Scale accuracy
 

I weighed in on Wednesday morning (June 13) @ home: 274.6, a gain of 3 1/2 # from last week (271.0). (Because of a cold and a sore knee I'd been slacking off my aerobics for a few days.) On Thursday afternoon (June 14) I had a doctor appointment; they weighed me there and the reading on that scale was 272.2, still a gain from last week but not nearly so bad.

My question: how much faith should I place in my at-home scale? Might it need new batteries? It's a Weight Watchers digital model which I bought in April 2006 when I started my diet (we have another analog scale @ home but it only goes up to 280# and I was over 300 when I started); I take it into another room to weigh in because that room has a hard floor while my bedroom has a shag carpet.

As long as you weigh yourself consistently on one scale... I think you should stick with the number that showed up.

Different scales are inevitably going to show different numbers, so unless you plan on only weighing yourself on the doctors scale.... then use your at home one.

If you're really worried about the reliability of your scale; step on it, then take something that you know the weight of for sure... like a couple of 2 lb dumbells or something, and stand on it again and see if it shows the correct gain.

I totally understand what you are going through. the scale at my gym always shows me as 5 pounds lighter than the one at my job. i have some tips to get an accurate measurement on your scale

1. weigh yourself in the mornings before you have eaten anything 9 you may want to even empty your bladder too if you want to be really accurate

2 use the same scale and put it in the same position (on a hard level surface is best)

3 wear the same amount of clothes everytime you weigh in ( you may want to try weighing in naked for more accuracy and taking out the guess work of figuring out how bulky your clothes are)

even if scales are showing different results you may want to use your doctor's office scale as the baseline- hospital equipment is tested every so often to ensure accuracy. If you want to use the one at your house. always put it in the same place and subtract the difference. So for me, my work scale always has me 5 pounds heavier than the doctor's office and my gym. So when i weigh in at my job, I just subtract 5

Also, trust the way your body feels. Alot of time you may see weight gain on the scale but see wieght loss in the mirror- don't sweat it it isn't the 2-3 pound differences each day. it is the overall trend of weight loss/gain that matters

I second lovelypurple. It's the difference that matters, not the exact value. So, always use the same scale to weigh on, and try to weigh at the same time of the day with the same clothes on (or no clothes).

Jay

Thanks all. I should have mentioned that I do weigh myself in the morning, around 8 am before breakfast (and after doing #2 if my digestion was ready to move beforehand), and with pajamas on and barefoot

Follow-up: On 07.11 I had another doctor appointment (following-up on the first). I weighed-in at home, 272.8; the scale @ the doctor's office showed 274.0 :dizzy:

Well, for what it's worth, the scales in Weight Watchers meetings are recalibrated so frequently (after every meeting) they say they are far more accurate than the doc. So who knows how accurate the doc's scale is. I would just go with my own (if it didn't happen to break this morning)!