Digital or dial bathroom scales??

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Iwanttolosemymummytummy
Iwanttolosemymummytummy Posts: 82 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I had a baby in September. I haven't a clue how much weight I put on but I weighed myself for the first time early December on newly bought dial scales. I weighed 196 lbs!! I'd put on 43 lbs!! Through walking and being more careful of what I ate I managed to lose 21 lbs in 7 -8 weeks. So, 8(ish) weeks ago I decided to up my game and throw in more challenging workouts (at home, gym not an option at the moment) such as HIIT sessions strength training, stationary bike and daily walk. I alternate the workouts and do them 5 times a week in the hope that I'd keep losing steadily and tone up at the same time. In all that time I haven't lost anything!! I began logging food intake 3 or 4 weeks ago and weigh everything and track everything but still no weight loss. I have lost inches so that's something!
My OH is convinced that the dial scales are faulty because it shows him 10lbs heavier than he normally is (he has always weighed the same throughout his adult life and is very fit.) I shrugged off his theory until today and bought a digital bathroom scale.
Guess what??? It shows me(bearing in mind it's the afternoon where I am and I will weigh myself again tomorrow morning) almost 5lbs lighter!
Before I throw away my dial scales (the obvious choice to get rid of!! :D ) does anyone know if digital or dial is more accurate?

Replies

  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    I dunno. I think digital scales are a PITA frankly. I have one that if I so much as tap it with a foot, I have to pick it up and do the whole recalibration thing again because the weight will go completely wacko. And even then, it's likely to be off a couple of pounds if I weigh 5 minutes later. And this is a highly rated scale too. Sometimes I think I would rather go back to a dial scale, but I do like the body fat measurement on the digital ones (just to see the trend - I know the % is not accurate).
  • Iwanttolosemymummytummy
    Iwanttolosemymummytummy Posts: 82 Member
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    Oh I forgot to add. I put my 5 year old on both to see if there was any difference. On the dial she was 49lbs and the digital 48lbs!!
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    Iwanttolosemymummytummy wrote: »
    Oh I forgot to add. I put my 5 year old on both to see if there was any difference. On the dial she was 49lbs and the digital 48lbs!!

    Put a verified weight on each. Like a dumbell or a kettlebell.
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
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    Keep the dial scale in storage for use during the zombie apocalypse. (Sorry, recycling an old joke of mine.)

    Just pick whichever scale you like best and stick with it. Watch the trend over time (months, not days), and don't worry about fluctuations.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    One particular scale could be more accurate than another. That doesn't apply to all scales of a type.
    The difference between digital and dial scales is the precision, not the accuracy. Precision means to how many decimal places you can read your weight. Accuracy means how well it reflects your weight in comparison to some (imaginary) perfect scale. So a scale could be very precise (i.e. show your weight as 196.23 lbs) but not very accurate (i.e. be off by 5 lbs and show 191.23lbs). And vice versa. The dial scales in general have less precision but the mechanism of measurement is the same. So the accuracy depends on the actual manufacturer and might even differ from one scale to another of the same make.

    Also since you can never know your 100% correct weight, it doesn't matter which scale you use. All that matters is that you lose weight while using the same scale, i.e. your relative weight change matters.

    Only because the digital one has shown you 5lbs less that doesn't mean that several weeks ago it would have shown you 5lbs heavier. You don't know what it would've shown you. That is why it is important to stick to one scale. If you choose the digital, ignore the dial and only use the digital, i.e. don't compare scale readings, they always differ from each other.

    If you insist to know which one is closer to the truth you can put something which you know is say, 10lbs, and check its weight on both scales (this would assume that the error is linearly changing and does not depend on the weight but still).
  • dpwellman
    dpwellman Posts: 3,271 Member
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    Modern digital scales are decently accurate and there's little difference between brands, models in that regard. Shop on price, features.
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
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    10 pound bag of cat food to check which is closer to correct. . that is what i did. they were about the same but i can read the digital better. . my eyesight is not the best for those tiny lines on the dial one and when you lean down to read it. . it changes. . .grrrr.
  • dpwellman
    dpwellman Posts: 3,271 Member
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    ktekc wrote: »
    10 pound bag of cat food to check which is closer to correct.
    And the 10 lb bag of is checked via digital scale to begin with. B)

  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    edited March 2017
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    I ended up buying a digital scale because my old analog scale would never zero correctly after I got off of it no matter how I adjusted it beforehand. So I was never very confident that it was giving me a consistent weight.

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