What does my new smart weight scale mean to be made for GLP-1 users?

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter by Verge reviewer Victoria Song, who analyzes and discusses the latest games and magic pots that swear they will change your life. Register here for Optimizer. What do you mean that my new intelligent scale is “developed for GLP-1 users”? The GLP-1 tech boom is coming. A few days ago, I entered the basement of a gym in downtown. Smoothies and healthy snacks were distributed. Fresh from a group training sat sweaty fitness influencers (and some less sweaty tech reporters) in the half circle on some stained leather sofas and sun loungers. We were all there to get an intelligent scale in our hands. But not some intelligent scale. We were there because of the Withings BodyFit, an intelligent scale that is marketed for GLP-1 users. This allegation has come out because the BodyFit-Waage for 280 US dollars in every respect is an inexpensive, wellness-oriented version of the higher-quality Body Scan-Waage for 500 US dollars from Withings. It has a retractable handle, which allows a segmented analysis of the body composition using bioimpedance technology, but dispenses with the more medically coded functions. I have described the advantages and disadvantages of intelligent scales in detail in my test report of another Withings scale, but conventional intelligent scales generally measure only your subbody and use algorithms to extrapolate your overall body values due to the functioning of bioimpedance technology. The segmented body composition takes your upper body and hull into account by adding additional measuring points. So what does this have to do with GLP-1 users? Thin. GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjaro slow down your digestive system and suppress appetite. One possible side effect is that many users end up losing muscle mass. For this reason, doctors recommend GLP-1 users to give priority to protein intake and to make regular strength training. Withings means here that a body analysis balance can help you monitor your muscle mass. That can be useful! But it is far sought to say that this existing technology has been specially developed for GLP-1 users. “GLP-1 therapy has changed the treatment of obesity, but they have not eliminated the need for long-term support,” says Antoine Pivron, Vice President for Health Solutions at Withings. “Medicals ensure dynamics, but sustainable results are created by combining treatment with services and continuous health data. What we see is a broader change towards a more personalized and connected metabolism supply, and that is what Withings has been focusing on for years.”

While I raise my forehead in the face of the unholy GLP-1 marketing rhetoric of Withings for the BodyFit, Pivron is right in the whole! I have often written about the increased focus on metabolic data in the wearable range. And considering that, for example, every eighth American has taken or accepted a GLP-1 medication, we will soon see much more GLP-1 marketing of health technology companies. A typical example: Only last week, Oura announced that there will also be a function to provide “GLP-1 views” in his app. As Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Mem says: If I have a nickel in the last 10 days for every time a large health technology company announced GLP-1 technology, I would have two nickels. That's not much, but it's strange that it happened twice. I respond sensitively to GLP-1 marketing – not only as a reporter for health technology, but also as a person who is currently taking a GLP-1 medication to treat my disturbed metabolism. The spectrum of GLP-1 experiences is wide, but my experience was not always pleasant. In the last six months I had almost all possible side effects associated with an unusually long adjustment time, although I took the lowest therapeutic dose. It has put my life on my head in a variety of ways. In the desperate desire to feel normal again, I wanted to instinctively experiment with existing health technologies to explore, manage and optimize my treatment. It was a bumpy ride. It is one thing to evaluate health technology products if you are pretty good in shape and feel good. Something else is if you don't do it chronically. I could probably harass 2,000 words about how the vast majority of wearables and AI health products work from an aggregate perspective. This means that many of the “views” and the functional design have been developed for a “normal” user. Great if you are; objectively frustrating if not. Personalized health technology should solve this problem, but it is a continuous process that currently does not fully match what is available. For example: logging drugs and side effects? Tired, but with most technical means easy. Do you understand how this affects your other readings, and do you recognize patterns so that you can conduct a productive conversation with your doctor? Well, I wish you a lot of fun with spending hours in the 15 to 30 minutes of your appointment to calculate numbers, train AI health coaches, check every single insight, print charts and explain to doctors why it is important. I have the advantage of being paid for it. The vast majority of people seeking advice, freedom of choice and relief do not do so. I intellectually understand why health technology companies consider the popularity of GLP-1 drugs as a chance for new functions. Withings is not evil when he indicates that an intelligent scale could be a useful tool if you are concerned about GLP-1-related muscle wound. I really wish the GLP-1 feature of Oura had been available for testing when I started taking. It should help you track your dosages while you increase the dose and follow the symptoms. It also uses AI knowledge to tell you whether what you experience is normal at the stage in which you are located or possibly consultation with a doctor is required. Suppose you notice that your resting pulse slowly increases after the start of the medication intake. GLP-1 can cause this, but as it is not clinically dangerous, you are told that you should not worry. On the paper, I think this is a sensible implementation. I'm curious how this is happening in the long-term test. Now that I have a BodyFit-Waage to test and have a few segmented body composition measurements behind me, I have more questions! First data of the BodyFit scale indicate that I have a normal muscle mass for my age and sex! This is above average at several places of my body, but in general it is still not enough. I seem to still have too much body fat – but it seems to be all subcutaneous (i.e. aesthetically toxic for Lookmaxxer, but not so metabolically dangerous), as my visceral fat is very low! Is that the right interpretation? If so, then I just have to reach the body fat target set by my doctor and finish? How do I do that if I suffer from moderate chronic fatigue? If this is not the case, how can I then estimate what problem I should focus on my limited bandwidth most urgently? What does this all mean in the context of my current situation?! Or maybe this is all normal and once again I tap unconsciously into the well-known case of wellness data fatigue. The problem with the name BodyFit as a GLP-1 tool is that its scope here is too broad. There are many reasons why you lose muscle mass. Maybe it's the drug. Perhaps it is because you have experienced a life event and were unable to train consistently for a few months. I could ask the AI bot of Withings, but that means I have to take time to train another AI health chatbot for my specific circumstances. A task that I feel as exhausting, discouraging and often without guaranteeing a helpful context. Personally, I believe that both Withings and Oura have good intentions with these GLP-1 functions. From user point of view, however, the problem lies in framing. Based on my experience – which I know is not the same as any GLP-1 user – the function proposed by Oura is more appealing because it concerns a real problem that I had and where I needed help. It is a specially defined tool with clear actions that I can use or ignore. In the future, it may also be applied to other commonly used drugs to help people between doctor visits. The formulation of Withings has some advantages. Also, according to my doctor's inbody scale, I lost some muscle mass. Theoretically, it would be good to focus on my protein and monitor my body composition at home to prevent further losses. But I've already done this with another Withings thing. The actual “proportion” that I have as a GLP-1 user is therefore a more detailed view of my body composition. Either way, I would not be surprised if the GLP-1 users were presented with even more technical products by this time next year. We hope that at least some make navigation less complicated in the treatment.