Scale problems

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rhsdancer5
rhsdancer5 Posts: 96 Member
edited May 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
My digital scale is driving me crazy! I always weigh in the morning right when I get up and after I go to the bathroom. I use it in the same spot on my bathroom floor every time. Today it was all over the place I stepped on it probably 20 times and if I moved it at all it would change the reading of the scale! It is really frustrating. So I changed the batteries and put it in one spot and it read the same 8 times. Then I moved it a bit and it read the same except once it was 4 pounds over the reading it kept giving me. Should I feel confident going with the one it gave me 90% of the time? And has anyone else had this issue.

Replies

  • vivmom2014
    vivmom2014 Posts: 1,647 Member
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    This is sounding a bit obsessive. Weigh less often, and watch for overall downward trends. That's my advice, and it works for me.
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    edited May 2016
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    My scales kept doing this, giving different readings and eventually I just threw them away as it was driving me mad. I decided not to buy some more for a while and go by how I feel and how my (smaller) clothes fit. I'll be going to the doctors in the next week or so and he always weighs me so that will be my next weigh in.
  • rhsdancer5
    rhsdancer5 Posts: 96 Member
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    I really just want to know the change in pounds I am loosing. I don't care what the number is. I just want to know the progress. It is a reward for me to know. I don't weigh everyday.
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    I've never had that issue, because I step on, step off, and then...go about my day. Why did you weigh yourself more than once?
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
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    It's not obsession if you have good reason to mistrust the numbers you're seeing. I didn't believe the number I saw one day because it was off several pounds from the day before, so I weighed myself again. Different number. I found by experimentation that the scale I had was highly inconsistent in the results it gave, and it wasn't dependent on where it was placed. It was just a crappy scale. As a result, it went to GoodWill and I purchased an EatSmart digital scale instead based on the reviews on Amazon. It's perfectly consistent.

    So my advice is, get yourself a GetSmart scale if you find your scale isn't giving you consistent results. But if you find yourself continually weighing yourself when you have a scale you can trust, now that's obsessive.
  • dietstokes
    dietstokes Posts: 216 Member
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    Just keep it in one spot. Don't move it. If you keep it in one spot, you should get a fairly accurate number FOR THAT SPOT. There can be variations of course, that depend on how much you may be leaning one way or another (even slight difference in standing can throw the numbers off).

    This is why I weight daily. Not to be obsessive, but to get a general number. I have an aria, so it takes all my numbers for the week and gives me an average. This way I can see if the average it the same, going down, or going up. Yes, I could do that myself without paying for the big fancy scale, but I wanted it, didn't want to do math, so I let it do the work for me.
  • rhsdancer5
    rhsdancer5 Posts: 96 Member
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    I weighed again because I was shocked I had lost 2.5 pounds, I was happy and making sure it was right before I got excited.
  • Raptor2763
    Raptor2763 Posts: 387 Member
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    check the battery; it may be running low, hence conflicting information. if in doubt - spend the extra $2.35 and get a new one.
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    rhsdancer5 wrote: »
    I weighed again because I was shocked I had lost 2.5 pounds, I was happy and making sure it was right before I got excited.

    Hah that makes more sense to me, thanks! I weigh every day, so I'm kinda immune to the jumps down (or up!) now. Maybe weigh more often and log it on a trending site such as trendweight.com or the Happy Scale app (iOS) or Libra (Android)?

    However, that doesn't address your immediate concern about the weights you saw on one day. If you don't feel you can trust your scale it might be worth trying it just in one spot under the same conditions, and if that doesn't ease your mind replace your scale. Mine has a built-in graph, so I just look at the trend rather than my weight.
  • Dove0804
    Dove0804 Posts: 213 Member
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    I can second the recommendation for an EatSmart scale. I trust it most of the time as it's pretty consistent. It is pre-programmed to keep feeding you back the same number if you step on it multiple times in a row, though. If I have any reason to not trust the number it's giving me (which is rare), I'll wait several minutes and try again. Or, use the "hold something heavy and step on the scale again to reset it" trick.
    Scales can be jerks.
  • Zella_11
    Zella_11 Posts: 161 Member
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    You need a new scale.

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