Syncing Smart Scales, Apple Health and Health Connect to Your Client's Progress

Clients already own scales that measure weight, body fat and lean mass. The trick is getting those readings in front of you without asking them to retype numbers. On Trainzilla, that happens through Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android.

How it works

1. The client weighs in on their scale. Almost every consumer brand, such as Xiaomi, Renpho, Withings, Eufy and Garmin, writes the reading into Apple Health or Health Connect through its own app.
2. In the Trainzilla client app, the client allows access to weight, body fat and lean mass. Any single permission connects.
3. The app syncs the readings, and they show up in the client's progress as one entry per day for that source.
4. You see the trend on the client's profile, with separate lines per source so a scale reading is not mixed up with a tape measurement.

Why through the Health apps, not Bluetooth

Reading directly over Bluetooth would mean building for each brand's proprietary protocol. Going through Apple Health and Health Connect covers almost every scale at once, and clients keep using the scale app they already like.

What syncing will not do

• It does not overwrite a client's tape measurements. Scale readings are stored as their own entries.
• It does not spam you with notifications for every weigh-in.
• Current weight follows a scale reading only when that reading is the newest dated weigh-in.

InBody, DEXA and blood test reports

Printouts and PDFs are different from scale data. Clients or coaches can upload a health report, and Trainzilla reads the values out of it, including from photos and scanned PDFs. Read our guide on reading a body composition report for what to look at once they are in.

Things to tell clients

• Weigh at the same time of day, under the same conditions.
• Open the scale's own app once so it writes the reading to Apple Health or Health Connect.
• Update the Trainzilla client app so the sync is available.
• Consumer body-fat readings from bioimpedance scales are estimates. Watch the trend, not a single number.