"What is the DEAL with doctors' scales vs. home scales?" she asked in all seriousness
 

Okay, so I weigh myself a couple of weeks ago and I'm barely down below 180 - at 178.8 according to this glass bathroom scale, which is identical to one that one of my doctors used to have. I'm tickled, and hop on the 170s thread in this forum.

I have one regular GP and two specialists, and recently appointments with each. So I go in like a week later to one of them, then another, and their scales are both weighing me in the 180s and I know I didn't gain that much weight that fast! :tantrum: I have a third doctor with his scale to face on Monday. Not looking forward to it.

And this sounds like a joke, but it has happened to me for years! Why can't the dang scales agree with one another?

I'm going to find one at the gym that's the old-fashioned balance type, and stick with it, I guess. :(

Others' experiences with this particular dilemma? Please share!

Were all three weighings at the same time of day. As the day goes on everyone gets heavier.

This happens to me all the time. The Dr's scale always says more even if I go early before I eat anything. It usually is 3 to 5 pounds more. I have an appointment on Monday in the morning. I am already expecting it to be more. So frustrating. :?:

happens to me as well. But I was told it could be a lot of factors, like water retention, getting your periods soon, or the food you ate etc...but it's still frustrating because when I lose a pound at home, I'm really happy and then I go to the doctor and tell him, he puts me on the scale and it says something else, makes me feel like I'm lying or something and it's pretty discouraging too.

In addition to everyone else's points about time of day, etc., I'd like to point out that it doesn't actually matter. All scales are a little different. If you line up a row of scales and go up and down weighing yourself on each of them, you'll get results probably in a 5-lb range. So what matters isn't the absolute number but rather that the number is going the right way. Your scale isn't wrong; it's just calibrated slightly differently than the ones at the doctors' offices. Just stick with one scale as your 'official' weight and only count your results from that one.

(as an aside, if you keep getting wildly inconsistent results on the SAME scale, like a 2 pound difference when you weigh five minutes apart, it means your batteries are dying and you should change them)

Yep, for sure this.

We bought a replacement Withings scale (to get the Bluetooth and not just wife) and it consistently measured a full pound more than our old scale. What made this annoying was that I weigh in each week at Weight Watchers and the old scale was very consistent with the WW scale (usually within .2 of a pound). I would weigh at home on Friday mornings with no clothes (I do this every day), then put on what I was going to wear to WW, weigh in and then immediately go to WW. It was always very consistent. Well, the new scale weighed well above my WW weigh in.

What Withings had me do to check the weight was to take an item with a known weight and measure it on the scale several times and see if it was off. When I weighed something with a known weight of a couple of pounds, the new scale seemed fine. But, then I weighed a 50 pound dumbbell. This consistently was off and didn't match the actual weight of the dumbbell. Withings replaced the scale.

I totally hear ya. I weighed a lot more at my doctors office. yes part of that was due to clothing. But not all of it. Granted, I do not have the most acurate scale. But the difference sent me into shock. i much prefer my scale :D

My last dr.s appointment weighed me almost 10 lbs heavier. Fully clothed, in the afternoon. I disregard any weight that is not from my home scale. I have the eating right digital scale and love it. I'm using the weight that it gives me to track my daily weight and to heck with what any other scale says...its just a number anyways.

I weighed myself with clothes on, just before I went to the doctor's office. I lost 3 lbs. Walked in the office 15 minutes later, got on their scale, and it said I gained 3 lbs.! He was disappointed, so was I. I said, Please put me on the scale again. He did, and I lost 3 lbs. They forgot to clear it out or adjust it or whatever they do from the person before me. Bottom line is... you can't even trust the doctor's scale!

I'm lucky. My doc takes my word for what I weigh. Sometimes I do hop onto it but it's always more than my morning post potty weight.

I don't even watch when my doctor weighs me because it's never accurate. During the winter, they have no problem weighing me with snow boots and a parka on, not even pausing to let me take anything off. But if I come in during the summer in leggings and a tshirt and flip flops, they take that number at face value, too. My old doctor used to subtract a pound or two based on what I was wearing but my current one just counts it all, boots, coat, gloves, etc.

People are hopping on and off that thing all day, everyday. My Doc made some smart @ssy comment when I told him his scale is 4p off and insisted mine is off. I weighed right before I went there in the AM.

So I went home and took this pic to show him next time. I wanted to tell him to bite me.

ykes. Glad you asked them to do it again. Could have been traumatizing otherwise.

I think the difference for me usually comes from clothes and normal hydration, even if the appt is first thing in the morning. If I throw on some clothes and drink a cup of coffee, voila! I'm up 3-4 pounds when I step back on the scale.