Home Scales vs Doctors Scales

What do you mean? If you mean your doctor's scales read you as being lighter, that's because all scales are a bit inaccurate, so if you go from one scale to another you will see a difference. Scales in doctors' surgeries are checked and calibrated more often, so the doctor's scales will be closer to the truth.

If you mean your weight according to the doctor's scales is going down, but the weight according to your scales isn't, your scales might be faulty, but it depends how big the difference is. If it's only 2 or 3 pounds in may be due to water weight fluctuations.

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I agree home scales just become more inaccurate with time. The carpeting doesnt matter at the doctors because those scales have its own solid base that the measuring surface presses against

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When I have a doctor's appointment. I weight myself at home in the morning and just before leaving for the doctors' office, without shoes and with the same clothes that I will be wearing for the appointment. At the doctor's office, the scale usually registers 3 to 4 more lbs than my morning fasting weight, and about 2lbs more than my "before" appointment weight. I make sure that the medical assistant and the doctor are aware of the discrepancies and make a note in my chart. I am a very small person and small weight fluctuations makes a lot of difference in my body.

dietstokes wrote: »

I'll be devils advocate here. I often think the scales at the doctor's office are highly inaccurate b/c they are not calibrated that often. I can jump on my scale at my house, my grandmothers at her place, my friends at her place and get a number within a pound or two of each other, while I can get wildly different numbers at the doctors. If you are concerned, ask when they last had it calibrated. Also, you can check the accuracy of yours by placing a weight on it and seeing what it reads. I have up to 50 pound weights in my apartment that I use from time to time to check the accuracy. I just hold it and step on the scale and see if the weight goes up by 20 pounds (if I'm holding the 20 pound weight).

I just tried this. The only weight I had on hand was a 10lb kettlebell, but my scale registered me as exactly 10lbs heavier while holding it. Nice!

I don't pay much attention to my weight at the doctor's office. I'm wearing clothes, I've eaten food, the scale is not calibrated the same as mine... I don't actually suddenly become 2lbs heavier if the doctor's scale reads 2lbs more than the one at home. What really matters is that I'm making improvements as measured by the same scale under the same circumstances over time. (And even then, other things like losing inches or gaining strength might be better measures of my progress than weight loss.)

Okay I'm speaking with a technical and scientific background I deal with scales and balances on a daily basis.

The important thing is to use the same scale to record or base your weight on. Depending on the quality of the mechanism and how often it's calibrated or serviced the accuracies of different scales will vary.

Also because of fluctuations in your body you should try to weigh yourself at the same time under the same conditions on that same scale. Sometimes I'll weigh myself on the same scale at work at different times in a day and I might have a 2 to 4 pound difference. There a lot of factors that influence the weight including what you ate how, much u drank, also your bathroom habits.

Remember don't freak out about the number on the scale as long as you're making progress that's all that matters. Remember you control the number the number doesn't control you.

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Depends completely on the engineering and quality of the scale. If you have a low priced low quality scale at home it will always be off. My scale is consistently the same as my doctors. It was worth it to me to purchase a high quality scale.

I definitely would go by the home scale over the dr office. I work in a office and they are rarely calibrated and go thru a lot more abuse in general then the one at home does.

i work in a doctors office and when I weigh patients, most say, it is different from their scales at home. I tell the patient that if they have one set of scales they weigh on regularly, go by that set. That is the one u view regulary. most people are not at doc that regularly. (hopefully)

dietstokes wrote: »

I'll be devils advocate here. I often think the scales at the doctor's office are highly inaccurate b/c they are not calibrated that often. I can jump on my scale at my house, my grandmothers at her place, my friends at her place and get a number within a pound or two of each other, while I can get wildly different numbers at the doctors. If you are concerned, ask when they last had it calibrated. Also, you can check the accuracy of yours by placing a weight on it and seeing what it reads. I have up to 50 pound weights in my apartment that I use from time to time to check the accuracy. I just hold it and step on the scale and see if the weight goes up by 20 pounds (if I'm holding the 20 pound weight).

Agree. Doc's office scales get jumped on and beat up and I seriously doubt they are calibrated, ever. They don't have to be.

As for checking the accuracy of your home scale (or calibrating it yourself), you need to do it with a verified weight (workout weights would work), preferably a weight that is as close to your own body weight as possible (so you can see the accuracy within your body weight range; accuracy may vary within different weight ranges), and, very importantly, weighed all by itself; i.e., without your body on the scale. Looking at how the scale changes when you add a 20-lb weight to your body weight does not mean that your initial body weight measurement is accurate. It only shows that the scale will see the proper difference. I hope that makes sense! If your scale is off, you will probably still see a 20-lb difference when you hold a 20-lb weight.

Alluminati wrote: »

You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little *kittened* up maybe, but it's humorous how? I mean, humorous like it's a clown, it amuses you? What do you mean humorous, humorous how?

I believe Lionel Richie is humorous but I guess others may not find humor in Lionel Richie. I saw a picture of him at tgifridays and I laughed because it was humorous. It instantly made me think of my friend.
So I'm guessing this OP likes to laugh at different scales and their different weights. To each is own I guess.
#scalehumormatters #iluvlionel

Alluminati wrote: »

You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little *kittened* up maybe, but it's humorous how? I mean, humorous like it's a clown, it amuses you? What do you mean humorous, humorous how?

OP, if you weigh yourself on 5 different scales, you will likely get 5 different results. Pick one and be consistent. I suggest picking your home scale unless your doctor allows you to use that scale weekly, or you are only interesting in weighing in when you see your doctor. Did you weigh yourself on your doctor's scale when you first started? If not, then you have no way of knowing if that scale is saying you are losing faster. Either way, be consistent and ignore the anomaly.