A Good Scale?

a three dollar tape measure and your clothes. Scales can range 10 pounds off depending on style and manufacturer. the only truly accurate scales are calibrated beam scales like at your doctors office. All the others are subject to temperature, moisture, agitation etc... Beam scales start around $150 and can go as high as 700

scales seem to be so iffy, especially mine. i don't know which scale is better but i definitely feel your pain on this! hopefully someone has a scale that they can recommend to you.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good and ACCURATE scale that won't break the bank. Ok, so here's the back story: I weighed myself last Saturday (2/26/11) and came in at 159.5, so my goal was to lose 1-2 lbs. this week, so I watched my calories, was under 3 out of 5 days, worked out 5 days, twice on 3 of those days and drank plenty of water and when I got on the scale today (3/5/11) it said that I GAINED 3 pounds!!! Is that even possible?? I don't know if my scale is just wonky or what, so I'm looking for advice, comments, suggestions, whatever. Feeling kinda defeated right now

you gave your muscles a beating. muscle swells when worked hard and will retain water. Additionally if you aren't watching sodium you will retain enormous amounts of water. Don't judge on the first couple weeks. it takes time to get used to the changes. I recommend starting no more than 3 days a week working out other than cardio. Pay very close attention to sodium especially the hidden stuff like lunch meats, soups, any processed snacks or food, even diet stuff can be loaded. Yes it is possible and often happens that folks will see a small gain before they start to shed weight. Don't sweat it just keep plugging along. Good luck and watch the sodium in everything. On another related not, people of color have a significantly higher incidence of high blood pressure; particularly those of African decent so that is another great reason to watch sodium it is a major contributor to High Blood Pressure

What brand scale do you have? BTW, you definiitely need a digital scale according to Consumer Reports. My scale is a Tanita and it's also nuts, but in general it's pretty good.

They say in this order:

Taylor
Tanita
Escali
Tanita
WW (weight watchers)

I have a Tanita ....lol....it's a beautiful scale but.....lol...does not really do great. Maybe the newer ones are better.

a three dollar tape measure and your clothes. Scales can range 10 pounds off depending on style and manufacturer. the only truly accurate scales are calibrated beam scales like at your doctors office. All the others are subject to temperature, moisture, agitation etc... Beam scales start around $150 and can go as high as 700

I didn't know that all those things factor into scale readings, I had just gotten out of the shower when I did my weigh-in, but I don't know how to calibrate my scale (it's digital).

I'll make a suggestion. Put you scale in the closet for a month. You'll be so pleased with the result when you get it out, you won't care what the actual number is

Forgot to ask - how old is your scale? I think ours is about 3 years old but I could be wrong it could be way older than that - possibly 6 or 7 years old! That's old in digital scale terms - as you know *nothing* today is meant to last forever.

My scale is about 3 years old as well, what is the "life" of a digital scale anyway?

Probably just 3 years, it has built in obsolescence in it like everything else these days.