Dumb Question: Analog scale Vs. Digital (Both New/same brand)

halloweengal · November 2021

I recently purchased two scales from Walmart (Health-o- Meter), and the digital weight is 3 pounds heavier than the analog scale and varies depending on where I stand.

Should I record the analog weight or digital? I don't know which one is accurate at this point, and it's frustrating.

Lietchi · November 2021

Why did you buy two scales?

Just weigh yourself on one and follow the evolution of your weight on that scale. It doesn't really matter which one is 'correct'. I'd opt for the one that seems more reliable /less prone to variations (but I'd also try to use the scale in the same spot every time).

halloweengal · November 2021

The digital scale kept bouncing around, so I wanted to compare. I might just follow the analog since it's kinder to me.

MsCzar · November 2021

I have an older Krups spring scale and a newer digital. I use the Krups as my official scale since that is the scale I started with - calibrating it with my doctor's scale within an hour of my visit. I step on both most days. The digital seems more finicky - usually reading 1-2 lbs. more. The two scales rarely agree. I've lost weight on the digital while the spring scale didn't budge.

Honestly, I really don't much care which is more accurate... as long as the numbers keep going down!

NYPhotographer2021 · November 2021

I have both as well. I had trouble seeing the dial on the spring scale, so I ended up buying a digital where the number stays on a few seconds after stepping off. They are different. I think the spring scale is about 3 or 4 pounds less than the digital one. The number on the digital scale jumps around, then it settles on one weight and that is what I use to record for the day.

earlnabby · November 2021

I could never get an analog scale to hold its calibration for more than a couple of weeks so I went digital. It is very accurate and consistent (except when the batteries are going) and is usually between 1/2 and 1 lb. off from my doctor's scale. I step on it fully dressed just before I leave the house for an appointment so I can compare it.

yweight2020 · November 2021

I'd take one back as in that would drive me crazy.

I use a digital health o.meter and it's a few pounds different then my doctors office, but then again I weigh in nude at home, not at the doctors.

And as long as the pounds are going in the direction you want thats all that matter, I'm down 50 plus pounds on the health o.meter.

Keep persevering, you can do this ⚖

AnnPT77 · November 2021

IMO, the idea that we have a "true weight" is illusory.

I think I have a current weight range of a few pounds, and a long-term trend.

My body weight can literally vary over the course of a few minutes, when measured on the very same technically accurate scale wearing the same clothes, because of food intake, sweating, hydration, food on its way to becoming waste, and more. Over the course of a day, it always varies by several pounds. What the scale says is literally a momentary snapshot of my body's relationship with gravity (plus current food, water, and gut microbes inside it, that aren't strictly "me"). Either none of those numbers during the day is my "true weight", or all of them are. I vote that the answer is "all of them", i.e., my current weight is a range.

Long term, say over a period of 4-8 weeks and beyond, my weight will either cycle through about the same range of weights (maintenance), or the range will gradually cycle upwards (gaining) or downwards (losing).

Last year around this time (11/21-28/2020), my weight was wandering in the 132.8 to 135.6 pound range: Not the low weight on 11/21 and the high one on 11/28 or vice-versa, but those were the high & low first thing in the AM daily weights anywhere in that time period, which was up and down. This year, same dates, 125.4 to 129.8 was the range (again, not the end points, but in that 11/21-28 time period someplace). Conclusion: I've lost 6 or 7 pounds sometime since this time last year, more or less - really slow loss, if averaged over that time, but loss.

What I care about is that trend, where my current weight range heads over long time periods.

In that kind of context, I don't think it matters which scale is "accurate", as long as it will give an immediate close-to-consistent weight (not fluctuate randomly, and not be giving a consistent result because it's one of those tricky scales that will give the same weight time after time in the moment unless one resets it by weighing something of very different weight, for example).

Pick one scale, stick with it, watch the trend. That's my suggestion.

sgt1372 · December 2021

No home weight scale will be perfectly accurate.

However, here are at least 2 (one digital and one analog) that the author of the following article claims to be fairly accurate: https://www.livestrong.com/article/184126-most-accurate-body-weight-scales/.

The author also lists 2 BF scales which I would disregard simply because it really is impossible to measure BF accurately using any electronic impeadance device and the other 2 devices are more than adequate for measuring your weight.

FWIW, I prefer digital scales because they give you the "illusion" of accuracy but more importantly give me an exact measurement (whether accurate or not) that is easier to read than on an anolog scale.

I have been using a cheap Weight Watchers branded digita scale to measure myself daily for years.

The only thing that is really important is to use the same scale consistently over time so that the measuements are internally reliable w/respect to that device (whether it's digtal or analog).

Dumb Question: Analog scale Vs. Digital (Both New/same brand)

Replies

Categories