The Issue with my Scale

vbcp861
vbcp861 Posts: 7 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hey all,

I'm in a bit of a pickle. A couple years ago I successfully lost 28 Ibs. (my sophomore year of college) I weighed around 158 and being 5"6, that made me overweight. I slimmed down to the 133-135 range using myfitness and have maintained that for the past few years.

For whatever reason, it has been getting more and more difficult for me to stay in that range, or so my new scale is showing me. I'm currently and temporarily living on a military base with my husband who is in the Guard. To fill my free time I work out literally every day of the week. Most days I burn up to 600-700 calories. We don't over eat and we fill most of our diet with fruits, veggies, and eat home-cooked meals throughout the week. But the new scale we got a month ago keeps saying I am in the 137-139 range. However, I can't help but feel that's not an accurate reading of my weight. I've been looking slimmer (even starting to see some ab definition) and my size 4 pants have been getting looser. But then one day the scale will say I'm 135 and then the next day I'm 138 and staying at that weight for the next 3 days, despite how much I workout and how careful I monitor my diet.

I guess what I want to know is, what are the chances that this is just an issue with my scale and not my actual weight? I just want some guidance about this because it's starting to bother me.

Thanks!

Replies

  • emailmehere1122
    emailmehere1122 Posts: 140 Member
    How my clothes feel and measurements mean a lot more to me then the number on the scale...my weight can fluctuate quite a few pounds in a day let alone on different scales...sounds like youre doing all the right things to me
  • IsabeausRose
    IsabeausRose Posts: 129 Member
    I got a new highly rated Taylor scale mid weight loss and it weighed me two pounds higher than my old scale. But my old scale was 20 years old and I could step on it 3 times in a row and it would give me 3 different numbers. My new scale gives me the same number all 3 times. I just mentally adjusted to the new scale. Try sticking a hand weight on the scale and see if it weighs it the same as the weight is.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,675 Member
    If you are working out a lot more than usual, you are probably retaining more water. As your body gets used to it, you may lose the water weight. I usually weigh myself after rest days so I don't have to deal with that.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    135 to 138 is well within normal bodily flucutations for weight...have a hard workout water retention, more salt than normal - water retention, alcohol - water retention, good solid water - weight goes down
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,547 Member
    Two issues raised in this thread.

    OP: first of all your strength, fit of clothes, and ab definition all say you're losing fat. Controlling fat and being healthy is the goal, not a magical scale number. You don't go to the store and buy size 135lbs clothes, and even with google glasses most people don't see your weight tattooed on your forehead when they look at you. Furthermore your scale WILL and SHOULD vary by several lbs during the month due to all the many reasons people and even more so women retain water. And it will do that without even an oz of change to your fat level.

    To the Taylor scale person. Many modern scales exhibit what is known as fake consistency where they show you the same number no matter what they've measured internally until and unless a change threshold is exceeded. They do this precisely for the reason you articulated: it makes people believe that scales are more accurate than they can be. Grab a full 2L bottle of pop or better yet, a gallon of milk. After you weighed yourself, weigh yourself again with the jug of milk on hand. Now weight yourself again a third time. Did you weight exactly as much more as you expected when you added the weight? is weight #1 the same as #3? And no, it doesn't actually matter if your scale does that and your weight is not absolutely precise on any one day. What matters is your weight TREND over TIME.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    socdem wrote: »
    Odds are, considering how often and how much you're working out, you're gaining muscle. Muscle is denser and weighs more than fat. If your sizes are dropping and you're seeing more definition in the mirror, likely what is happening is that you are burning fat while building more muscle.

    So, I suspect your scale is fine. Your weight can fluctuate a lot from day to day, due to water and many other factors.


    The density of fat versus muscle has nothing to do with your body weight. And, it's true that lean body mass percentage is probably a better indicator of health than one's weight. That said, it's just much easier to weigh oneself regularly than go measure body fat percentage. (Or body part circumferences or assessing how clothes fit, both of which are subject to significant error/inconsistency.) The number is the number is the number. Which means that, over time (accepting normal fluctuations), it's an objective piece of data less subject to being manipulated.

    The fake consistency notwithstanding, I was always amazed at how consistent my $25 Con-Air scale was relative to the scale used at my Weight Watchers meeting. Over a period of 7 years, it was routinely different by .7-.8 pounds. So, yes, it's possible that your scale reads differently from your prior scale. If you think it's inaccurate, you can likely find a professional grade scale somewhere to do comparisons.

    The 'fake consistency' has saved me a lot of time. Whether fake or not, I only get on the scale once each morning nowadays.

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