I weighed myself this morning, then about an hour later, drove to my doctor appt. Nothing to eat or drink before the appt. At the doctor's office, my weight was FOUR POUNDS HIGHER
The only difference between home and the office was a hospital gown. That gown cannot weigh 4 pounds. Or, please tell me it can.
Is this normal? Have others had such a big difference bwn home and somewhere else?
No, the gown doesn't weigh 4 lbs...but there are a couple of issues in play here, and this is VERY normal.
First, not all scales are calibrated the same. Doesn't mean your doc's scale is necessarily more correct, though, since lots of medical offices fail to frequently calibrate.
Regardless of which is more accurate, so long as you took your starting weight on your home scale, there is no effect here on your progress. You've lost the same amount of weight, just would have started higher on the doc scale.
Finally, people always neglect to consider air (really!) when they say their weight should be the same, because they haven't eaten/had anything to drink/used the restroom. Breathing changes your weight...you are taking in oxygen and, more importantly, water vapor, and the rates at which you hold onto or let go of that water is influenced by SO many things, including your relative level of hydration and the humidity of the air around you.
So yes, totally normal. Do not even consider letting this upset you.
Just did an interesting calculation to satisfy my own curiousity.
Average amount of air breathed in a 24 hour period: 20 cubic meters
Weight of 1 liter of air - 1.2 grams
Number of liters in 20 cubic meters - 20,000
Grams breathed per day: 24,000 grams
Converted to lbs - 55 lbs.
That's right...you breathe in (and typically, breathe out) 55 lbs worth of air in a day.
I forgot to add that 'they' say to weigh yourself once a day (once a week, once a month, whatever) with the same exact conditions and the same exact scale. What is important is your overall change, not what one scale says versus another.
I've had that happen to me too, either the doctor's-office scale reading is higher or lower than the scale at home on the same day (or on close-enough days that I couldn't possibly have gained or lost the difference). Like mandalinn says, all scales are obviously not calibrated to the same standard. Don't worry about what any "other" scale says. Also, if possible use your home scale in the same place every weigh-in (I keep it in my bedroom, but since I have shag carpeting in my room I have to take it to a room with a hard floor when I weigh).
Manda, sometimes I think you have too much time on your hands.
Thanks for that. I'm glad I don't hold in all that air!
Oh wait! That's it! I don't retain water. I RETAIN AIR!
Scales, what can I say? I made a post on here about a year ago asking the same thing. I went to 1 dr in the AM, then to lunch and then to another dr appt. I weighed less at the second appt.
Before I changed my dr, I had an ongoing battle with them. They never calibrated their scales. That little lever thingy was sitting on the bottom. for it to be zeroed out, they had to add 5 lbs on the slidey thing. They wouldn't deduct 5 lbs from my weight. Another time it was all the way at the top. I got complimented on my weight loss!
Honestly! I think all dr should be required to calibrate their scales, just like the grocery stores.
Just go by your home scale. Don't beat yourself up.
I don't know about you, but I weigh myself at home bare-a naked. Clearly not something you can do at the doctor's office!
I was just in for a check up last week. I made sure to wear the lightest weight clothing I could. Also had the nurse wait while I took off my coat and boots!
Odd, but the last time I was at the doctor's office he made a point to tell me before I stepped on it that it usually weighed 4 or 5 pounds heavier. I suppose he'd had more than one person freak out. It was about 3 1/2 pounds out from the one at work (just for fun I'd stepped on it before I left for the appointment). It's the only scale I've ever known that I knew was correct. It was a weigh scale that we paid to have calibrated, and it was never out during calibration.
(Kind of sad because it was the one that said 412 when I finally got brave enough to step onto it. Subtracting 5lbs for clothing and steel-toed shoes gave me my reality check and started the weight loss.)
When I went in for my physical a few weeks ago, I weighted (at home, buck nekked) 220 lbs. When i went to the doctors office, with the clothes on I was 219.
I told them I want their scale.
The next morning at home, I weighted myself again - and I was 220... *sighs*
#$@! Doctor's Pffoce Scales !
