Eat Smart Digital Body Fat Scale with Auto Recognition Technology, Black

Yes, I did receive an e-mail from the company about a month after my purchase to rate their product on Amazon. Ok. Why not? They explained they are a small American company. It only takes a moment of my time and I really don't mind. I for one, almost ALWAYS check out reviews on Amazon before going to the store to make my purchase on a product.So now for my review.As others have said, this is a nice looking scale. It came well packaged and was ready to go right out of the box. I found it very easy to set up as well (one thing I was worried about was entering my height as I have a 0.5" increment in my height, but the scale lets you enter height in 0.5" increments - hooray). In the past 6 months, through proper diet and regular exercise I've lost 43 lbs. I became curious about what my body fat % (I had it tested years ago at a health fair with an electronic hand held device to find I was about 34% -boo) might be and found this scale and took the plunge after reading other reviews.I have not had my body fat tested in many years and especially not since shedding some major pounds but I had an "idea" of what I might be based on some calculations where you measure different parts of your body, enter your age, gender, height, etc... I thought I was about 20% before ordering the scale but wasn't really sure. (If it helps any reviewers I'm a 30 year old female, 5'5.5" tall, and currently weigh 125 lbs).When I first received my scale, I decided not to set myself as athlete, based on the other reviews, though I consider myself a somewhat avid exerciser now. I stepped on my old scale 3 times and the new scale 3 times. Perfect match. I got six identical weights. Check.Next I waited to find out my body fat % - I got a reading of 19.9% - keeping in mind from what I read that electronic body fat testing can have a margin of error of about +/-3% (I don't know what the particular margin of error is for THIS scale, but this is in general for most electronic devices). I was already prepared to except the fact that this number might not be correct. I recorded the number and continued to weigh myself in the morning (for accurate weight) and in the evening (for body fat%) and began tracking the number. I found that the scale was consistent in body fat% readings only changing the number by about 0.1% or none each day. Hooray! All I want is something to track my PROGRESS with and this scale fits the bill. I'm happy to say that in one month, I managed to get my body fat% down to 19.3%. It seems reasonable to me with the work I've put in to lose 0.6% in one month.Also, muscle mass went from 39.9% to 40% - one of my body builder friends tells me it is difficult for a woman to put on more than 5 lbs of muscle in a year, so I don't expect this number to change much either (though I do lift heavy weights 3x a week).As another reviewer noted when you are looking at your percentages - yes, they will total more than 100 when you look at body fat, muscle mass and total body water. That is because you have some water in your muscle and your fat as well so this water technically gets counted in your muscle and your fat and then all by itself (i.e. it gets counted TWICE), thus explaining why the totals are greater than 100%. Hope this makes sense.So overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. It's a sleek-looking, fun gadget that helps me track my progress as I work towards my long-term health goals.I also like the fact that you can just step on it and stand there and it will come on. No tapping, no buttons to push. Just step on it and get your info. Awesome. My husband also likes the scale and his numbers seem to be fairly accurate as well. The scale is "smart" enough to know who is stepping on it. Because my husband outweighs me by about 50 lbs when he steps on it, it automatically knows "user 2" is on the scale as opposed to when I step on it, it automatically figures out I'm "user 1". This might be an issue if two members of the household have near identical weights, but otherwise, you just step on it and it's ready! No switching to your user self number or anything. Ingenious!I originally had trouble deciding whether to get this scale or keep my old scale and purchase the hand held body fat tester by Omron. Well, I've never tried the Omron product, but am happy with this scale. It gets the job done and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.UPDATE 5/3/13I was reminded to update my review after someone left a comment. My scale is still running on the original batteries. I finally reached my goal of 6 pack abs around 17.5% body fat on my scale. I then got pregnant and didn't use the scale for that period (as recommended by the manufacturer), but hubby did. I'm now 9 months post partum and am back to 19% bodyfat and close to my goal of returning to six pack abs. Last month I went to a health fair and got to use the Omron hand held device for bodyfat%. The Omron was 1.5% higher than my scale. But again, I care less about exact numbers and more about trends and consistency, which this scale delivers!Recommended.

