Scales

Lildarlinz

What scales do everybody have?

I literally have a set of scales that cost me 5 quid 🤣 and I think I’m mistaking my water weight posts for my scales…I think my scales are dodgy…they are old thou…

What would you recommend? What should I look for in the description when purchasing a set of scales?

Elphaba1313

What do you mean mistaking your water weight posts for your scales? Regardless of your scales, they will show weight, whether it's fat, muscle, water, bone, or holding onto the family cat.

westrich20940

If you think the scale that you are using isn't accurate then by all means, grab a new one. You can get accurate/reliable kitchen scales on amazon for like $15. Maybe the $5 ones are calibrated poorly?

Re: your weight fluctuation - I think you are aware that your weight will fluctuate even if you are doing everything right. I'd suggest weighing in less often. I weighed in weekly at first when I was actively losing weight...but then switched to monthly bc then it can sort of avoid the 'noise' of those daily/weekly fluctuations (unless you just like the data points and it doesn't negatively affect you). That way it's more reliable to figure out if you are gaining/staying the same/or losing weight over time. Just a suggestion. For some people, if they are weighing every day or week and they *don't go down...even though they know it's not true weight gain, it can end up leading to negative feelings (like feeling disappointed or discouraged) and that's not really helpful in the long-run.

DFW_Tom

Lildarlinz wrote: »

What scales do everybody have?

I literally have a set of scales that cost me 5 quid 🤣 and I think I’m mistaking my water weight posts for my scales…I think my scales are dodgy…they are old thou…

What would you recommend? What should I look for in the description when purchasing a set of scales?

We had a 30 year old analogue rotary that did just fine until I weighed more than it's upper limit (300lbs). Replaced it with a cheap digital Health-O-Meter for it's memory function that tracks the weight from one day to the last time I weighed myself. It tracks this weigh-in to weigh-in for two people separately which is handy. Bought the digital scale used at an Estate Sale for $1.25.

And then there is this helpful post:
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

There are all kinds of reasons why the reading from a weigh-in can change from day to day, or even minute to minute. Just placing your feet in a slightly different place can make a reading differ from the one you took only seconds before. Doesn't matter in the long run because The Trend is Your Friend when it comes to weight loss. That was true for me when I weighed over 300 and is still true now that I am under 180 lbs and am trying to maintain. It should be true for you, too.

The most affordable, very accurate type of scale would be a balance type like what many doctor offices have. Have you noticed though that when the nurse in the doctor's office takes your weight that they don't wait for the beam to settle down completely? That they don't care how heavy or light your clothing or shoes are? That's because a few pounds here or there in accuracy doesn't matter. Only the trend does.

yirara

No scale is precise, but overall every scale works well enough. With that I mean that a new scale might give you a lower or a higher weight at the same time as your current one. If you were to buy a new scale and it showed a higher weight then it doesn't mean you've gained weight but that it's just how this scale works. It will still show weight loss or gain, regardless of it being waterweight, poopweight or bodyfat.

kshama2001

Elphaba1313 wrote: »

What do you mean mistaking your water weight posts for your scales? Regardless of your scales, they will show weight, whether it's fat, muscle, water, bone, or holding onto the family cat.

She's created multiple threads complaining about weight gain and we've been telling her it's water weight (assuming she is accurately reporting.)

I think what she means to say is, "My scale is giving me weird readings which I thought was due to water weight but might actually be an issue with the scales."

kidiki

Lildarlinz wrote: »

What scales do everybody have?

I literally have a set of scales that cost me 5 quid 🤣 and I think I’m mistaking my water weight posts for my scales…I think my scales are dodgy…they are old thou…

What would you recommend? What should I look for in the description when purchasing a set of scales?

My digital scales are a brand called Wellness. They are calibrated to my doctor’s scales. My weight, before paying attention to my eating habits, began fluctuating. After almost 80 days of mindful eating, and taking in way less sodium, my weight is not yo-yo’ing as it was.

springlering62

Home scales don’t record water, muscle, bone etc percentages accurately.

Use them for weight because if you gnaw on the other, you’re wasting your time- and energy which could be put to much better use elsewhere.

AnnPT77

Actual body weight varies by multiple pounds/kg over the course of a day or few, because of water retention shifts and different amounts of waste that are still in the body, destined for the loo. You know this by now, right?

Don't blame your scales for that. It's your body. Don't blame your body, either: Those shifts are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. IMO, what we need is to adjust our thinking to match what our body is doing, not expect the body or the scales to accommodate our anxieties.

Most any scale will work, as long as it's reasonably consistent. By "consistent", I mean registering around X pounds/kg when the body mass actually is around X pounds/kg. A scale is not consistent if it tells you the same weight all day long through eating, drinking, changing clothes, sleeping, working or exercising, etc. That would be a scale that LIES.

Some electronic scales do that: Tell you the same body weight each time unless there's been an unusually large change, or a larger time span has passed. Those scales LIE because the manufacturers know that un-knowledgeable scale users don't want the truth, they want reassurance.

Personally, I want a scale that tells me I weigh a kilo more if I weigh myself, immediately drink a liter of water, then weigh myself again right away. That scale would be telling the truth.

As Spring up there says, the ones that give water/fat/muscle percent estimates aren't accurate enough to be helpful in sorting out the day-to-day changes, either. You don't need an expensive scale, trust me. Ones that are inexpensive and consistent are just fine.

I think a weight trending app has been recommended to you, yes? That helps focus on the trend, though even the weight trending app can be wrong sometimes, too. Bodies are weird. If you do the right things, in the long run, you'll get the results. Trust the process.

Cats_fitness_journey

I have a scale I got as a present it’s called “Withings” it’s very cool, tells me my fat and muscle % and bone density, plus it connects to MFP so every time I weigh myself it automatically updates the app.

yirara

Good suggestion, if grossly expensive. However, TO is already super anxious about minor fluctuations. Giving her even more data, and we know those kind of scales produce a lot of rubbish data that means very little might be exactly the wrong thing to do.

TO, do you know what mean sea level means? Locally it's the average sea surface at a mid point between low and high tide. Sea level constantly changes with the tides. Try to see your weight the same: it's a constant up and down that has nothing to do with bodyfat, but with lots of other factors that are impossible to control, such as water weight due to menstrual cycle, more or less salt, thousands of other things that affect water weight, weight of food eaten and digestion time, poop in digestive tract, and things that are easier to control, like weight of clothes or weighing before and after a meal or drink. It's normal. Only dead bodies don't do that. If this didn't happen, then.. well, I think you'd have a different problem