is your scale pissing you off to?

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crystalrose1234
crystalrose1234 Posts: 19
in Fitness and Exercise
i weigh myself in the mornings right after i do my morning stuff and before i drink anything, i recently got weighed at a doctors office i am 188 lbs but my bathroom scale says i'm still 200 ... huh? i tried recalibrating the darn thing and it still says the same thing.. so im going to ignore my scale and just go by how my body feels im going to eat right and work out more then used to

i gotta tell ya though looking down at that scale made me want to conceder lap band surgery.. "shudders" anyone else feel the same way?

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  • kristapenner1
    kristapenner1 Posts: 1
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    I totally understand! My bathroom scale is always about 10-15 lbs higher than at my gym! But I talked to one of the nutritionists there and he said that most likely it's an elevation thing. My house is on a hill and my gym is in a lower area. Since weight is basically the measurement of gravitational pull, it makes sense! :) I didn't think it would make that much of a difference but I guess it does!
  • tpt1950
    tpt1950 Posts: 292 Member
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    Weight fluctuates from 1 to 3 pounds (water weight usually) every single day. Perhaps you would do yourself better service and get a more accurate reading by weighing yourself on a scale only once per week. Many people put a lot more importance on what they see on the scale than they should. It's difficult not to use the scale however as you progress, how your body fits in your clothing may be a much better indicator of losing weight and inches.
  • theplatypus
    theplatypus Posts: 27
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    I totally understand! My bathroom scale is always about 10-15 lbs higher than at my gym! But I talked to one of the nutritionists there and he said that most likely it's an elevation thing. My house is on a hill and my gym is in a lower area. Since weight is basically the measurement of gravitational pull, it makes sense! :) I didn't think it would make that much of a difference but I guess it does!

    Gravitational pull is not going to have any significant change by just being 20 ft higher. It's especially not going to make a 10 lb difference if you're still on the ground. Maybe you should try investing in a new scale, or just dump it all together. My parents recently bought a fitbit scale and that one seems to be pretty accurate.
  • cominupmilhouse
    cominupmilhouse Posts: 257 Member
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    I used to be a daily scale user. I unfortunately found that I had a problem with attaching myself emotionally to the number it would read. If the number pleased me, I felt relatively good that day. If I had gained 3 lbs from the day before, I would get really down on myself, even knowing that it must be water weight.

    I have since switched completely to measurements, which are much friendlier! I feel no anxiety or attachment to the numbers on the tape measure, and it certainly fluctuates a lot less. Two 5'5 women can have the same weight but look completely different, but if they were measured that's a better representation of their body profiles.
  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 942 Member
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    I totally understand! My bathroom scale is always about 10-15 lbs higher than at my gym! But I talked to one of the nutritionists there and he said that most likely it's an elevation thing. My house is on a hill and my gym is in a lower area. Since weight is basically the measurement of gravitational pull, it makes sense! :) I didn't think it would make that much of a difference but I guess it does!
    You guessed wrong. Your nutritionist should stick to nutrition, because physics certainly isn't his thing. The difference in your weight as measured in your gym vs your house would be virtually undetectable. (The difference between sea level and Mt Everest is only 0.28%, or about 1/2 lb for a 200 lb person).

    One or both of your scales needs to be calibrated.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
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    those scales sound broken to me.
  • robertgspeed
    robertgspeed Posts: 20
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    Gym scales are notoriously inaccurate. They are used so much that the springs get sprung. You are much better off investing in a good electronic scale for use at home.
  • omidiano
    omidiano Posts: 24
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    I gained 15 lbs in 1 day lol by taking creatine.. all water weight
  • crystalrose1234
    crystalrose1234 Posts: 19
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    wow!! i didnt think i would get this big of a response this is cool lol

    i recently just threw out my scale and i am going by how my clothes fit as a better judge of weight loss.. i shouldn't be putting so much stock in what the numbers on a scale say anyway thanks for your awesome comments guys
  • Loftearmen
    Loftearmen Posts: 380
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    I gained 15 lbs in 1 day lol by taking creatine.. all water weight

    Creatine increases intracellular water retention by increasing your body's ability to synthesize ATP which is used in active transport (in layman, it helps your body create the fuel which is used to draw water into your muscle cells). Once this water is inside the muscle cell, it is mixed in with various proteins, electrolytes and organelles and ceases to be water as it is now part of the sarcoplasm. It actually becomes part of the cell and now the muscle fiber is larger because of it. Water weight, in the conventional sense, is EXTRAcellular. Meaning that it is just extra water hanging out in your body that your body doesn't have any particular use for at the moment other than making your fingers and cheeks puffy. Creatine does not cause "water weight" in this sense. The 15lbs you gained was actually new muscle tissue, not water weight and the process by which it was created is referred to as "sarcoplasmic hypertrophy" which is actually the hypetrophy most people are training for when they use lower weights and higher reps (like a bodybuilder would, 3-5sets of 8-12reps). This is in stark contrast to what most people believe they are training for which is "sarcomeric hypertrophy" in which the actual contractile tissues of the muscle become larger or multiply in number. Very few people actually train for this type of hypertrophy and are mostly competitive strength athletes.

    I know this seems like a big, useless rant but it is actually important for you to know so that you don't make statements like the one above which those in the know refer to as "bro science".

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