Who do I trust?
Tonyrebuilt
Posts: 43 Member
I've been weighing myself daily for about a month. I went to the gym for the first time and it put me 5lbs heavier than my scale at home. I almost cried. (Not really) Somebody lied and I don't know which one to trust.
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Replies
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I always weigh more at Dr Office BUT I weigh at home buck nekked and at the Dr. Office I have clothes and shoes on so there is that plus they are different scales.
I say pick one and always weigh yourself on that so you see the trend down. I've also heard some to take a dumb bell and place it on the scales at home to see if its accurate.8 -
2 scales will rarely give the same amount.
Plus, at home do you weigh naked? First thing in the morning? Before food?
When you weighed at the gym, I bet you weren't naked. Had you eaten, drunk anything? All of those things will contribute to variations.7 -
Scales don't weigh the same ...pick one
You don't have one weight but a scale weight range which fluctuates through the day and day to day generally within a 5 lb range
This would be despite stabilising the times and conditions under which you weigh
Many find first thing in morning, after bathroom before anything else and nekkid the most appropriate time which would say home scale and not gym scales to me
Also normal weight fluctuations in maintenance see grey line
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I'd go with your home scale. There are many factors that fluctuate our weight throughout the day. Ingesting solids and liquids, elimination of waste, daily metabolic processes can IIRC change the scale number as much as 4-5 lbs over the course of a day. What matters is the downward trend of your scale weight. I totally ignore the scale at my gym and only use my digital scale after waking up and using the restroom (and prior to eating & drinking).3
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The clothes weigh a lot. Plus if you had any fluids that can add to the weight. Weigh yourself with the same clothes every day preferably after you use the bathroom but before you have beverages or food. The scale can easily vary a few pounds up or down daily. Don't let that get you down. Try not to focus on daily fluctuations but look at the downward trend over time.3
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I weigh myself at home first thing in the morning, in a t shirt and shorts, after I go to the bathroom. At the gym I did have shoes on and I had eaten not too long before. That makes more sense. Just a bit shocking.1
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Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.1
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Yeah. You could weigh yourself right before you leave your house and immediately when you arrive at the gym. Then if there is a discrepancy you will know for sure.0
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Tonyrebuilt wrote: »I weigh myself at home first thing in the morning, in a t shirt and shorts, after I go to the bathroom. At the gym I did have shoes on and I had eaten not too long before. That makes more sense. Just a bit shocking.
That's your answer.
A litre of water weighs 2.2lbs whether its in a bottle, or in your stomach.4 -
xDesertxRatx wrote: »Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.
Not how it works really
Calibration is subject to usage ..Gym and med centres are heavily used so more prone to being inaccurate0 -
xDesertxRatx wrote: »Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.
How would you know that the scale it was weighed on to establish it's "known weight" was accurate? It's also not terribly relevant to weigh something like a 5 or 10 lb. dumbbell and extrapolate the results to a 150 lb. body because a 0.2 lb. error at 5 lbs. doesn't necessarily mean it's also a 0.2 lb. error at 150 lbs.
I step on one scale and one scale only. If you're going to weigh on different scales, at different times of the day and in different clothing, you may as well just toss it all out, go the circus and let the dude in the sideshow guess your weight for weigh-ins.3 -
xDesertxRatx wrote: »Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.
How would you know that the scale it was weighed on to establish it's "known weight" was accurate? It's also not terribly relevant to weigh something like a 5 or 10 lb. dumbbell and extrapolate the results to a 150 lb. body because a 0.2 lb. error at 5 lbs. doesn't necessarily mean it's also a 0.2 lb. error at 150 lbs.
I step on one scale and one scale only. If you're going to weigh on different scales, at different times of the day and in different clothing, you may as well just toss it all out, go the circus and let the dude in the sideshow guess your weight for weigh-ins.
Actually the side show folks are pretty good at guessing:).0 -
xDesertxRatx wrote: »Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.
How would you know that the scale it was weighed on to establish it's "known weight" was accurate? It's also not terribly relevant to weigh something like a 5 or 10 lb. dumbbell and extrapolate the results to a 150 lb. body because a 0.2 lb. error at 5 lbs. doesn't necessarily mean it's also a 0.2 lb. error at 150 lbs.
I step on one scale and one scale only. If you're going to weigh on different scales, at different times of the day and in different clothing, you may as well just toss it all out, go the circus and let the dude in the sideshow guess your weight for weigh-ins.
Actually the side show folks are pretty good at guessing:).
Maybe, but you can never find a circus when you need one.
