What is going on with my scales?!

emmahyphenleigh

So I've been on and off mfp for years, with a fair bit of success. This time I've been properly on the wagon so to speak for just over two weeks, and have been working really hard. I'm eating 1200 a day plus exercise cals, and doing the 30ds. The scale has been showing my hard work too, and I've gone from 216lbs to measuring yesterday 206.4. It's been roughly equal loss each day of around 0.5lbs, so although it seemed like a lot if weight loss the fact that it was fairly constant led me to believe it was down to the lovely Jillian kicking my *kitten*!

However, this morning I weighed myself, and first off it registered at 207. I was a little disheartened, but I figured that I normally weigh myself about an hour after getting up, whereas today is literally jumped out of bed and hit the scales. That hour usually gives me time to -ahem- do my business, so I thought I'd re-weigh a little later.

Which I did, and then got a reading of 215 - fair enough I might have put on a pound overnight, but nine?? No way. My bathroom is a little uneven, but I've sort of wedged them in an even spot - but with this in mind I re-wedged them thinking they might have moved a bit, and got 208. Having had enough by this point I decided to move them to the kitchen where the floor is definitely even and got a reading if 212 - which I'm guessing is accurate =[

So now I am well and truely disheartened. I'm not too worried about the exact number, and a four pound loss is still a good acheivement, but it's not quite 8lbs... Plus, I can't understand how the scale kept going down consistently? If it was in an uneven surface all along then surely I would have got more uneven readings??

Bahhh. I also really don't want to log 212 as my weight because it will make my graph go up - and it makes me so happy to see a nice downward trend! Daft I know but...

Any ideas?

TIMv4

I've owned 3 scales in the last 20 years and I only believe one of them.

One I had long ago I don't remember if it was digital or not but it gave a false weight of 20 pounds under reality. Somebody I knew didn't believe me on my weight so I brought it and he was right. The cruddy thing was 20 off.

It was probably digital because after that I bought this huge non digital floor scale. Health O Meter. I'm fairly confident on the accuracy as I believe I had compared it's reading with some measurements at the Y. It's what I'm still using now but I also have a digital Taylor scale that reads body fat and water percentage.

What a piece of junk the Taylor is. I don't know how long I've had it but it's a bit fussy and currently reads about 15 pounds too high though last week it was reading 20 pounds too high. It could be because I'm towards the upper range of it's limit and technically 5% error isn't huge but I guess I expected more for the price.

The mechanical HealthOMeter is pretty cut and dry, you don't have to trust electronic components , batteries and however the thing is programmed.

ashleymm625

my weight watcher scale used to do that. i now have an escali and it is so! accurate! you could pee and then weigh yourself again and itll register slightly less than before

goofyblonde

I would suggest keeping the scale in the kitchen, in one spot. The moisture from showers can mess with a scale, and moving it around a lot can also throw off your readings. And don't only rely on the scale, make sure you're taking tape measurements too! The number on the scale might not move for a while, but you may still be losing inches!

judtod

I also switched to the Health o meter after getting lots of bogus readings from a variety of digital scales. I don't mean for this to sound like an ad. I just think that weights are more reliable than electronics.