This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (2024)

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June 24, 2024

mbg Deputy Commerce Editor

By Braelyn Wood

mbg Deputy Commerce Editor

Braelyn Wood is the Deputy Commerce Editor at mindbodygreen. She has a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University, along with a certificate in marketing.

This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (3)

Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

June 24, 2024

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It's easy to have a love-hate relationship with scales. Throughout my life, I've tried to put emphasis on how I feel in my body rather than how I look. This means paying less attention to my body weight and putting more emphasis on how much weight I can lift in the gym.

But as I've started to lean into data tracking to expand my longevity, I've realized that my contentious relationship with a scale needed to end—which led me to the Oxiline Scale X Pro.

The smart scale doesn't just track your weight. It also delivers a real-time breakdown of your bone mass, muscle rate, water weight, and body fat at every weigh-in. This makes using the scale feel less like being in high school gym class and more like completing an at-home DEXA scan.

After testing the smart scale, I've been surprised by how my relationship with a weekly weigh-in has shifted. I'm excited to see how different metrics shift based on changes in my routine—and I've found there's plenty of reason to be impressed with this smart bioimpedance (i.e., body composition) scale.

Oxiline Scale X Pro

$99

This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (4)

What is Oxiline?

Oxiline is a medical device company that creates blood pressure monitors, oximeters, glucometers, TENS units, and smart scales.

The Scale X Pro is the brand's only scale, and it's FDA cleared like most of Oxiline's other products. This means the Food and Drug Administration found the scale's health benefits outweigh the risks (and puts the product on the pathway for FDA approval).

This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (5)

Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

What makes the Oxiline scale "smart"

I've dealt with my fair share of scales throughout my lifetime, including scales that connect to a smartphone to help track your weight over time.

But the Oxline Scale X Pro was my very first smart scale and the first time I'd seen a scale provide a much deeper look into my body breakdown.

Here's what the smart scale tracks:

  • Weight
  • BMI (body mass index)
  • Body Fat, Visceral Fat, Subcutaneous Fat
  • Body Age
  • Muscle Rate
  • Body Water (i.e., water weight)
  • Protein
  • Skeletal Muscle
  • BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)
  • Bone Mass

Oxiline Scale X Pro

$99

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How does the scale track these metrics?

The Oxiline's sheer amount of data is almost overwhelming—and it's hard to imagine the 11-by-11-inch device can calculate that much information. But it all comes down to the ECHO™ Bio-Electrical Impedance Sensor.

Each scale has 12 auto-calibrating sensors that emit a high-frequency sound pulse through your body. It then uses a combination of user data (height, weight, and age) to calculate additional metrics.

Only eight of the device's 16 data points are shared directly on the scale's LED screen, such as bone mass, water weight, muscle weight, and BMI.

I found setting up the connection between the scale and iPhone via Bluetooth to be a super-simple process. The app provides easy step-by-step directions with visuals to walk you through the setup.

This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (7)

Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

Other reviewers complained about issues connecting to the scale, but my iPhone notoriously has spotty Bluetooth and didn't struggle to connect.

Instead, the app was a useful tool for allowing me to track progress over time with a log of all my old data. It also gave me the option to set up daily reminders to weigh myself until it could become a more regular (and less daunting) habit.

Plus, it was cool to see how the Oxiline ecosystem of products could work together to track a range of data points in the app, allowing users to build an even more expansive understanding of their current health status.

Why more than your weight & BMI need to be tracked

During my first reading with the scale, I was almost overwhelmed by the amount of data coming my way—but it was a great reminder that BMI and weight alone are not always the best indicators of health.

Holistic physician Noemi Adame, M.D., previously explained the complication of just using weight to track your health by using the example of resistance training.

When you first start working out, your muscle mass often increases while your body fat decreases. Your body weight might stay the same and cause you to feel discouraged—even though important changes are happening below the surface.

