Help! Which scale to use?

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rskidmore
rskidmore Posts: 212
in Health and Weight Loss
My boyfriend and I finally bought a bathroom scale yesterday. It is a Weight Watchers one that calculates just about everything you'd ever need to know. However, up until this point I have been measuring my weight loss on our Wii Fit. According to it I am at 185 lbs, 5 lb weight loss, but with the new WW scale I'm weighing in at 190 lbs, which I thought was my starting weight. This is frustrating and confusing. Which one should I go by? I'd like to use the WW one as it is easier than setting up the Wii, but I feel like everytime I get on it I'll feel really bad about myself because it'll be like losing the same 5 lbs again. :( Any suggestions?

Replies

  • RamNemesis
    RamNemesis Posts: 5 Member
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    I would go with the heavier option, bettter to have found out later that the scale was measuring over than under. The Wii can be a bit unreliable if it is placed on carpet too. You are lookinh at losing 5lb so to go from 190 to 185 or 185 to 180 is still a loss of 5lb.
  • apeninhand4life
    apeninhand4life Posts: 18 Member
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    First off let me start by saying congrats on the decision to make this effort. 2nd let me say that there is going to naturally be a variance between the two, now 5 lbs sounds like allot but depending on time of day of week and water retention that could be exactly right on. by best advice to you is; yes you want to monitor your weight loss but when starting out it is going to be minimal and you will tend to plateau off, why not just forget about weight loss for just a few weeks and focus on fitness and inches loss. I promise that if you just set out to get in shape the weight loss follows and the inches will start shedding off. For example I am in the army and have been doing this stuff for years. I have had a weight problem (by army standards) the whole time i decided to start a good PT regimen and didn’t pay any attention to the scale. 3 pants sizes later and i looked ... 22 lbs lost in 4 months...

    Give it a try and see how you feel after forgetting about your weigh in a few weeks.

    Oh and lastly when you do weigh in do it on the same day and time each time you get on it.
  • StarryEyedGirl
    StarryEyedGirl Posts: 585
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    as soon as I read your posting title I knew the Wii scale was involved. there have been a few post regarding this. for some reason the Wii scale is 4 to 5 lbs LESS then the bathroom scale. You have to decide what scale to use from this point on, however right or wrong you can still track pounds loss. Change your starting weight to 195 and log in your current bathroom scale weight of 190... either way you lost 5 pounds...
  • WonderNoodle
    WonderNoodle Posts: 549
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    regardless, you've lost 5lbs! good job! :drinker:

    i would go with the scale as it is probably more accurate. since the two are 5lbs off from each other, the scale would have showed you at 195 starting weight had you had it then.

    one point i try to make to the girls that weigh at work with me is, regardless if the scale is 1, 3, 10 lbs off, if you always use THAT scale, the loss it reflects will be true. maybe your actual weight # isn't correct, but the weight loss # would be!
  • PapaPolarBear
    PapaPolarBear Posts: 459
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    i agree with noodleheadgal. always use the same scale, also you should try and weight yourself at the same time of the day everytime. It's more acurate. you're weight fluctuates throughout the day by a few pounds, so if you weigh yourself around the same time of day everytime it'll be more accurate.
  • TropicalKitty
    TropicalKitty Posts: 2,298 Member
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    I'd go with the WW one. If you are stickler with numbers like I am, grab something of known weight (hand weights, bag of flour) and toss it on and calibrate it. I, too, have heard the same about the Wii being not so great when on carpet.

    Also, you said that it does a bunch of stuff. Weight is a nice thing to go by, but as you go along, you might want to look more at your body composition, e.g. body fat %, instead of just body weight. Body weight is such a huge variable. Plus, it's really the body fat we want going bye bye.

    Good luck on your journey!
  • rskidmore
    rskidmore Posts: 212
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    Thanks everyone! Looks like I'm going to go with the bathroom scale. :)
  • rskidmore
    rskidmore Posts: 212
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    as soon as I read your posting title I knew the Wii scale was involved. there have been a few post regarding this. for some reason the Wii scale is 4 to 5 lbs LESS then the bathroom scale. You have to decide what scale to use from this point on, however right or wrong you can still track pounds loss. Change your starting weight to 195 and log in your current bathroom scale weight of 190... either way you lost 5 pounds...

    How do I change my starting weight to 195? Now I'm showing a weight loss of 0lbs instead of 5lbs... :(
  • rskidmore
    rskidmore Posts: 212
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    Nevermind! Lol. I figured it out. :)

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