When it comes to getting in shape and maintaining a healthy weight, there are two basic approaches you can take when it comes to the numbers. The first, which was advocated to me by a trainer at my local Orange Theory Fitness center, is summed up as: “Stay off the damn scale!”

I was starting a multi-week fitness challenge during which my weight would surely go up and down as I shed a bit of fat, gained a bit of muscle, and was all over the place in terms of water weight shifts before and after intense workouts. The prevailing “stay off the damn scale” theory is that if when you’re exercising intensely you should only check your weight every few weeks so as not to grow disheartened by a seeming lack of progress when in fact you’re doing great, just gaining muscle that’s replacing fat. It’s true, as they say, that muscle does weigh more than fat.

Then you have the other approach, one I have since adopted since the shuttering of all fitness centers during the coronavirus. In place of the coaches and trainers I used to see a few times a week, now I’m getting on the damn scale multiple times a week, because in this case said scale can, in a matter of seconds, give me an accurate reading of not just my weight, but also my body fat percentage, my muscle mass, bone mass, overall BMI (body mass index), and myriad other metrics.

The FitTrack Dara Smart Scale uses BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) to take 17 comprehensive body measurements, and all you have to do is stand there with the balls of your feet on one set of metal plates and your heels on another, then check your stats on the smartphone app you paired with the scale. 

FitTrack Dara Smart BMI Digital Scale

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The real time data the FitTrack collects is great stuff, to be sure: I won’t pretend I wasn’t pleased to learn of my healthy BMI and the fact that my “body age” is a number of years younger than my actual age, and all that data came the first time I stepped on and checked my app. 

But what’s even more impressive about the scale and paired app is the historical data stored and how the numbers are crunched. You can check your metrics going back months and get an accurate sense of your progress whether your goals are weight loss, muscle gain, better hydration, or what have you.

In my case, my weight basically hasn’t changed even with months of going to the gym, which was preceded by years of regular jogs and home workouts, and that’s now back to running and exercise at home given the COVID-19 of it all. What has changed some is my proportion of fat to muscle (former lower latter higher, fortunately). 

Thus, by keeping tabs on myself with the FitTrack Dara (which is laughably easy to pair and set up, by the way), I know that if I just keep on keeping on, I’ll stay relatively fit and trim. Which also lets me know it’s going to take some extra effort if I want to pack on more muscle, but let’s worry about that in the post-pandemic world.

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