Hi folks,

We often talk about scales on these boards and how they mess with our heads. Right now I am so confused and a bit annoyed. My mom has a rather cheap electric scale and I have just an oldfashioned also rather cheap one.

On the oldfashioned one I weigh 136.6lbs
On the electric one I weigh 142.8lbs.

So, one is lying is what I am thinking. This happens, alle scales are a bit different. What I did to figure out which one was accurate was put my 2lbs weights on both of them to see which had it correctly. Funky thing is: they both did!

What to do? I obviously don't just wanna believe the scale that tells me the best number because then I'll constantly feel like I am cheating. I want to be honest with myself about my weight. Though I also can't imagine I actually weigh 142 at the moment.

What would you do?

I don't think you can gauge the accuracy of a home scale with two-pound weights. (If I understood you correctly, you placed ONLY the weights on the scales.) You need a much higher weight to detect variance and inaccuracy. If you have easy access to a gym or a doctor's office, I would weigh myself there and take that figure as the "real" one. (My doctor's scale runs high, so I've always hated weighing myself there!)

Freelance

They both could be right depending on when you weight and what you were weighing. I would just pick one and stick with it using it to measure progress. I weigh in the morning before eating to get my lowest weight (after br in pjs)

Do you have any heavier weights? I've used my 15lb weights to test out my scale and I found it is accurate. My Wii Fit weighs me in around the same amount and it also weighs in other objects at the correct weight.

The scale at the gym seems to weigh me in a bit higher, but only a few pounds.

Pick one scale and use that to measure your progress

Edit: Does the electric scale use batteries? They might need changing.

I would take a sledgehammer to both of them and get a new one.

I agree with the sledge hammer idea

Seriously though, You really can't test a scales accuracy on such a small amount of weight. I work at a Vet Office and the heavier the dogs the more off the scale tends to be.

Possibly borrow a friends scale and see which is closest?

The number on the scale is just a tool to gauge your progress. I would just pick a scale (probably the one you own) and go with that one. To me it's not so much about the specific number as it is about the trend of those numbers over time.

Don't sweat it so much!

I'd not stress out about and just worry about seeing CHANGE on the scale.

So long as both keep moving down, I'm not too worried about them being a few pounds diff than each other. One day they can be 126 and 132 -- and that's a yay because it's getting you to goal.

Don't sweat the small stuff. Stay focused.

GL!
A.

Yeah, I understand about not wanting to feel like you're cheating. I'd want to be realistic about it so that I wouldn't get surprised when I went to the doctors office. But I agree with some of the others who say just pick a scale and stick with it. I spent some time on amazon finding a scale that I'd stick with. It is a little lower than the doctors office, but its the one that I rely on to at least notice that the number is going down (sometimes). As long as that's happening I don't worry about it too much.

Just another thought - does your gym have a scale? This is where I do my weekly weigh ins after I work out and I find it to be more accurate than the digital one in my suitemate's room.

Thanks for all the tips and thoughts. I was gonna go with my own scale and just forget about it, but I kept wondering. If the electric scale would be correct my beginning weight would have been so much higher and I just couldn't imagine that.

I just put 40lbs of weights on both scales and the electric one is off by about 1.2lbs (heavier). So I think my oldfashioned cheap scale is more correct. Yay for that! haha.

My scale battery just died last night without notice so now I'm wondering how accurate IT has been... I agree that you should stick with the one you own and just keep using the same one so its more a measure of downward progress rather than the number specifically although I know I always want to know exactly what the real number is... I try not to weigh myself any where other than my own scale at home because I feel like they are always different. Also, I feel like I can vary up to 5 lbs in one day depending on the time of day, so I make sure I only weigh myself in the morning like Bette does.

Agreed, it's less about the actual figures and more about the trend going down.
Recently I've switched scales because my old (expensive!) scales were weighing me in differently everytime I stepped on them, normally i step on 3 times to make sure the reading is accurate, and it was showing up to a 8lb difference each time (sure I can't put on 8lb in 30 seconds?)! So I'm now using my sisters which weighs me in 7lbs heavier then my old ones when it worked.
Now it was a struggle to not feel like this was setting me back but I had to remember that I actually physically have not put this weight on and does not mean that I have lost less weight. Personally I have kept my "goal weight" very flexible and try to focus more on how my body feels rather then fixating on a number. So i'm still using my sisters scales and they're still moving down and i'm still proud of my success, .