Does anyone else find that the scale never seems to reflect your progress? I have been using a scale that shows both your weight and your fat percentage for the last 2 months or so. I started at 163 pounds and 36% fat. This morning I weighed myself and it said 162.5 pounds and 35% fat. Now in between there I've had all sorts of numbers, as low as 157 pounds and 31% fat. I swear I haven't put the weight back on, my pants are proof! The pants I am wearing now are hanging around my hips, whereas prior to starting with the scale I had fat bulging around the waist a bit. So I know I've made progress...but I don't understand why my numbers aren't reflecting that. I'm sure some of the weight is due to building up muscle since I've been working out a lot, but why would the fat percentage pop back up like that? I don't know if I should just give up weighing myself or what. Its kind of discouraging even though I can tell in other ways that the weight is coming off.

Don't give up! I know my scale moves back and forth kinda randomly depending on what time of the day I step on to it and how much clothing I'm wearing. I have the kind of scale where I have to type in if I'm male or female and how tall and old I am. The first time I used it I hadn't figured out how to tell it I was female, so I weighed in as male, at 204. When I figured out the female option (3 min later) I weighed in again, this time 205.5... How the heck did I gain 1.5 lbs in 3 min? At that point I realized my scale is obsessed by gremlins.

When in doubt, go with the inches. My 145 lb sister is actually a larger size than my 175 lb sister b/c my 175 lb sister has a lot more muscle. Go w/ the inches and know that you're skinny when you need suspenders to hold your pants up so they don't fall down on their own and a belt bunches them too much around your waist.

Don't stress to much about those dang scales. I know I too had a digital one like the pp where you put in male/female, height, and all that other stuff and it calculates it for you, maybe we just had a cheaper version but it was continusely changing numbers, I know my weight fluctuates, but not by that much!!! Try weighing yourself first thing every morning before you've eaten or done anything (except go to the bathroom lol), strip down, and try to always take your weight like that, it should be fairly accurate if you are consistant with the time and don't eat (and have no clothes on lol ) Or, just buy a better scale, that always works too hth

Yeah, those body fat reader are notoriously bad from what I've heard. My scale at home isn't great, but it seems to be consistent (although the same make and model which I have at school says I'm 2lbs heavier, unless I lost 2lbs on the plane ride over).

I always believe the mesuring tape before I believe the scale.

I had a horrible scale and finally got rid of it and spend the money to get a good one.

Take your measurments. I find that when I start feeling like my clothes are fitting better and the scale doesn't reflect it I can still see my progress in my measurements. My body kind of shifts around and looks a lot leaner. I would say knowing your measurements is just as important as knowing your weight. You have to see the whole picture!

Thanks everybody. I was a little depressed weighing myself and seeing how I'm barely making any headway as far as the numbers go. I do need to get a tape measure, I have no idea what my measurements are. That would probably satisfy my need to know my progress, and hopefully those measurements will go down even if my evil scale continues to tell me I'm not really doing anything!

i know exactly how u feel... during the month of march my scale didn't budge!!! although my pants did feel looser... but it is still discouraging to not see a number change... i'm looking at april as brand new daY!

Yeah, those bodyfat scales aren't very accurate.

I recommend you get a tape measure and measure your waist rather than gaging your progress by the numbers on the scale. Our weight fluctuates so much that it is deffinately better to take measurements! This is the first thing Dr. Oz suggests in You on a diet.