Buzz
When aiming to change your body weight, it's important to step on the scale from time to time to check your progress. However, it can be discouraging to judge yourself based on the number you see first thing in the morning—celebrating a pound lost or feeling disheartened by a single pound gained.
Happy Scale (available for iOS, with a free basic version and a paid upgrade for Apple Health integration) is an app designed to track your weight and provide a bigger picture: Are you losing or gaining weight? How close are you to your goal? You can select your goal—whether you're aiming to lose, gain, or maintain weight—and Happy Scale makes it easier to track overall trends instead of focusing on daily fluctuations.
It Highlights Your Best Weight
When I open the app, the first number I see is my best weight from the past 10 days. Weight fluctuates for many reasons—food intake, bathroom habits, hydration, and other factors that don’t necessarily reflect changes in fat or muscle. So, if my best weight happened two days ago, that's the number I see first, instead of focusing on temporary fluctuations.
Happy Scale takes your best weight into account when determining whether you've reached a milestone. You can break down your main goal into smaller mini-goals, and check them off as soon as you reach a weight low enough (or high enough if you're gaining).
It Identifies Trends
One of the most insightful visuals on Happy Scale is the green area above (or red area below) your weight curve, which illustrates the changes in your weight over the past 30 days. Even if you hit a plateau, you can still see the progress you've made.
There is also a prediction feature that helps you track how fast you're losing (or gaining) compared to your goal. For instance, if your plan should result in a one-pound weekly loss, you can compare whether you're on track. (While you track calories in a separate app, it's important to remember that a constant calorie deficit doesn’t always lead to consistent weight loss. Happy Scale helps you monitor how your body is managing your calorie intake.)
It Smooths the Curve
Many weight tracking apps can smooth the jaggedness of daily weigh-ins, and Happy Scale is one of them. However, it offers you the choice to pick from four different algorithms. You can also opt to display your 'moving average' weight rather than your 10-day best weight.
Your body weight stays constant, so the app isn't distorting the truth. Instead, it presents your current weight in a way that incorporates both past weigh-ins and the overall trend, helping you focus on the broader picture instead of getting lost in the details.
While Happy Scale isn't a perfect safeguard against the emotional fluctuations of weight tracking, and those with a history of eating disorders should consult their healthcare professionals about whether or how to track their weight, it provides a less obsessive way to monitor it. If you need to track your weight, Happy Scale can help reduce the stress of constant monitoring.
