Scale frustration

Harissa1
Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
argh! My scale is acting up it seems, or my body is.
I'm at this for a while. I know how to lose weight, regained a bit and want to get rid of this again since 1 January. The past 22 days my weight has been fluctuating between 66.8 and 67.2kg, first thing in the morning after loo, naked. My daily calories have on average been 1445 minus maybe 100-150 calories from sport that I don't eat back. I'm 46, 170, female. Pill on long-term cycle. Yes, I weigh everything on a food scale. I'm on the spectrum, believe me when I say I know how to stick to something! It's more difficult for me to not stick to something.

So why do I suspect the scale? I see some really odd numbers there. Yesterday evening it showed 67.2kg before going to bed. I though: Finally something is happening. I went to pee 3 times last night, then pooped this morning before stepping on the scale: 66.8kg! That's just not possible. On the other hand, if I hold a big bottle of shampoo or wear clothes the weight does go up on the scale. Different places in the house might give different measurements, sometimes. Other times not.

I'm seriously tempted to buy a new scale, but then I'd have a completely different set of data, the thought of which leaves me feel slightly queasy. On the other hand: Any recommendations for a scale available in NL for up to 20 Euro that does work properly and is available in shops; that are open at the moment? any other ideas?

Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    You need a totally unyielding floor.

    You may want to plug all your numbers into a weight trend application or website such as happy scale, Libra, trendweight.com, weightgrapher.com or similar

    obviously you seem to be aware of it but compare your weight to the same point of your previous cycle
  • Harissa1
    Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
    yes, I have a concrete floor in my bathroom (slightly posh flat, this). It's unyielding. is it completely horizontal as well? No idea to be honest, but wherever I place my scale, in whatever orientation there I get the same weight within the range above. Or a completely different weight within this range. It nearly feels like my scale is stuck within these 400 grams unless I do something drastic (hold something heavy, only one foot on scale)

    I don't have a cycle as I don't stop with the pill, thus that's not part of the water weight equation. The past two nights I went to pee 2-3 times, thus if water weight was the problem then I should be lighter now. But it doesn't show on the scale. It's likely that the 67.2 I measured last night was wrong. Again. Weight trend app: yes, I use one, and I'm not losing weight anymore. Salt is not part of the problem either. Neither new workouts. Yes, I'm working from home at the moment, but that mainly means no more train travel (20 minute trip).
  • mkculs13
    mkculs13 Posts: 681 Member
    If I have the conversion correct, you are showing about a 3 lb difference between night and morning. That's not at all unusual in my experience. If I'm not understanding correctly, sorry. Your example was night vs. morning. But my weight can fluctuate by over the course of a day. Just weigh once a day, and the morning weight is likely to be more stable than the evening based on water, what you've eaten for the day, etc.
  • Harissa1
    Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
    last night to now was a 400gr difference, thus that's uh... around 0.8lbs? And I went to pee 3 times and pooped inbetween those two numbers. That's not possible. Hence one of the two numbers must be wrong. I normally lose about 500-700 grams water weight (sweat, morning pee) over night.

    I mean it is totally possible that I am not losing weight at the moment for whatever reason. It's just rather unprecedented. I went from overweight to normal in around 2014/15. Of course there were fluctuations in water weight, sometimes I would store a bit more water over 1-2 weeks and then suddenly run to the loo like crazy. But I'd always lose from one week to another.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    edited April 2020
    Currently it sounds like last night's number may be off?

    Your scale doesn't seem to suffer from fake consistency, so it gives "real" numbers by the sounds of it. Maybe measure a known 1kg weight on your kitchen scale and take repeat measurements within a few minutes with and without the known 1 or 2kg weight to establish the variance of your scale at your bodyweight?

    Then patience 🤗
  • Harissa1
    Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
    So, I craved in an bought a new scale as I can return it if it doesn't work. Interesting: this one displays weight a bit lower. Ok. But more interesting: I just put them next to another and stepped on them with and without my favourite tea glass, which is 535 grams. The new scale always showed a difference between 500-600gr between holding and not holding the glass while the old one varied between 100-700gr. I also put the scales on different places in my flat, and the new one remains constant, while the old one unconstant. Interesting. Guess it's time to say goodbye after all.
  • Harissa1
    Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
    Latest update: The old scale seems indeed knackered. Weight on this one this morning: 67.1kg. Yesterday there was a fairly consistent 400gr difference between both, regardless of what I tried. New one today: 66.5. Thus a difference of 600gr. I think I believe the new one.
  • Unicorn_Bacon
    Unicorn_Bacon Posts: 491 Member
    No scale is probably going to be 100% accurate

    I know for a lot of people the actual number itself is the visual confirmation they need to know that they're succeeding however the reason why they tell people to only weigh themselves on one scale is because it's supposed to be just used for the difference between one week to the other so if your actual weight is based on scale to scale, the loss is all that matters. If I was 150 last week and 148 2 weeks later, and another scale told me 152 and then 150, the end result is I lost 2 pounds, the actual number does not take away from that.
  • Harissa1
    Harissa1 Posts: 8 Member
    Totally. I just took the old scale apart and found a lot of rust and similar stuff inside. Guess it's really on the way out.

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