Who's lying?

stryker520

Until scientists, physicians, and fitness experts can explain this phenomenon in great detail then I will continue to say that they don't have a clue about the human body.

I have a sophisticated scale at home. It measures weight, muscle mass, body fat, water weight and organ weight. It is reliably accurate.

Yesterday I knew I was going out with a friend for dinner and a few cocktails so I "saved" many of my calories until the evening. I didn't over indulge or gorge myself in the least. Split a salad with my friend and half of a small flatbread pizza and 3 drinks over the course of 5 hours.

If it takes 3500 calories to gain 1 pound and alcohol dehydrates you. How is it possible to gain 6 (SIX!!) pounds overnight when muscle mass remained constant and water weight decreased by 2%. This means that I gained 2% body fat and ate over 21,000 of EXTRA calories yesterday. Neither which is possible.

cmriverside

Those home bioimpedence scales are notoriously inaccurate.

Just keep doing the right things and try to let go of the tiny details.

Going out to eat (pizza and drinks) leads to temporary scale "weight." It will drop back off. I wouldn't give any credence to that water/muscle/fat weight reading.

L1zardQueen

You are right. It is fluid retention from the pizza. 21,000 calories would be a lot of food. Those pounds will disappear in a few days or sooner.

ETA: clarity

Vune

Bar pizza and drinks scream water retention. Your scale is being reasonably inaccurate. It's totally a thing.

kgeyser

Food weight? That salad and pizza is camping out in your intestines at the moment, along with whatever else you ate yesterday, and possibly some food from the day before.

garystrickland357

stryker520 wrote: »

Until scientists, physicians, and fitness experts can explain this phenomenon in great detail then I will continue to say that they don't have a clue about the human body.

I have a sophisticated scale at home. It measures weight, muscle mass, body fat, water weight and organ weight. It is reliably accurate.

Yesterday I knew I was going out with a friend for dinner and a few cocktails so I "saved" many of my calories until the evening. I didn't over indulge or gorge myself in the least. Split a salad with my friend and half of a small flatbread pizza and 3 drinks over the course of 5 hours.

If it takes 3500 calories to gain 1 pound and alcohol dehydrates you. How is it possible to gain 6 (SIX!!) pounds overnight when muscle mass remained constant and water weight decreased by 2%. This means that I gained 2% body fat and ate over 21,000 of EXTRA calories yesterday. Neither which is possible.

Can you explain in great detail how you are so certain your sophisticated scale is accurately measuring your muscle mass and water weight?

kshama2001

Probably the food is still in your system

There won't be a good correlation to what you ate yesterday and what you weigh today. Look at your results over time, at least a month or more.

This is especially true if you are a woman with a menstrual cycle - compare yourself to where you were at the same point in the cycle last month rather than last week.

patrickaa5

The only thing lying is your "reliable" scale. No way you gained 6 lbs and your water weight decreased 2%.

MikePTY

stryker520 wrote: »

Until scientists, physicians, and fitness experts can explain this phenomenon in great detail then I will continue to say that they don't have a clue about the human body.

I have a sophisticated scale at home. It measures weight, muscle mass, body fat, water weight and organ weight. It is reliably accurate.

Yesterday I knew I was going out with a friend for dinner and a few cocktails so I "saved" many of my calories until the evening. I didn't over indulge or gorge myself in the least. Split a salad with my friend and half of a small flatbread pizza and 3 drinks over the course of 5 hours.

If it takes 3500 calories to gain 1 pound and alcohol dehydrates you. How is it possible to gain 6 (SIX!!) pounds overnight when muscle mass remained constant and water weight decreased by 2%. This means that I gained 2% body fat and ate over 21,000 of EXTRA calories yesterday. Neither which is possible.

There is no such thing as a home scale that is reliably accurate for things like body fat measurements. They are basic bioimpedience devices and their BF and other readings they give (except for your weight) are basically for entertainment purposes. They may offer some basic long term trending values, but they have a wide margin of error.

Even the top of the line devices, such as Bod Pod and DexaScan, have margin of error. BF readings don't really have any value taking them day to day, because even the best device will have fluctuation in readings. They all work better to measure long term trends.

Science is still safe. Your device is just not that accurate.

quiksylver296

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

WholeFoods4Lyfe

Your scale is not as reliable as you think it is.

You ate most of your calories later in the day, so they were still in your system and not pooped out yet.

Water retention from the sodium in restaurant food.

runnermom419

Aliens.

In all actuality, your high tech scale isn't as reliable and accurate as you claim. Also, the scale can fluctuate several pounds on a day to day basis.

NovusDies

I am lying:

Your scale is to be trusted at all times.

stryker520

@garystrickland357 - as it compares to Dexa and BodPod as well as caliper measurements it is right on the money. I'm certain you are going to argue that they also are not accurate. But how do you know those are not accurate? What tool is accurate then and how do you know it is accurate? Is it just because it reports back what you want it to report back?

janejellyroll

I think the issue is that you are assuming your scale is the absolute source of truth. How did you determine it is "reliably accurate"?

