Scale gives very different readings depending on where it is

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jayeless
jayeless Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My boyfriend tipped me off to this and this morning I tried it out. Usually, my scale (a cheap analog one from Kmart) resides on my carpeted bedroom floor, next to a chest of drawers. It resides here because it's one of very few spots in my flat where it won't trip people over, but it's still accessible to step on without moving it. Anyway...
  • In its usual spot, this morning I weighed 49kg.
  • Moving it 50cm away from the chest of drawers, I weighed 46.5kg.
  • Moving it to the hallway with a hardwood floor, suddenly I weighed 45.5kg!

I found this New Scientist article suggesting that the hardwood reading is probably the most accurate one (as in that's what manufacturers calibrate for). Which would mean that all of a sudden, my weight loss journey is just about done - my goal weight is 45kg and I'm almost there. I should start planning for maintenance. Yet that's a weird thing to wrap my head around when up til now, I thought I was a bit over halfway... so I guess I wanted some second opinions. Is the lowest reading really most likely to be accurate? Should I definitely start planning to go into maintenance in a couple of weeks? How can I soothe my nagging sense of doubt? (Other than with, "at this point it's all vanity pounds anyway, don't get obsessive!" which was the first thought that came to mind :tongue:)

As an aside, I'm 150cm/4'10" so these weights are all within a healthy range for me. My goal weight of 45kg would give a BMI of 20.5. I don't really want to go lower than 45kg but yeah, 45kg is good. Just wanted to head off any well-meaning concern!

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  • zorander6
    zorander6 Posts: 2,712 Member
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    Generally a hard surface like hardwood or tile is the best place to put your scale. It takes out the variable of carpet has different "squish" factors that can cause inaccurate readings. Odd that you would be higher as I'd think you'd be lower but scales act weird if they aren't level or on a solid surface.
  • jayeless
    jayeless Posts: 30 Member
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    Alatariel75 wrote: »
    Using a scale on carpet is wildly inaccurate.

    I mean, when I started it gave the exact same reading as my parents' scale on a tiled floor, and it's been showing very consistent losses for three months. It's just that the figure is about 4kg higher than when I use it on hardwood floors. So maybe inaccurate... but consistently, not wildly :tongue:
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
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    If it were me, I'd go with the hardwood reading and start planning for maintenance.

    I got rid of my old digital scale when I found that weighing myself several times in a row gave different numbers -- even on the same hard tile surface. I replaced it with an EatSmart digital scale based on Amazon reviews, and it's the most consistent scale I've owned. It cost me about 20USD on Amazon -- about the same cost as the cheap scale I was using before.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    If I place my scale on my carpet it automatically adds 2-4lbs to my weight

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