It's Christmas and I shattered my scale!
Replies
-
Well, the new toy did arrive! Nice enough packaging. Nice enough looks. Especially for the price. Did I mention 3 AAA Energizer Max batteries?!!
To the people wondering about my disappointment / frustration / slight mourning, the issue is fairly simple.
I like the idea of having lost 125lbs instead of 124, so that makes 155 a nice target. And I like the idea of being 70kg and under as opposed to over 70kg, so that puts my goal at 154.3! While I tend to spend December to June/July above 155, I tend to spend the rest of the year around, or below 154.3. So I am hovering very close to these nice numbers most of the time-which keeps me on my toes!
One scale can easily be 1-3lbs off compared to another.
Losing scale continuity at a time when my weight was stable or at a time when I weighed daily would have made it more easy to spot a difference induced by the scale change.
What I have available to me instead of my usually cleanish data, is a time frame when, traditionally, my weight increases. By quite a bit. Because of all da cookies. And measurement snapshots of:
Dec 3 153.9
Dec 5 155.3
Dec 6 156.4
Dec 7 155.2
Dec 10 155.0
Dec 13 155.4
Dec 18 153.2
new scale ---
Dec 27 155.4
So is there a non visible increase that is being masked by the new scale? My belt argues that there MAY be a half or a whole lb of that! Fitbit resting heart rate data (which tend to correlate fairly well, for me, with weight changes) are more neutral (see second capture).
But these are guesses, and I will never know!
Hence the relative sadness since I am someone who has spent some time documenting these things during the past few years.
Beyond that, well, off to a birthday dinner/party I go, and I am fairly certain I will recover from the heart-ache! Even though my future -125s will forever be suspect! <when my fitbit Aria was ~1.5lbs, if I recall correctly, less than my previous scale, I went back and changed all my weigh ins to reflect the new. This was about 3 months into MFP, not 5+ years, so it ain't happening again >
Those is maybe the most good-sense-data-geek-human post I've ever read here. I like it.5 -
Glad you like the new scale @PAV8888. I still like mine, but it has a button battery, so it wouldn't be for you. I actually already have a different scale because the button that turns on the BIA features wasn't working. The newer scale reads about exactly one pound less. Consistently. To be honest, I don't THINK either one has fake consistency, but I'm not sure. Both are made by Taylor and wear a Weight Watcher logo.
I don't use the new scale yet. Well, every now and then I'll hop on it to see that it is still the same offset. When the old scale finally does die, I will get a bonus loss of a pound, right?
One thing I did to check how ACCURATE the scale is was to weigh myself with clothes right before I left for work, then weigh myself again when I get there on the balance in our fitness room. Wanna know what's fun? My actual weight is pretty much exactly in between my two scales. Each one is a half pound off. I know of no way to tare/zero a digital body weight scale. If there is one, I'd apply the correction.
Any chance you have access to a scale you totally trust as accurate that you can do something similar?
I'm a daily weigh guy too.1 -
Fake consistency detection.
Get on scale.
See number.
grab (reasonably sized) toothpaste --not one of the Costco half pounders!
Get on scale.
if scale claims 0.1 of lb accuracy, that would be 50g accuracy (45.3g). So your weight should be up.
If it is the same number as before then fake consistency suspicions are in play!
<the reverse experiment would be to start while holding something and then weigh without.
In terms of alternatives to tootpaste when trying to determine scale limits, using a water bottle that you can weight on your food scale with increasing and decreasing amount of water can help you figure out the fake consistency limits of your bathroom scale>1 -
OK. Mine ain't fake then. It knows when I have a snickers bar2
-
Did you say snickers???1
-
Glad you like the new scale @PAV8888. I still like mine, but it has a button battery, so it wouldn't be for you. I actually already have a different scale because the button that turns on the BIA features wasn't working. The newer scale reads about exactly one pound less. Consistently. To be honest, I don't THINK either one has fake consistency, but I'm not sure. Both are made by Taylor and wear a Weight Watcher logo.
I don't use the new scale yet. Well, every now and then I'll hop on it to see that it is still the same offset. When the old scale finally does die, I will get a bonus loss of a pound, right?