The Oxline Scale X Pro provides insights into both of these metrics to help you gain a more holistic view of how your body is changed (and it even tracks some of Adame's other recommended metrics like basal metabolic rate and skeletal muscle mass).

Is the Oxiline scale accurate?

Unfortunately, I've never done a DEXA scan, so I can't tell you how closely these numbers compare to the scale's data collection. However, I did play around with the scale to test out the precision and whether the ECHO sensors were actually legit.

Testing the sensors

The first test I played around with was not fully stepping on the scale. Instead, I just pressed one leg onto the scale until it hit the body weight of an average person (but kept the rest of my body off the scale).

I wanted to have a better understanding of whether sensors were actually going through my body—or just calculating data about my body based on the sex, height, and age data that I shared when making my profile.

While the weight populated on my phone screen, other metrics remained empty. The scale wasn't getting the essential feedback that it needed from the sensors to determine my body fat or muscle weight.

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A screenshot of app reading when not fully stepping on scale.

Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

Testing the precision

My second test focused on precision. I wanted to see if the scale would give me the same exact weigh-in numbers from different rooms. I first placed my scale in the bathroom and took my numbers; I then moved the scale to my bedroom.

In the past, I've had scales change their reading within minutes (despite no actual changes like stripping off my clothes or eating and drinking).

I was surprised to see the Oxiline scale gave me the exact same data when I tested it minutes apart on different hard floors.

While I can't determine the scale's accuracy until I complete a DEXA scan, this felt like a useful way to at least understand the precision of my measurements.

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Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

Comparing data points

I also decided to compare the heart rate tracked by the Oxiline scale and my Whoop. I wanted to get an understanding of how similar (or different) these readers would be.

My Whoop is typically worn on my hand, while the scale calculates heart rates through your feet. Since chest readers are known to be the most accurate, I expected to see some discrepancies between these numbers.

I found the scale was about 20 BPM higher; however, I was slightly stressed about quickly reviewing my heart rate on the app and livestreaming from my Whoop tracker at the same time—which may have exaggerated the difference.

Editor's Note

DEXA scans are the gold standard for understanding your body composition. Many experts recommend taking body fat scale readings with a grain of salt—focusing instead on overall trends rather than exact numbers provided from these scales.

What are the pros & cons of the Oxiline scale

Pros

  • Provides a much deeper understanding of your overall health that goes beyond weight and BMI
  • Bluetooth-enabled scale connects with app to track data progress over time
  • Precise readings that don't change between rooms
  • Shares data with other apps including Google Health, Fitbit Tracker, Apple Health & Samsung Health

Cons

  • You need a smartphone to unlock the full scope of the scale's abilities
  • Heart rate reading does not align with my Whoop reading
  • The shiny black finish is sleek, but it also attracts pet hair and dust (so I wipe it down every few days)
  • Not rechargeable; it requires 4 AAA batteries to operate
This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (10)

Image by Braelyn Wood / mbg creative

What other reviews say about the scale

The Oxiline Scale has nearly 9,000 reviews on the brand's site with a 4.9 out of 5-star rating. The most common complaints about the scale focus on issues with Bluetooth connectivity, inconsistency with heart rate readings, and some inconsistency between accuracy and true DEXA scan readings.

However, my reviews are overwhelmingly positive with other testers sharing:

  • "I did a lot of research before ordering. This was recommended as the best smart scale. I want all the info it gives. Not everyone needs this much info but it is still the best value in quality for the money."
  • "I chose this scale as my first bioimpedence scale because other reviews said it was very accurate on percent of body fat, and because it would talk to Apple Health and several other health/fitness apps. I am quite happy with it."
  • "I understand that the body composition feature of this scale isn't totally accurate but I do like that it shows the same readings each time. This helps me to keep track of how I'm doing compared to before. I've been using it for a few months and it's been useful."

This Smart Scale Is The Closest Thing I've Found To An At-Home DEXA Scan (2024)

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