UPDATE!!I am leaving my original review at the bottom of this post so you can see my issues in the beginning, and it was originally listed as a ONE star review. As you can see in the comments of my review, I was contacted by the VP of EatSmart. WOW, all I can say is this has got to be the most impressed I have ever been with a company, their commitment to their products, and satisfaction of their customers. First of all, my review was accepted and posted by Amazon on Sunday morning, by Sunday evening the VP had already read and responded to the post. His response was fair, prompt, and over the top in customer service. After a couple emails I had been provided step-by-step instructions to try with the scale. It WORKED!! I have intentionally delayed my update to my original post so that I was able to monitor the consistency and reliability of this scale after re-calibration. The scale has been very consistent, I feel like I can trust the reading I'm getting every morning and without a doubt can recommend this company and this scale as being high class, top of the line quality. If you considering purchasing this scale or ANY EatSmart product I feel that you cannot go wrong as they really do stand behind their products. Kudos to you EatSmart, its nice to see a company that makes a quality, reliable product and provides the excellent customer service that you do.Here is the information the VP sent me regarding the re-calibration of my scale. It sounds extremely simple, but it was the difference for me between a 1 star experience and a 5 star experience. If I could, I would give the scale a 10 star rating...Quoted from email by EatSmart VP"So with this model when we have issues with fluctuations or inconsistency it generally related to one of two things, either flooring or calibration.The first thing I would do is reset the unit. Pull all of the batteries out for at least one minutes to let the scale completely reset. While the batteries are out check that all four feet are securely attached to the unit. Then put the batteries back in and place it back down on a hard, flat surface. The hard floor is really important....optimally you want either hardwood, ceramic tile or concrete. Stay away from softer floors like linoleum and vinyl if possible.Then proceed to calibrate the unit as follows (this part has to be done any time the scale is moved).Step/tap down on the scale and press on it with your foot so the scale 0.0 displays (but don't step on fully). Then let the scale turn off (this auto-zeros and calibrates the scale). You can then step on and weigh yourself. Weigh yourself two or three times in a row to see if you have consistent measurements.Let me know if this improves things at all. If you are getting good consistent measurement its a good sign the load sensors are acting normally. "He had also suggested the use of a ceramic tile under the scale if the flooring under it was not solid enough for proper reading without fluctuation. If you have an EatSmart product that your having issues with, please check out the comments to my post, and call the company. I'm confident they will take care of you. And for the record, I do not work for this company or have any stake in their profit/loss. I'm just one customer that had a great experience and want to give credit where credit is due. Thank you so much William for the service you provided for me.My Original review, as posted on 9/9/12...As mentioned in my review, I really wanted to love this scale. It looks beautiful, feels solid, and is very low profile... all great wins in my book!! I put it on my bathroom floor and was getting unreliable results, I noticed the linoleum did have a little give to it so I moved the scale to my bedroom where I have solid hardwood. Scale rests flat on the floor, no wiggle at all. I calibrated the scale in its new location as directions indicate, stepped on the scale and walla!! an accurate reading... WONDERFUL!! Three hours later, after diner, I was curious how accurate it would be with a recent meal. I LOST over 30 pounds in 3 hours!! I stepped off, let it shut off, stepped back on... Now I lost ANOTHER 20 pounds. A total of 50 pounds LESS than what it read 3 hours earlier. Okay so thinking maybe its bad batteries, I changed them out for my old faithful brand new, fully charged enloops. Calibrated the scale again. Now I was back up 20 pounds, but still off 30 pounds from my accurate weight. I'm sorry, I really wanted to love it, but I'm trying to lose weight and I cant trust this scale to give me accurate results. Back to the drawing board for me... if anyone has any suggestions on a great scale please leave a comment for me. Please only scales that use traditional batteries, none of the flat coin style batteries.