Stupid question about scales

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2wise4u
2wise4u Posts: 229 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The scale I use at home is a digital scale but nothing fancy. It can measure to the tenth and has memory for recall of 2 people's weights. The scale at the gym is one of those old school mechanical scales you'd see in a doctor's office and for some reason the manual scale always seems to show me as a few pounds heavier than the home scale. Should there be a difference?

And I always weigh myself first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything. **I work out at 5:00 am**

Replies

  • missmagnoliablossom
    missmagnoliablossom Posts: 240 Member
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    Yes, logically there would be a difference. Clothing, hydration, food in your digestive system, etc. That's why you should pick one scale, one time of day, and one set of circumstances and use that as your weight.
  • 2wise4u
    2wise4u Posts: 229 Member
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    That makes sense. Got it. Thanks
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,487 Member
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    Nearly all scales show different weights.
    I am a good few pounds heavier on my gym scale. Part of that is time of day, clothing, and food, the other part is the idiosyncrasies of the individual scale.

    Use your home scale like you are. at the same time, wearing, or not, the same clothes. This will give you the most consistent results.

    A couple of pounds difference in scales doesn't matter, what matters is tracking your weight in a consistent way.

    My scale broke half way through my weight loss. I will never know if I lost 30 or 25lbs and 7 years later it doesn't matter as I dint have my weight tattooed on my head.

    Cheers, h.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    All scales are a bit different. Stick to only one. Same time of day, same clothing, etc.

    I weigh on my bathroom scale first thing in the morning, after peeing, naked.
  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
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    Every scale is different. Hell, even the same scale will show you different things if your floor is uneven, or if you weight yourself on hard floor vs carpet.

    Follow everyone else's advice. Stick to a single scale and weigh yourself at the same time. Ignore all over scales.

    On/off-topic, the scale at my Dr's office always reads significantly heavier than my scale at home (yes, even correcting for clothing) and I get so annoyed. I worked hard to lose 20 pounds since my last checkup, don't tell me I've only lost 15!!!
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    YalithKBK wrote: »
    Every scale is different. Hell, even the same scale will show you different things if your floor is uneven, or if you weight yourself on hard floor vs carpet.

    Follow everyone else's advice. Stick to a single scale and weigh yourself at the same time. Ignore all over scales.

    On/off-topic, the scale at my Dr's office always reads significantly heavier than my scale at home (yes, even correcting for clothing) and I get so annoyed. I worked hard to lose 20 pounds since my last checkup, don't tell me I've only lost 15!!!

    But if you're comparing same-scale measurements, your weights at your doctor's office should still reflect a 20-lb loss. It's just that your starting and current weights would both be 5-lbs heavier.

    My doctor's scale reads about 3 pounds heavier than my home scale (fasted appointment, so no food or drink to mess with the reading). That seems about right for clothes and shoes. I appear to be in the minority, though :smile:
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    MeganAM89 wrote: »
    missmagnoliablossom wrote: »
    Yes, logically there would be a difference. Clothing, hydration, food in your digestive system, etc. That's why you should pick one scale, one time of day, and one set of circumstances and use that as your weight.

    I agree with this. If it weren't so weird I'd strip naked at the doctors office or gym so as to get a closer reading to what I get at home but that might be weird.

    No need to get naked, I'm sure skivvies will do! :wink:
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    MeganAM89 wrote: »
    missmagnoliablossom wrote: »
    Yes, logically there would be a difference. Clothing, hydration, food in your digestive system, etc. That's why you should pick one scale, one time of day, and one set of circumstances and use that as your weight.

    I agree with this. If it weren't so weird I'd strip naked at the doctors office or gym so as to get a closer reading to what I get at home but that might be weird.

    Weigh at the doc's or the gym, then head straight home and weigh wearing the exact same clothes (shoes, handbag etc.). Will give you an idea of the difference.
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
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    Yes there is a difference between scales. Give you a little background on myself I work in a manufacturing environment where scales are calibrated.

    I'll give you a specific example one day I went to the doctor about 9 a.m. weight was 203 on his scale went to work weighed myself about 1 o'clock my weight was 210 pounds 7 o'clock that night finished up my workout at the gym my weight was 214.

    Like I stated before unless the scales are calibrated by the same technician and they're in the same environment as far as stability and all your conditions are exactly the same there's no way you'll have the same number on all the scales. Also your weight will fluctuate during the day depending on what you eat your bathroom factors the type of food you ate. At work I weighed myself and my weight has varied by 5 pounds during the day depending on what I ate.

    Don't be fixated on weight it's just a number. As previous posters have stayed it weigh yourself Bailey under the same conditions at the same time and use a long-term the valuation to properly gauge your weight loss or gain.

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