u/BirdieTheDragon

As promised, here is a comparison of all methods done within 2 hours window, fasted.

DEXA: 7.2%
Withings BodyFit: 3%
InBody (Local Pharmacy): 3%
Eufy (No Handles): 11.9%
ChatGPT: 9%

* Both Withings BodyFit and Inbody use the electrodes technology (BIA), give 3% reading.
* Ironically, ChatGPT was the closest.

UPDATE:
Withings BodyFit today decided to move the fat%
Now it reads: 5.8%

Not sure if an update has been pushed.

First of all, please be aware that there are people who claim they are having a good experience with Withings Bodyfit and I might be just unlucky. This is not to rant but just an honest personal little review.

I already shared the first issue of the persistent 3% bodyfat reading and how changing your height directly changes the value pointing to an algorithm issue with hopes of a software update to fix (confirmed by Withings to push an update to my scale), but update is yet to be received. Details: BodyFit and The 3% Bodyfat Solution, Good News and Bad News. : r/withings

2 days ago, suddenly my "height" in settings returned to my actual height without me changing it back and the fat % started giving a different value other than the persistent 3%. However, every weight-in 10 seconds apart gives a different number (4%-7%), I thought that Withings pushed an update and working on a fix from the back-end, Afterall they did take my MAC number to fix it as per their claim. (Firmware didn't change, so from my end I can't confirm if it is true)

Now the scale is back again to Bodyfat 3% but that's actually not my real problem. Even if body composition is wrong, I wanted to use it as my daily scale to read normal body weight and move on .... but here is another hit.

I realized every single time I do a weight-in the body weight number give a different result and that number goes between (0.5kg to 1kg) until it settles down, and the end value started to be different than my old scale that gives consistent readings between each weight-in.

What I am trying to say:

I swear I don't want to but, I find myself taking my body weight in my old simple scale first THEN I take my weight in BodyFit and I always end up using the old scale value for being very consistent. So, I am in a situation where I might just call it an "investment loss" and drop Withings, not by choice but like I have to until maybe they release a magical update, having to take multiple weight-ins everyday using the same scale started to bother me as I am wasting time and I am not sure if an update can fix that. I can't return it because I ordered it across seas.

Note: I do eat the same exact food/physical routine every single day for the past 60 days for an experiment/TDEE pinpointing, 0.5kg-1kg might sound picky but actually does matter to what I am doing. And it doesn't help when this whole thing was going smoothly with the old simple scale yet with BodyFit it adds noise.

The 3% bodyfat reading is the absolute minimum reading and that is the number I keep getting with the new Withings BodyFit regardless of Athlete mode being on/off. So, I went and also took an Inbody analysis in a local pharmacy (also electrode handles) and guess what, it shows 3% Body fat as well.

This made me think that this technology/algorithm in those machines are not designed for a body type of mine:

Lean Body
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 69 kg
Body Fat: 8-10% (Can't confirm yet since all those devices are not giving a reading)

The Solution (Probably):
Reducing my height in my profile artificially (from 175cm to 170, 165, 160cm, etc) finally results in increasing the body fat % per attempt, so it is not hard locked, it is indeed an algorithm issue.

Actual Height: 175 cm = 3% BF
Fake Height: 170 cm = 3.4% BF
Fake Height: 165 cm = 4.1% BF
Fake Height: 160 cm = 5.5% BF

What I am going to do is to take a DEXA scan for the first time in two weeks, confirm my body fat and then do the following:
- Assuming the DEXA scan shows 9% BF.
- Set Withings profile artificial height to a number that will result in giving the 9% BF.
- And that will be my new baseline.

The drawback that other metrics that depend on height will be inaccurate but for my goals Weight + Body fat + Muscle Mass is the reason I got this scale.

I hope Withings staff read this and start looking into it and maybe can come up with a real solution.

Because honestly, I have never ever felt that I wasted money on anything close to this. My old cheap feet-only scale giving an inflated BF but actually moves and can be used as a trend is literally more useful at this point than this premium scale.