scales- need help

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shw112
shw112 Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hi everyone

this may seem like a bit of a basic question- but today i went a bought my first electric bathroom scale (all i had was one of the rotating ones until now). anyway, the scale keeps giving me a different number! i tried it quite a few times and no two times were the same. i tried it out on two different surfaces, and on one the reading was about 10 pounds higher than the other :/

so to people who have more experience with electric scales- is a bit of variation to be expected or is there something wrong with the one i bought? and can anyone recommend me a reliable brand?

the ones i got were called colour match (from argos). i don't know if anyone else has tried them.

i am just feeling very frustrated right now. i really want to get started with properly losing weight but how can i do that when i can't even work out how much i weigh?

thanks for the help

Replies

  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
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    No, a good one should not do that. A scale with an electronic readout still has mechanical parts inside to measure your weight - its not a magic mass reader. Don't let it discourage you from losing weight - you can do that without weighing yourself at all, if you want to. If you weight yourself no more often than once a week, even an inaccurate scale should show general trends up or down eventually. But if its important to you to get a more accurate reading, take it back and get another.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Next to a cheap crappy digital scale, an analog rotating scale is actually more accurate. If you're going to use a digital scale, you have to buy a good quality one. I understand the desire to watch the pounds come down quarter lb by quarter lb, but if you wanna do that, I highly suggest getting your research on and delving very deeply into the amazon.com reviews section. Alternatively, you could get a doctors-office scale off craigslist for pretty cheap. Just be sure it's calibrated correctly (they usually have instructions for this on the under side) and it's IMMENSELY satisfying to physically move the little weights on the top bar leftward throughout the month!!!
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
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    Sounds like a bad scale to me.

    Assuming you put in a brand new battery and it's doing this, I would return it and get a different one.

    ~Lyssa
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    macgurlnet wrote: »
    Sounds like a bad scale to me.

    Assuming you put in a brand new battery and it's doing this, I would return it and get a different one.

    ~Lyssa

    Also, this. No reason to have spent money on something that doesn't work. Take that thing back and get ur money and go spend it on something that doesn't suck. A 10 lb margin of error is ridiculous.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    Well, if one of the surfaces was carpeted, depending on the type of scale it could be very reasonably off by 10 pounds. You really want a scale on a hard, level surface. On two different hard surfaces, 10 pounds is totally unacceptable for error.
  • joshuakcaron
    joshuakcaron Posts: 343 Member
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    shw112 wrote: »
    hi everyone

    this may seem like a bit of a basic question- but today i went a bought my first electric bathroom scale (all i had was one of the rotating ones until now). anyway, the scale keeps giving me a different number! i tried it quite a few times and no two times were the same. i tried it out on two different surfaces, and on one the reading was about 10 pounds higher than the other :/

    so to people who have more experience with electric scales- is a bit of variation to be expected or is there something wrong with the one i bought? and can anyone recommend me a reliable brand?

    the ones i got were called colour match (from argos). i don't know if anyone else has tried them.

    i am just feeling very frustrated right now. i really want to get started with properly losing weight but how can i do that when i can't even work out how much i weigh?

    thanks for the help

    I know a lot of things affect electric scales. There's a video in YouTube somewhere about it. Temperature affects it also the decimal place is usually randomized apparently too. Not sure how trustworthy the source was but he weighed a 20lb weight on 3 different scales all came up with different numbers.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Well, with my scale it does something similar. When i weigh on my hardwood floor vs. the tile floor in my bathroom. I just weigh it on the hardest surface (my tile floor) for consistency's sake.
  • shw112
    shw112 Posts: 60 Member
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    Well, if one of the surfaces was carpeted, depending on the type of scale it could be very reasonably off by 10 pounds. You really want a scale on a hard, level surface. On two different hard surfaces, 10 pounds is totally unacceptable for error.

    yeah i did it on floorboards and tiles- so i dont really get why the difference was so big. i guess i'll have to get another one.

    it was quite cheap to be honest- £13.50- but i can't really afford to spend loads on a scale.
    clgaram720 wrote: »
    If you're going to use a digital scale, you have to buy a good quality one. I understand the desire to watch the pounds come down quarter lb by quarter lb, but if you wanna do that, I highly suggest getting your research on and delving very deeply into the amazon.com reviews section

    well i was just hoping for it to be accurate at least to the pound. since i'm hoping to lose 2 lbs per week i wanted to be able to weigh in weekly and see if i had.


  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    shw112 wrote: »
    rankinsect wrote: »
    Well, if one of the surfaces was carpeted, depending on the type of scale it could be very reasonably off by 10 pounds. You really want a scale on a hard, level surface. On two different hard surfaces, 10 pounds is totally unacceptable for error.

    yeah i did it on floorboards and tiles- so i dont really get why the difference was so big. i guess i'll have to get another one.

    it was quite cheap to be honest- £13.50- but i can't really afford to spend loads on a scale.
    clgaram720 wrote: »
    If you're going to use a digital scale, you have to buy a good quality one. I understand the desire to watch the pounds come down quarter lb by quarter lb, but if you wanna do that, I highly suggest getting your research on and delving very deeply into the amazon.com reviews section

    well i was just hoping for it to be accurate at least to the pound. since i'm hoping to lose 2 lbs per week i wanted to be able to weigh in weekly and see if i had.


    You have more self control than me! First thing I do every morning is hop on the thing! But I also don't get discouraged by anything within a few pounds, so different strokes.

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