Gadget: WiFi Bathroom Scales

Most of the gizmos that arrive at my gadget-testing den are greeted with a wry smile by my girlfriend. When the WiFi Bathroom Scales landed it was more of a grimace.

I hadn't quite appreciated how sensitive the female of the species was to matters of weight until I naively suggested that both of us could share our daily weight, fat mass and BMI (Body Mass Index) data with each other - and, the rest of the world - via the built-in e-mail, Twitter and Facebook features.

Over the course of a week I charted the impact of a Pizza Hut Meat Feast Stuffed Crust on Monday, a rather intense Thursday afternoon Tour de France-style bike ride and a slovenly Sunday afternoon without a shred of physical exertion.

All of these peaks and troughs are cunningly shown in a variety of glossy graphs via your user account on the 'Withings' website or presented for your perusal on the free iPhone app.

The best bit is that this all happens automatically. The scales can even recognise up to eight different family members by their personal weight profiles - simply stand on the shiny glass scales and the system knows whether you're weightwatching Wendy or couch potato Colin.

The 119.99 scales are especially handy for those training for a marathon or other ridiculous sporting endeavour as they automatically link up to online coaching programmes such as Daily Burn and Google Health. I actually looked forward to weighing myself to see what difference that extra 15 minutes at the gym had made to my BMI. Dodging doughnuts was made fun at last!

The scales can even recognise up to eight different family members

WiFi Bathroom Scales

119.99,

www.firebox.com and www.withings.com

This article was first published in The Scotsman on Saturday, 4 September, 2010