Bathroom Scale

troyk · January 2016

Hello everyone, I wonder if there is any community wisdom on bathroom scales.

I have one that I bought at our local drug store maybe a decade ago. Simple, digital, seems okay. But, now and again I don't trust it. I usually step on and off of it a few times in a row and get small variances in my result, but I'm not a boxer who has to pass a weigh in or something so I haven't let it bother me too much.

My routine is every Monday and Thursday morning I wake up between 6am and 6:15, go to the bathroom and then weigh in my underware (that's as graphic as I get, I promise). But, the important thing is that I have a routine and it's consistent. I consider my official weigh-in to be Monday, but use Thursday as a progress check.

This morning, I was expecting 174# and I got up, did my thing and was 177#. I got off, reset it, got back on...177#, one more time...177#. Went back to bed for 10-15 minutes, decided to weigh one more time before I got my son up and...174#, repeated 3 times, each time, exactly 174#.

I get that your body weight changes during the day and the before and after you eat or shower and you'll get small variances. But, this morning's experience made me really doubt my scale's consistency. I know that scales potentially need to be calibrated and I don't really care if it's 100% accurate, just that it's consistent, so that I can track my progress.

So, what's the common wisdom here? Was it a fluke? Should I replace it? Is this common? Is there some really great, affordable scale that everyone, but me knows about?

zoeysasha37 · January 2016

My scale goes up and down throughout the day. I don't get concerned with those fluctuations. I log my weight on a chart and look at the overall trends over time. Its hard to see losses weekly because of the fluctuations. But over a month, I can see that my weight had gone down 4 pounds as expected. I suggest using an app like trend weight.
If it makes you feel better ,buy a new scale and see how it goes. The little blips don't matter though , what matters is that the number goes down over time.
My scale is a 15$ Walmart scale . nothing special but it does the job. You can test your scale by placing a 10 lb dumb bell on it. If it weighs 10lbs ( or close enough to 10lbs) then you know its accurate enough. If you place a 10lb dumb bell on it and it says 15lbs then it might be time for a new scale.
Don't get hung up on the small stuff. Life is too short to stress over minor fluctuations . remember that progress is measured over time .

tara_means_star · January 2016

troyk wrote: »

Hello everyone, I wonder if there is any community wisdom on bathroom scales.

I have one that I bought at our local drug store maybe a decade ago. Simple, digital, seems okay. But, now and again I don't trust it. I usually step on and off of it a few times in a row and get small variances in my result, but I'm not a boxer who has to pass a weigh in or something so I haven't let it bother me too much.

My routine is every Monday and Thursday morning I wake up between 6am and 6:15, go to the bathroom and then weigh in my underware (that's as graphic as I get, I promise). But, the important thing is that I have a routine and it's consistent. I consider my official weigh-in to be Monday, but use Thursday as a progress check.

This morning, I was expecting 174# and I got up, did my thing and was 177#. I got off, reset it, got back on...177#, one more time...177#. Went back to bed for 10-15 minutes, decided to weigh one more time before I got my son up and...174#, repeated 3 times, each time, exactly 174#.

I get that your body weight changes during the day and the before and after you eat or shower and you'll get small variances. But, this morning's experience made me really doubt my scale's consistency. I know that scales potentially need to be calibrated and I don't really care if it's 100% accurate, just that it's consistent, so that I can track my progress.

So, what's the common wisdom here? Was it a fluke? Should I replace it? Is this common? Is there some really great, affordable scale that everyone, but me knows about?

it might need to be recalibrated. If you move it at all, even the tiniest slide back against the wall, it needs to be recalibrated before you use it again. Also, mine has been wonky lately and the battery needed to be replaced. It can also give weird readings if it's on an uneven surface.

Merkavar · January 2016

Do you move your scale, I hear that can affect consistency.