If I had a piece of at-home equipment that was part of a category of devices famous for misleading or inaccurate readings and it gave me a reading that didn't make sense, I would assume the problem was with the device not with the medical and scientific establishment.

quiksylver296

Did you read the article I linked upthread, @stryker520 ?

kshama2001

stryker520 wrote: »

@garystrickland357 - as it compares to Dexa and BodPod as well as caliper measurements it is right on the money. I'm certain you are going to argue that they also are not accurate. But how do you know those are not accurate? What tool is accurate then and how do you know it is accurate? Is it just because it reports back what you want it to report back?

No, the consensus is the DEXA-type scans are accurate. Even if you had a DEXA scan and immediately hopped on your scale, I wouldn't conclude that your scale would meet the accuracy of a DEXA at all times because factors like your amount of hydration can affect it.

cmriverside

https://www.consumerreports.org/body-fat-scales/body-fat-scale-review/

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/diet-weight-loss/article/body-fat-scales-step-right

MelanieCN77

Yes science is wrong but that $60 scale is infallible?

RelCanonical

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

Yes science is wrong but that $60 scale is infallible?

Surely weight scales are tired of being stepped on and shall be the the ones that rise up to lead the robots against the human race in a revolution.

stryker520

@MelanieCN77 Nice try at being sarcastic and unhelpful. For the record the scale was way more than $60.

stryker520

@quiksylver296 Yes. It was great. I marked it as "insightful" thank you.

stryker520

@kshama2001 Let's be honest. If you measured yourself in a Dexa and then again 5 minutes later it would produce different results.

magnusthenerd

stryker520 wrote: »

@garystrickland357 - as it compares to Dexa and BodPod as well as caliper measurements it is right on the money. I'm certain you are going to argue that they also are not accurate. But how do you know those are not accurate? What tool is accurate then and how do you know it is accurate? Is it just because it reports back what you want it to report back?

Dissection and burning. That's accurate - the platinum standard. All other methods' accuracy is determined in comparison to that.

MikePTY

stryker520 wrote: »

@kshama2001 Let's be honest. If you measured yourself in a Dexa and then again 5 minutes later it would produce different results.

Which is what I mentioned in my comment. All devices have a MOE. They will never produce two identical scans. That is why it is for long term trending and not measuring yourself every single day.

But since you admit that the devices all have margins of error, what exactly do scientists and fitness experts need to explain and prove themselves to you about in great detail?

magnusthenerd

RelCanonical wrote: »

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

Yes science is wrong but that $60 scale is infallible?

Surely weight scales are tired of being stepped on and shall be the the ones that rise up to lead the robots against the human race in a revolution.

So few people understand how the robot uprising will go down. Most people want to think a robot will resent things based on general human drives - nevermind there are people out there with interesting hobbies. If one was building a robot, it would have a drive to do what it is designed for. If the scales have a robot revolution, it will be not us killed for stepping on them, but crushed under each other as scales pile human after human on themselves, looking to be the one measuring the most people's weight at a time.

stryker520

@MikePTY The variance. Big difference between margin of error and vast fluctuations.

RelCanonical

magnusthenerd wrote: »

RelCanonical wrote: »

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

Yes science is wrong but that $60 scale is infallible?

Surely weight scales are tired of being stepped on and shall be the the ones that rise up to lead the robots against the human race in a revolution.

So few people understand how the robot uprising will go down. Most people want to think a robot will resent things based on general human drives - nevermind there are people out there with interesting hobbies. If one was building a robot, it would have a drive to do what it is designed for. If the scales have a robot revolution, it will be not us killed for stepping on them, but crushed under each other as scales pile human after human on themselves, looking to be the one measuring the most people's weight at a time.

MARGIN OF ERROR TOO HIGH MUST RE-WEIGH. NO YOU CANNOT LEAVE. FOREVER FOREVER FOREVER.

Yes, that would be dystopically amazing.

magnusthenerd

stryker520 wrote: »

@MikePTY The variance. Big difference between margin of error and vast fluctuations.

Do you genuinely want someone to explain to you the methodology behind what bioimpedance is assessing so you can understand most of the potential sources of variance?

qpmomma1

So what brand is this scale?

kimny72

stryker520 wrote: »

Until scientists, physicians, and fitness experts can explain this phenomenon in great detail then I will continue to say that they don't have a clue about the human body.

I have a sophisticated scale at home. It measures weight, muscle mass, body fat, water weight and organ weight. It is reliably accurate.

Yesterday I knew I was going out with a friend for dinner and a few cocktails so I "saved" many of my calories until the evening. I didn't over indulge or gorge myself in the least. Split a salad with my friend and half of a small flatbread pizza and 3 drinks over the course of 5 hours.

If it takes 3500 calories to gain 1 pound and alcohol dehydrates you. How is it possible to gain 6 (SIX!!) pounds overnight when muscle mass remained constant and water weight decreased by 2%. This means that I gained 2% body fat and ate over 21,000 of EXTRA calories yesterday. Neither which is possible.

So what we do know is that it is physically impossible to gain 6 lbs of fat overnight. So you know those 6 lbs are not fat, they must be something else. Just thinking about it, it makes sense they could be excess food in your digestive system and water retention.

Those scales measure by sending electricity through your body. I believe it's fairly well established that the pulse tends to only make it through your bottom half, and their accuracy can also depend on where you carry fat, where you tend to retain water, how you stand, your height, etc.

I suspect over the next several days you'll see your weight settle back down. Regardless, the measurement of bf% is really difficult to get an accurate measurement of, barring autopsy I guess. I wouldn't say any method is reliably accurate imho.