Withings unveils its fanciest smart scale yet and a subscription service

Said service, called Health+, provides detailed health analysis and tools to help people improve their health by building a health routine

Withings - new smart scale

Withings, a pioneer of the connected health movement, is reimagining the use of smart scales and home health optimization with the introduction of Body Comp, a complete body assessment scale measuring multiple biomarkers typically only assessed in a professional clinical setting, and Health+ an enhanced service providing detailed health analysis and tools to help people improve their health by building a health routine.

Body Comp

Body Comp brings new levels of precision with novel sensors, exclusive algorithms and patented electronics, to improve both the accuracy of weight and of body composition, with new multifrequency BIA capabilities. It offers complete home health body assessments via embedded sensors that can monitor multiple biomarkers associated with general and chronic health risks, including:

  • Full body composition (weight, muscle mass, fat mass, water %, bone mass, BMI, and for the first time, visceral fat)
  • Cardiovascular assessment (Standing Heart Rate, Vascular Age)
  • Nerve health assessment (Nerve Health Score computed from Electrochemical Skin Conductance)

It is the first scale to measure body fat, visceral fat (the fat hidden around the organs in your belly), vascular age (the pliability of your blood vessels), and nerve health (the function of the nerves in your feet) in one consumer device.

Its advanced and proprietary health metrics go beyond weight management to bring cardiovascular and nerve health risk assessment into the home.

Developed by leading cardiologists, Vascular Age is based on Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), a measurement of arterial stiffness that is a key indicator of cardiac health. It provides an easy-tounderstand assessment of arterial health to indicate whether someone is optimum, normal, or not optimum for their chronological age.

Body Comp also provides an assessment of nerve activity via its Nerve Health Score which is determined by monitoring the sweat glands in the feet. A low Nerve Health Score is a sign of reduced sweat gland innervation, which is linked to a degeneration of small nerve fibers. Together, these measurements can help users to better understand their risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.

Body Comp is the first Withings device compatible with Health+ that makes actionable use of this data.

Health+

Health+ is a health service unlocking additional features in the Health Mate app, designed to help people understand and take better ownership of their health data while providing the tools, actionable insights, and motivations to change behavior and outcomes. Based on proven scientific principles, Health+ is designed to work in tandem with data from Withings devices, beginning with Body Comp.

An addition to the current Withings Health Mate App, Health+ unlocks new details and metrics that deliver a more complete picture of health to each user. Six-week habit building modules empower users to achieve their health goals while seeing their progress through their measurements. The result is sustained behavior change with visible results.

On the record

“Knowledge is power, and to affect meaningful change, people need an in-depth understanding of health data, why it matters and how it changes. We have worked with a team of behavior change, fitness, medical and nutritional experts for over 12 months to help interpret market-leading data from Withings devices. Today we are thrilled to unveil Health+ along with Body Comp, the first device to benefit from its advanced health metric assessments and habit building modules on 4 key pillars – sleep, nutrition, activity and stress management,” said Mathieu Letombe, CEO of Withings. “Providing services is an important strategic step for Withings and with Body Comp and Health+, we have developed a bundled product that can provide ongoing body health improvement.”

“Many people know what to do to improve their health. But it’s hard to fit healthy behaviors into your life, and to know if they are actually improving your health. Health+ helps people understand how their behaviors impact their health, with bite-sized daily tasks that guide them to better results over the short, medium, and long term,” said Dr. Shikha Anand, Chief Medical Officer at Withings. “While changes in fat/muscle mass or nerve activity may take months to evolve, other metrics such as weight, resting heart rate, or vascular age can change within weeks. Body Comp and Health+ show how these metrics improve with healthy behaviors, empowering people to take charge of their health every day.”

Availability

Body Comp with Health+ will be available at Withings’ website from October 4, 2022, priced at $209.95 for the scale and a 12-month subscription.