But really it could have been a dozen things, feet position etc

Worry less about day to day or week to week and more about longer term trends.

troyk · January 2016

I do store it in a closet, but when I set it up, it's always on the same tile, facing the same way.

I did this before and weighed obsessively and learned how futile that is. I just do my 2x week check ins and watch overall progress. I'm trying to lose very slowly right now (I had a big spurt), so I watching for gains or losses more than 1# / week, which means that 2 1/2# variances in accuracy aren't helpful. Then again, if I weigh on the gym's scale, I will have eaten, drank, traveled...less consistent.

I've never changed this thing's battery. I could do that pre-emptively. I have do idea how I would go about calibrating it.

Thanks for the replies.

Veryana · January 2016

Move it away from bathroom (moisture), change the batteries and keep it always in same spot, don't move it. Step on it at the same spot as always, stepping even little bit more to front/back or leaning front/back makes it change a lot

And if it still keeps doing it after a week or two, replace it

tara_means_star · January 2016

troyk wrote: »

I do store it in a closet, but when I set it up, it's always on the same tile, facing the same way.

I did this before and weighed obsessively and learned how futile that is. I just do my 2x week check ins and watch overall progress. I'm trying to lose very slowly right now (I had a big spurt), so I watching for gains or losses more than 1# / week, which means that 2 1/2# variances in accuracy aren't helpful. Then again, if I weigh on the gym's scale, I will have eaten, drank, traveled...less consistent.

I've never changed this thing's battery. I could do that pre-emptively. I have do idea how I would go about calibrating it.

Thanks for the replies.

It's digital right? I always turn mine on and let it read zero and clear without standing on it, then i restart it and actually stand on it. From what I've read, this basically recalibrates a digital scale. When I replaced the batteries, I did that, then I got an object of a known weight (two 15 pounds weights) and put them on to ensure that it was reading the weight accurately.

troyk · January 2016

A billion years ago (1980's) I worked in a gym and I remember deciding one time to calibrate our balance scales with weights from the floor...I mean, they all have their weight stamped right on them, right? I was amazed at how much variance there was plate to plate and dumbell to dumbell from the weight that they claimed to be. Which brings me back to, if I found out that my scale was under or over-registering my weight by...even 5 pounds, I wouldn't really care, as long as it was consistent, because I'm only measuring myself against my own progress.

Sadly, my house is the size of a phone booth (hey, that's my 2nd 1980s reference in one post!) and there is no place to leave it sitting out, but I do place it in exactly the same spot and turn it off and on again every time I set it up. I'll look into the battery and keep an eye on it.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

davidcy946 · February 2016

troyk wrote: »

Hello everyone, I wonder if there is any community wisdom on bathroom scales.

I have one that I bought at our local drug store maybe a decade ago. Simple, digital, seems okay. But, now and again I don't trust it. I usually step on and off of it a few times in a row and get small variances in my result, but I'm not a boxer who has to pass a weigh in or something so I haven't let it bother me too much.

My routine is every Monday and Thursday morning I wake up between 6am and 6:15, go to the bathroom and then weigh in my underware (that's as graphic as I get, I promise). But, the important thing is that I have a routine and it's consistent. I consider my official weigh-in to be Monday, but use Thursday as a progress check.

This morning, I was expecting 174# and I got up, did my thing and was 177#. I got off, reset it, got back on...177#, one more time...177#. Went back to bed for 10-15 minutes, decided to weigh one more time before I got my son up and...174#, repeated 3 times, each time, exactly 174#.

I get that your body weight changes during the day and the before and after you eat or shower and you'll get small variances. But, this morning's experience made me really doubt my scale's consistency. I know that scales potentially need to be calibrated and I don't really care if it's 100% accurate, just that it's consistent, so that I can track my progress.

So, what's the common wisdom here? Was it a fluke? Should I replace it? Is this common? Is there some really great, affordable scale that everyone, but me knows about?

My underwear weigh the most on a Monday morning, too!

Bathroom Scale

Replies

Categories