One thing I did to check how ACCURATE the scale is was to weigh myself with clothes right before I left for work, then weigh myself again when I get there on the balance in our fitness room. Wanna know what's fun? My actual weight is pretty much exactly in between my two scales. Each one is a half pound off. I know of no way to tare/zero a digital body weight scale. If there is one, I'd apply the correction.
Any chance you have access to a scale you totally trust as accurate that you can do something similar?
I'm a daily weigh guy too.
In my case, unfortunately, no to a different, trusted, scale. I've verified that the new scale tares/calibrates the same 3.6lbs it weighs on a kitchen scale. So there's that at least in terms of accuracy. Though being accurate in the 0 to 5lb range doesn't tell you much about the 150 to 160 range!
-1 -
Glad you like the new scale @PAV8888. I still like mine, but it has a button battery, so it wouldn't be for you. I actually already have a different scale because the button that turns on the BIA features wasn't working. The newer scale reads about exactly one pound less. Consistently. To be honest, I don't THINK either one has fake consistency, but I'm not sure. Both are made by Taylor and wear a Weight Watcher logo.
I don't use the new scale yet. Well, every now and then I'll hop on it to see that it is still the same offset. When the old scale finally does die, I will get a bonus loss of a pound, right?
One thing I did to check how ACCURATE the scale is was to weigh myself with clothes right before I left for work, then weigh myself again when I get there on the balance in our fitness room. Wanna know what's fun? My actual weight is pretty much exactly in between my two scales. Each one is a half pound off. I know of no way to tare/zero a digital body weight scale. If there is one, I'd apply the correction.
Any chance you have access to a scale you totally trust as accurate that you can do something similar?
I'm a daily weigh guy too.
In my case, unfortunately, no to a different, trusted, scale. I've verified that the new scale tares/calibrates the same 3.6lbs it weighs on a kitchen scale. So there's that at least in terms of accuracy. Though being accurate in the 0 to 5lb range doesn't tell you much about the 150 to 160 range!
-
Indeed. You can do a spot-check on the precision around the weight it needs to assess by taking a known weight and weighing yourself with and without it. The difference should be the weight off the known item. But it won't tell you the accuracy of the major measurement.
I had purchased another BIA scale. I didn't like it because the numbers were too small, and I didn't like how they displayed. I returned it. I think it was off by a couple pounds from my current scale. It was only testing against a balance that I can assess the accuracy. I hope you can find some way to do that. If not... then WHO CARES?!?!
I'm fighting my last couple pounds, and it kind of would be SO easy to just skip the BIA scale and start using the new scale and magically lose a pound instantly. At some point, I'll do that, but I won't really care. After all, my actual mass is halfway between what these two relatively accurate (and pretty precise) devices report.Did you say snickers???
Yeah, I said it, but I don't actually remember the last time I had one. For a while I was carrying them for kayaker snacks as they were cheaper than things like Clif Bars, and they are actually a decent nutritional snack for energy. But they melt in my pocket. I did have some Ghirardelli chocolate squares this week. I didn't tell my scale about it
2 -
Snickers for their size are not bad, though I admit to Charleston Chews for slower to consume and Eat More, coffee crisp (Canada only I believe), and Mr Big for less expensive candy bars than my current favorite: Rx Bars (dates, nuts, egg whites) 😹
As I said in my OP, there exists no way for me to figure out how much of a discount the new scale is giving me and it doesn't appear to be a worryingly large one... so what it says is where I'm at!
It definitely exhibits fake consistency for close proximity weigh ins. But I normally do store it in a drawer and the self tare procedure seems to result in a real measurement so that's good enough for my needs.
1 -
So glad you have a LIGHThearted approach to this HEAVYweight issue. It's also great that you see the true SCALE of the problem and you are ready to POUND away towards your goal
:drinker:4 -
roflmao!
May have to count it as exercise!!!1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 392.9K Introduce Yourself
- 43.7K Getting Started
- 260.1K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.8K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 415 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.9K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.6K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.5K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions