I've just been assessed by a rather emotionless expert who has taken note of all my measurements, has bluntly told me I am a pound or two overweight, has set me a daily calorie intake goal and seems keen to be involved on a daily basis with my weight loss/maintenance journey.
This expert doesn't have the best bedside manner but I think with their help I might manage to keep my diabetic team happy and lose enough weight that I will feel less guilty stuffing my face during my cruise on the Queen Mary 2 this summer where it seems you can eat 24 hours a day.
The expert I am talking about is the Aeno KS1S Smart Kitchen Scales which do everything your common or garden electronic kitchen scales do and then some!
Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for anything with the word "smart" in it, especially if it comes with an app, so when I was offered the Aeno KS1S Smart Kitchen Scales (gifted) I was already hooked before I realised what it could do.
You see, these smart white glass scales allow you to weight and track your food, give you all the calorie and nutritional information about it, record your weight loss or maintenance goals and keep track of it all.
It was pretty easy to download the app, pair the scales via bluetooth and set up my profile. You can choose your goals from weight loss, stay in shape or gain weight/muscle mass. I chose weight loss as I am trying to shift a few winter lbs but I'll be honest it did still sting a little when the scales informed me I could do with losing a bit. I mean, they didn't scream: "Oi fatty, stop stuffing your face" but I felt slightly shamed by the tech on the table.
I say lbs but you can choose imperial or metric. It also offered to link with Alexa - scary visions of her shouting at me like a drill sergeant on behalf of the scales if I didn't follow the plan were eased when I realised that facility was probably for Aeno's other products like smart heaters and air purifiers.
Obviously for the scales to work you need to weigh and/or log your food so the app can keep a running tally of your intake for the day. The app will tell you how many Kcals you've consumed and how many you have left. The app gives an in-depth analysis of the nutritional content of the foods you're consuming, from basic macros like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats to detailed micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
I started with a breakfast which is my go-to when I'm in a hurry consisting of one Tesco brand Weetabix-style biscuit with milk. The app comes with a menu of over 10,000 pre-loaded ingredients and food items and sure enough Weetabix was on the list! The scales are American so if you are in the UK and need to be really accurate I'd double check to make sure that the nutritional values in the app are the same as the ones on the packaging of any UK product. I was not too worried tbh although for the purpose of this blog I did painstakingly enter the nutrition of the Tesco product.
If not, or if your item isn't listed then you can add it yourself. It's a bit of a faff but once entered you can pick it from your own list whenever you eat it in future. If anyone from Aeno is reading this, I'd value a barcode reader in the app (which my diabetic food tracker app has) to speed the process of recording nutritional information quicker.
There is a long list of American fast food and restaurant items on the menu list along with lots of store cupboard items and dishes ranging from Worcestershire Sauce to moose stew. I wondered briefly if people were taking their smart scales out to restaurants and then remembered not everywhere is so isolated, food delivery-wise, as my village and probably that function is useful for those who are able to get food delivered to their home.
Bear in mind the app mostly shows US information which as I mentioned above might be different to UK info. Using a McDonald's Big Mac as an example, the US version is 509 calories compared to the UK's 494 with nutrition varying too - the UK version has far less salt in it for instance. Since most people won't be obsessive about 100% accuracy I think you'd be fine to use the listed items.
You can enter a food you've eaten without actually weighing it so you can keep a record of what you've consumed while out and about. You choose the time from the menu then add the weight then "add to plate". However this assumes you know the weight of the item. I don't know how you'd check the weight of your Big Mac (for example - other fast foods are available).
Because I'd now gone down a mental rabbit hole, I Googled it and it turns out you can find out the uncooked weight on the McDonald's website, but they say the weight will change when cooked and they cannot declare a served weight. Those of you who live in places where such things can be delivered don't need to wonder. Just weigh it.
And this is of course the point of scales and you can just use the Aeno KS1S smart scales as, well, scales. Use any container and the tare function as you add multiple ingredients to that container, switching between liquids and solids quickly and easily. The scales will weigh up to 8kgs. I found the scales fast and responsive compared to a set I already have and the display was easy to read. The app also has a handy timer and a coffee drip timer. Not sure I'll ever use that.
With such smart scales I would have liked to see a Usb charge option rather than 3 AAA batteries but for the price you can't really complain.
The AENO KS1S Smart Scales are being offered with an amazing discount at Curry's at the moment (better than half price!) so whizz over there and pick up this nifty bit of kit at a bargain price. And if you end up weighing a Big Mac let me know how heavy it is yeah?