Okay, so I have 2 scales in the same room, one is a good digital one, one is old fashioned dial looking thing. I had forgotten about the old one and had been using the digital for about 6 months. Once in a while I'll put a 5lb dumbell on it and make sure it read 5lbs just to give me a little irrational reassurance! It was all good in the hood! I remembered I had the old one and thought I'd jump on for poops and giggles. It read 138...hmmm.....I sure do like that number more than 143! I put the dumbell on it, and it read 5lbs. Is this even possible on planet Earth????????? I know it's just a number and as long as I look good I shouldn't care...blah blah yada yada...but you know as much as I do that no matter how good we look, seeing a lower number is nicer than seeing a higher one!

That is exactly why I HATE scales!!! All I can think is it goes by %. Like for instance if the lesser one is a bit off(lower in %) on something like 5 lbs it won't show much, but something like 143 lbs it would.

Make sense?

Use the scale you started tracking your weight with. Or, lower your start weight accordingly, if you started on the new scale and want to switch to the old scale..

There's no easy way to tell which scale is accurate. They could both be accurate at 5 pounds, but one of them off at a higher weight. Or even BOTH of them off at a higher weight.

The important point is that you need to be consistent about which one you use, and not just jump to the one that give the lower weight. But you knew that!

Jay

That is so frustrating!

Something similiar happened to me last summer. I was changing in to my bathing suit in my friends bathroom and hadn't weighed myself for a while so I figured while I was out of my clothes and hadn't eaten for a while I would weigh myself and sure enough it too said a lower number than my scale did! It was a 7 pound difference! It bothered me so much I actually made an appointment for a physical with my doctor (which I hadn't had in years anyway) to see which was right and the lower one was right!

Doctor scales even are annoying!

In 2003 when I had 2 months before had a baby....my gyno's scale said 222. But just two days later when I went to the health clinic to get fitted for an iud their "doctor's" scale read 240!!!! So my gyno's was 18 pounds lower!

I wasn't watching weight much at all then so it was like, whatever. So last year when I was 234 on my home scale(which I have since destroyed and tossed), I go to the gyno's office and guess who was 216? Yep me!!!

I would of loved to deduct the 18 pounds but when my aunts came out that weekend I had them both weigh on my scale and they said they seen the same number they seen on their scales at home.

So I stuck with the higher number. Now that is 18 pounds higher mind you!

Well my eldest dd when I took her for a yearly physical about 6 weeks ago, her "doc's scale" said I was 222 when my home scale that I had been using all this time said I was 214!!!

I am sick of scales. What I do know is that my face is looking alot trimmer. I can fit into jeans that are a 16, my tummy is looking alot smaller, my legs have gotten even more muscles and definition. I am feeling great about myself and I am on track with watching the cals and my walking. Good enough for me.

My home scale says I weigh 148, even though the balance at the gym says 150. I would sure love to say I'm 148, but I started using the balance when I began losing weight, so I'm going to stick with that.

It is just a number, of course. If you like the lower number better, you could always lower your start weight accordingly (like Jay said).

Consistency is all that really matters . . . stick with one scale, no matter what it says . . . it's only a number to be used as a general guideline.

Yeah, we had an old bathroom scale that was always almost 10 lbs under the one at the doctor and hard to read as well. I started WW again last October for a couple weeks before I splurged on a new digital scale. Well of course the dang thing was at least 7 lbs higher.

The thing was, even though my logical mind knew that NOTHING had changed in the split second from one scale to the other, my emotional mind was depressed. I went back to my tracker and added the 7 lbs to the all the previous entries and tried to console myself as I worked my way back down (which of course took a couple weeks).

Scales just can't be the only measure. I've weighed myself at night and been low or high, then in the morning and it will change (or not) and be low or high. I can get 3 different weights in one day or sometimes stay rock solid for several days. It messes with your head, man!

ruthannie

The number on the scale should be on the bottom of the list of ways to measure your success. How successfully you change your eating and exercising habits is the true measure of success and what will show up on your body. The balance type scale like you see in the dr.'s office is the most accurate, but only if it is calibrated regularly. Home scales are notoriously off. Just shifting your weight to one foot will make the number change.

Scales suck. I have one of those dial scales, but I calibrate it back to accuracy VERY frequently. I put often 5 and 10 pound weights on it and make sure it's reading the proper number before weighing myself or assuming its accuracy!

The last time I weighed myself on a doctor's scale, it said I weighed 159, while my home scale said 155. The thing is, I was wearing a chain, a studded belt, boots, and I had eaten 30 minutes ago + drank 3 glasses of water.

The scales at Publix, however, are ALL over the place! One of them recently said 152, another said 161, and another said 154. I'm now 150 in the morning without clothes, and also 150 at midday on my home scale (ALSO without clothes- MY clothes usually WEIGH A LOT! Almost 5 pounds sometimes!

Congrats for losing weight and/or seeing a lower number. It ALWAYS motivates you to keep going! Sure, the appearance matters most, but it's NICE to know your scale isn't calling you a whale through that horrid number!