I had to get a new scale today.... so i went and got the exact same scale I was using before. When i weighed in this morning on my old scale - I was 210.2. But when I got my new scale, it says 219!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm DEVASTATED. I worked SO HARD to get that number down. I was SO CLOSE to Onederland and now it feels like that victory scale number was just taken THAT much further away from me...

I don't even know what number to believe...

The first time I stepped on my new scale, it told me I weighed 132 lbs. Which was something like a 140lb lost in an instant.

Get something you KNOW the weight of...a 5lb bag of sugar, a 10lb weight, and put it on the new scale. See if it measures out correctly. If it does...well I'm sorry. But that also means your starting number just could have been higher as well, so you've lost the same amount of weight, just at different starting points. You'll get there soon enough

I had that happen to me too, when I went from a spring to a digital. Don't get floored by the numbers. You did the work and you've lost the weight that you've lost, made the progress you've made, changed the habits you've changed, etc. Whatever a new scale says numberwise doesn't erase that. The scale is a tool to help you keep track.

That said, I screamed and ranted like a banshee when it happened to me!

I know it stinks (especially when you're inching closer and closer to onederland, I so get you on that!), but as dragonwoman said, it's just a number. It doesn't change your body as it is in any way. You didn't magically gain nine pounds, your weight is whatever it was, no matter what the scale said. It wouldn't hurt to take ducky's advice to check to make sure it's working properly, but just FYI, every single time I get a new scale, it never fails that I am at least 2lbs heavier on it, if not more. Sucks, but what can you do? Needless to say, I hate when my scales die, lol.

If both scales work, why not use both? (If the old scale is kaput, you can use the new scale and subtract the 9 lbs). That way you get to drop below 200 lbs and can celebrate the victory TWICE.

"That doesn't make sense," you might say, and I'd reply that it makes about as much sense as anything else. You could choose to believe the old scale, you could choose to believe the new scale, you could choose to split the difference.... Lots of options and none of them are any better or worse than the others.

You are not a number, and you never will be. It's really important to remember that the scale does not define your worthiness, or even your success. It's a tool, not a temple.

I really do understand the frustration, but you've got to remember that the precise number isn't the most important part of weight loss. When it becomes only about the number, it's very easy to get frustrated enough to give up when the numbers don't do what we want.

Scales can be off in so many ways. There are scales that will never weigh you the same number twice. There are scales that are off by a consistent number of pounds, and there are scales that are off by a percentage (getting more and more accurate the smaller you become).

Even the most accurate scale, is only a tool to help you judge progress. As many have said, and at least one person has written into their siggy something to the effect of "the scale is not the best
measure of progress, only the most convenient."

Even with the best scale available, the number can hide the truth. Every month I gain 10 lbs in water gain with my period. In the past, it would make me so angry and frustrated that I would feel "what's the use, I've done everything "right" and I still gain 10 lbs every month." The frustration, combined with the rabid hunger that accompanied my period often provided an excuse for me to allow myself uncontrolled eating, which only resulted in some of those 10 lbs becoming real weight gain. I had to tell myself that those 10 lbs weren't "real" in order to stay focused on weight loss during TOM. The fact is of course, that water weight is as real as any other weight - but it's also true that the water isn't what I'm worried about getting off my body - it's the fat. So in that sense, it's perfectly legitimate for me to see water-weight gain as an illusion - because it distracts me from my real purpose. Of course the scale (at least not my cheap scale) doesn't tell me how much of my weight is muscle (which I want), and how much is fat (which I need to lose) and water (which I now see as fairly neutral. I don't want to be dehydrated, and I don't want to be puffy).

It would be great if I had a tool that could tell me more about the weight I'm losing (or not, as the case may be), but the scale only tells me the number.

I realize that numbers can be benchmarks, and I'm excited to be approaching one myself (I haven't weighed less than 300 lbs, in nearly twenty years), but it's important to remember that there really isn't any difference between 299 lbs and 301. And there isn't a significant difference between 210 and 219, either.

The importance is what we choose to make it. You can make it a big, horrific tragedy or you can roll your eyes at the irony and move on.

If you're so anal that it will bug you forever, you could go to your doctor's office or even a walk-in clinic and ask just to weigh in (I've never had one say no), but I can tell you from experience, doctors' scales can be inaccurate too. In every doctor's office I've visited that had two scales or more scales, I soon learned which scale weighed the lightest, and would hope I would get the exam room with that scale. It's silly really, because I didn't change, I wasn't really weighing less on that scale, and I knew it, but it was a nice illusion.
It's possible that the lightest-weighing scale was the most accurate (probably not, though).

At my doctor's office this last appointment, I remembered to weigh myself at home in shoes and then weigh in at the doctor's scale so I could compare my scale to the doctor's and I learned that my doctor's scale (they only have one scale in the hallway) weighs me about 6 lbs lighter than my home scale. I was tempted to use the doctor's scale as my "real" weight, but it doesn't make any sense to me to be doing math at every weigh-in to come to a "real" weight that isn't any more or less "real" than the other.

In a sense, it's all imaginary, so imagine whatever will help you stay on track.

I had that happen to me also, it is not fun. I knew in my head what everyone was saying, that I had still lost the same amount of weight, but it sure didn't make me feel better to see that I was 10 lbs further from my goal than I had thought I was. I would definitely see if it's weighing true as suggested above, but I also feel your pain.

I've had a similar problem, Kaplods. My doctor's office scale has always weighed me 6 pounds heavier than my home scale. I don't know why, but it disappoints me every year. I know I need to get over it, but it still makes me wonder which is the "real" weight. I used to work in a manufacturing plant that made baked goods (yeah, not a good career choice for me), and the scales were inspected by the state once a year, and by an independent company once a month. I used to stand on one just to see my "real" weight because I knew it was fairly accurate. Did you know that a scale can be "right" at 50 pounds, but off at 100 pounds or 150 pounds? I didn't until I worked there. There are all kinds of ways the scale can be off.

That said, I agree with the others. Go with the number you feel is best. You can try weighing things on it to see if it is accurate.

We've been taught to use numbers to judge ourselves - the number on the scale, the "size" of our clothes, the number of calories we eat (too many and we're "bad," few enough and we're "good"), the number of hours we sleep (like calories too many and we're "bad" and few enough and we're "good," or at least better and less lazy than folks who get more sleep), how many hours we work.....

And the counting can even be kind of important much of the time, but the line between "good enough counting" and harmfully obsessive counting sometimes isn't very clear (and we can even begin to obsess over whether or not we're obsessing).

If it is a digital scale, GET BACK ON IT. When they've been moved (especially in all direction, like in a shopping bag) they have to recalibrate. The first weigh is inaccurate.

I know that others here have posts some version of this but you already know that you did not gain nine pounds today!

Don't let a machine derail your progress.

The important thing is that the number, what ever it is, keeps going DOWN!

Thanks for the support everyone - it was such a let down. I know there was no real weight gain, but I am just so focused on not being 200lbs anymore that all I wanted was to be closer to that goal and if the new scale was more accurate than the last - its just going to take me THAT much longer.

The good news is, I got my period the very next day - a surprise week early, so I'm hoping that the scale was showing water weight from that. I'm already down to 212, so I'm guessing that by the time all of this is over, I'll be back down to 210.

Cross your fingers!!