used by anyone who is pregnant or anyone who uses a pacemaker.

Are smart scales more accurate than mechanical scales?

While mechanical and digital scales can give you a basic reading of your weight, smart scales can provide you with even more information about your body, allowing you to log your weight and track changes remotely on your smartphone. They are the most accurate of all the options and also offer the most comprehensive view of the composition of your body.

What other features should I look for in a smart bathroom scale?

As well as tracking your weight, smart scales can calculate everything from body fat and muscle mass to BMI, water percentage and even your resting metabolism. These measurements can help give a better overview of your general health and knowing how much fat, water, muscle and bone your body is made up of can give insight into whether you are achieving your health goals. However, it's important to remember that these values are estimates and that you should always consult a doctor for the most accurate measurements and advice.

Some smart bathroom scales also give users the option to measure objects and babies, and the best ones have simple-to-use apps with goal-setting features to keep you on track.

The verdict: Bathroom scales

The Eufy smart scale P2 pro is our favourite smart scale of the lot. It’s cheap, syncs with Bluetooth and wifi, provides thorough body composition measurements and looked the sleekest of the bunch. If you want a detailed look at your body’s metrics, we can’t fault the Withings body comp smart scale, which is so comprehensive, featuring a pulse wave velocity sensor. The only thing holding it back is its price. If you don’t mind the hefty price tag, the Withings machine is the one to get.

For more bathroom gadgetry, take a look at our guide to the best electric toothbrushes

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