Weight tracking is terrifying. This bathroom mat wants to fix that

Losing weight is hard. One of the lesser-acknowledged difficulties of weight loss, beyond the rigorous exercise and a consistent diet (who needs those?), is anxiety about stepping on a scale every day. At least, so say the creators of Mateo. A smart bathroom mat shown off in Las Vegas at CES Unveiled -- an appetizer night to CES, the world's biggest consumer tech convention, which kicks off on Tuesday -- Mateo wants to make tracking your weight less daunting.

It works much like a smart scale. Step onto Mateo and it sends information to an app on your phone. But the bathroom mat stands out in a few ways. It measures weight, body-mass index and, using medical-grade podiatry tech, your posture. But unlike a conventional scale, the point of Mateo is that you don't actually see your weight every day. 

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Many people who try to lose weight report anxiety about actually weighing themselves, says Mateo co-founder Lenny Dahan on the bustling CES Unveiled show floor. To avoid this, the Mateo app is designed to let you know general trends rather than highlight how much you way on a given day. 
"If you gain 5 kilos in three days, it will alert you to say, 'hey, be careful with your diet,'" Dahan said. Similarly, it will encourage you if you're making progress over a period of days or weeks. The app has Memoji support for iPhone users, whose reading may just be their Memoji with either a thumb up or thumb down. 

The other standout feature is its measuring your feet to rate your posture. Under the Mateo mat are two scales that have 7,000 pressure points between them. Mateo uses the weight pressure of your feet to figure out how good -- or bad -- your posture is and will suggest exercises to fix it.

"Weight and posture defines how your body looks and how your body balances," Dahan said. "Bad posture means back pain, back pain is linked to obesity problems." Mateo, he insists, can help break the cycle. 

Mateo will hit Kickstarter presale in March for $179, and will ship before the end of the year.