Garmin Index Smart Scale

Garbage - Body index data is rubbish except for weight. Reboots ineffective. NO HELP FROM GARMIN – My BMI jumped from mid teens to 141.3 and body fat comp of 57.6% when I changed to this device - I admit I'm not at the peak of condition but I'm also not Jabba the Hutt. I contacted Garmin and their advice was to reboot (which I did half a dozen times) and that maybe I was reading the data incorrectly - REALLY!!! Now I'm 20 mins into yet another customer service phone hold. I own 4 other Garmin devices but will NEVER buy Garmin again

Woefully Inaccurate from a Top Notch Fitness Company – Tl;dr the scale only accurately measures your weight. The scale uses a calculation, not BIA as advertised and is woefully inaccurate both in absolute accuracy when measuring of fat/muscle/hydration % and relative accuracy. I would recommend a scanning pod instead (excellent for relative accuracy and if you have MPort nearby, the scale is the same cost as a 3 year subscription).

As a long time Garmin user who has had excellent experiences with the smart watch/fitness tracker products, I am disappointed to discover that this scale is misleading for metrics other than weight.

I had a few issues setting the product up with wifi as many other users report. Once set up though, its connectivity to Garmin connect is fabulous and convenient.

The unfortunate bottom line is this scale does not use BIA for calculating body fat, hydration, muscle mass or bone density as it alleges. This is no doubt the main draw card for prospective customers (including myself), but in my 7 month experience its evident that the scale is actually using a calculation based solely on your weight.

I consistently noticed that the scale would immediately assume any weight gain (as small as 0.2kg/~0.5 pound) was due to higher body fat (which was already reporting 5-10% higher than my body pod fat %). On multiple occasions my bone mass has even changed (unless I have a severe medical condition Im unaware of, this shouldnt happen).

This led to my running an experiment: I weighed myself on the Index and screenshotted the results; I then drank 250ml of water and waited ~20 minutes before weighing myself again (to allow my body to absorb it). As expected, the scale attributed the change in weight as more fat, less hydration and less muscle (which is the opposite of what this test should show). A little research suggested that a device utilising BIA should have exposed metal sensors to accurately direct the electrical current responsible for metrics (it measures resistance through your tissue).

I think its quite cheeky of Garmin to have such a high price tag on a device that uses a (highly inaccurate) calculation. If youre an average body type youll probably see a reasonable estimation but user reviews suggest that a) if youre female itll overestimate fat %, and if youre male it will underestimate fat% and b) if youre a naturally muscular or naturally heavier body type, your result will be up to 10% out (which is not motivating if youre trying to get fitter).