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xDesertxRatx wrote: »Ask the gym when they were last calibrated. My gym has them done every 6 months. If they are calibrated often then the gym ones will be the correct ones. Just weigh your usual clothes and take it off to give you an idea of actual weight. Of course you can calibrate your own scales if you have something that is a known weight.
How would you know that the scale it was weighed on to establish it's "known weight" was accurate? It's also not terribly relevant to weigh something like a 5 or 10 lb. dumbbell and extrapolate the results to a 150 lb. body because a 0.2 lb. error at 5 lbs. doesn't necessarily mean it's also a 0.2 lb. error at 150 lbs.
I step on one scale and one scale only. If you're going to weigh on different scales, at different times of the day and in different clothing, you may as well just toss it all out, go the circus and let the dude in the sideshow guess your weight for weigh-ins.
Thank you for this - no one recognizes that scale errors actually vary with weight range (llike all measuring devices do).
There's also the fact that using a small weight to "calibrate" your scale won't help because the precision is likely not fine enough to capture a small percentage difference in a small object. Very few home scales actually can accurately measure tenths of a pound differences....
In other words, for the OP? Chill out. Scales are imperfect tools. Pick one and use it to track your progress. Progress can only be tracked consistently if you use the same measuring tool every time. Don't switch tools.
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Doesn't matter. The scalar value isn't what matters, it's whether that value is trending upward, downward or staying the same over time. To determine that you just pick a scale that is convince ntm for you and stick with it....just be consistent.0
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Tonyrebuilt wrote: »I've been weighing myself daily for about a month. I went to the gym for the first time and it put me 5lbs heavier than my scale at home. I almost cried. (Not really) Somebody lied and I don't know which one to trust.
I usually weigh about 4-5 Lbs heavier on the gym scale than my home scale...for one, at home I weigh in first thing in the morning after I drop a bomb...when I weigh in at the gym, it's later in the day...I've consumed food...I've consumed liquids, etc...all of that has mass and thus weight that would show up on the scale. When I weigh in at home i'm not clothed...when I weigh in at the gym, I'm clothed...your clothes have weight that will show up on the scale.
You need to chill...the number really isn't important...the trend is.0 -
They both lied. It's like politics. Pick your S.O.B. and stick with it.4
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Every scale is different. To see how correct they are you could put a weight on it.
Regardless, you want to stick to one scale and weigh under the same conditions, time of day. Then you can see your progress from your start weight on that scale.0 -
I would concur with the above. Although -- let me just throw this out there because it did happen to me -- how old is your own scale? I had one that went totally out of whack probably due to age and nothing was consistent.
Otherwise, pick when you're going to weigh yourself, a consistent time, etc. And if the numbers are going down, that's good. When I last went to my doctor's hers had me at 2lbs higher than my home scale, but I had on clothes and shoes and stuff.0 -
It's better to just weigh on the same scale because everywhere is different.1
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Get a really good digital scale for home- preferably one that also measures body fat % & muscle/lean mass. Only weigh first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking.
Ignore all other scales.0 -
courtneyfabulous wrote: »Get a really good digital scale for home- preferably one that also measures body fat % & muscle/lean mass. Only weigh first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking.
Ignore all other scales.
No matter how "good" or "bad" your scale is repeated measurements on the same scale over time will allow you to determine if you are losing weight and at what rate. Don't need anything fancy and honestly the "fancy" ones aren't any better at telling you how much weight you are losing per unit time than any other scale. Accuracy for any given single measurement doesn't end up mattering when establishing a trend.0 -
I've got 2 scales at home. They differ by ~ 5 pounds. The digital one is more and is the one I use daily. Can't get the .2 numbers off the needle scale. If I were to weigh elsewhere, I would weigh myself, go straight home and weigh myself on the home scale with the same clothes etc. on and just keep in mind whatever the difference is. But I'll stick to one scale (although it gave me grief this morning and may be tossed out) and watch the trend.0
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The scale at my gym shows me about 5 lbs more than home. I weight at home only once a week and do a full body composition with it (it's a nicer one, not a cheap Walmart one). But I weigh every day at the gym. So I just pay attention to the trend. Both are trending in the right direction so I don't worry about it. When I'm down at the gym I know I'll have a good official reading Saturday at home.
I've had cheap body composition scales and I could step on them 5 times in a row and get different readings every time.0 -
courtneyfabulous wrote: »Get a really good digital scale for home- preferably one that also measures body fat % & muscle/lean mass. Only weigh first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking.
Ignore all other scales.
Exactly what I'm going to do.0
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