can someone recommend an accurate and reliable bathroom scale?
zebasschick
Posts: 1,067 Member
my current scale is driving me crazy. yesterday i weighed myself, then had a hot, sweaty 36 minute exercise bike ride, did not eat or drink anything, used the bathroom, and was a pound heavier than i was before riding and peeing. this happens a lot with my current scale - i can get on it 3 or 4 times in a row, get the exact same weight each time, then when i come back to it without eating, drinking or putting on clothes, i'll weigh up to 3.2 pounds more.
my 2 previous scales were even less reliable.
in the scheme of things, 1 or 3 pounds doesn't matter, but i find it frustrating not really being sure which number is correct. can someone recommend me a scale, preferably on amazon or target? i don't need any features at all - just have it show weight in pounds accurately. if it matters, i'm in the u.s.
my 2 previous scales were even less reliable.
in the scheme of things, 1 or 3 pounds doesn't matter, but i find it frustrating not really being sure which number is correct. can someone recommend me a scale, preferably on amazon or target? i don't need any features at all - just have it show weight in pounds accurately. if it matters, i'm in the u.s.
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Replies
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this one consistently weighs same and matches docs for me.
EatSmart Precision 550 Pound Extra-High Capacity Digital Bathroom Scale with Extra-Wide Platform. Amazon link abbreviated by Amazon.
https://a.co/d/5ilK8JK
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There is a reason that many on here say weigh yourself at a consistent time and the same circumstances, generally first thing in the morning after a pee, and that is the electric impulse picks up the same information, including your feet are dry.
If I wear socks to bed, have a shower, go for a walk, or do anything to change the moisture content on the soles of my feet my scale tells me a different story than that first, no bed sock, weigh in.
The sweat/dampness, however miniscule on the soles of your feet will change the reading.
The only way to weigh throughout the day and not get skewed readings is to use a scale that doesn't use an electric impulse.
You could test this by doing your normal wake up weigh in, sit with your legs up for 30 min, then re weigh. If you are still getting a reading that is off then think of getting a new scale.
Cheers, h.
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There is no reason to weigh more than once a day.
Get up
Pee
Weigh
Repeat daily….3 -
I don't know whether this is what @zebasschick was up to (probably no, since she peed), but there absolutely are reasons to weigh before and after a sweaty workout: A home scale ought to be accurate enough to run a rough check on fluid loss during the workout.
There is no correct "true" weight, though, IMO: Realistically, every up and down from fluid/waste loss, food/fluid intake . . . is a real weight. Daily weight isn't a number, it's a range.
I can still understand wanting a scale that would be reasonably consistent.
I have a cheap Beurer scale, not sure which model. I got it at (I think) Bed Bath and Beyond, but Amazon has Beurers. It's consistent as long it's in exactly the same spot on the hard-surface floor, but doesn't seem to have the "false consistency feature" where if a person weighs several times in a short time and is close in weight, the scale will spit out the same number from memory.3 -
LifeChangz wrote: »this one consistently weighs same and matches docs for me.
EatSmart Precision 550 Pound Extra-High Capacity Digital Bathroom Scale with Extra-Wide Platform. Amazon link abbreviated by Amazon.
https://a.co/d/5ilK8JK
i actually owned that one a while back. it was accurate for years, then finally got random, but thanks to you, i'm going to buy a new one, so - thanks!middlehaitch wrote: »There is a reason that many on here say weigh yourself at a consistent time and the same circumstances, generally first thing in the morning after a pee, and that is the electric impulse picks up the same information, including your feet are dry.
If I wear socks to bed, have a shower, go for a walk, or do anything to change the moisture content on the soles of my feet my scale tells me a different story than that first, no bed sock, weigh in.
The sweat/dampness, however miniscule on the soles of your feet will change the reading.
The only way to weigh throughout the day and not get skewed readings is to use a scale that doesn't use an electric impulse.
You could test this by doing your normal wake up weigh in, sit with your legs up for 30 min, then re weigh. If you are still getting a reading that is off then think of getting a new scale.
Cheers, h.
i weigh with no clothes from 1 to 1 1/2 hours after waking up, after using restroom and before eating or drinking anything, also before showering. i have never used a scale with any electrical contact from feet. just weight.
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I don't know whether this is what @zebasschick was up to (probably no, since she peed), but there absolutely are reasons to weigh before and after a sweaty workout: A home scale ought to be accurate enough to run a rough check on fluid loss during the workout.
There is no correct "true" weight, though, IMO: Realistically, every up and down from fluid/waste loss, food/fluid intake . . . is a real weight. Daily weight isn't a number, it's a range.
I can still understand wanting a scale that would be reasonably consistent.
I have a cheap Beurer scale, not sure which model. I got it at (I think) Bed Bath and Beyond, but Amazon has Beurers. It's consistent as long it's in exactly the same spot on the hard-surface floor, but doesn't seem to have the "false consistency feature" where if a person weighs several times in a short time and is close in weight, the scale will spit out the same number from memory.
i know weight varies, but - and there could be something i don't know here - i can't see how my weight would increase without eating, drinking, having wet hair or putting on clothes. it drives me crazy that it sometimes it shows i've picked up 2 or 3 pounds during a workout with no food or drink.
never owned a Beurer. i looked 'em up on amazon, and they have some scales with pictures from iconic cities on them, which made me grin
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSQZTJR/
i briefly owned one with a memory like that. i emailed the manufacturer to find it would show the same number until it saw a 3 pound or more change. i can't imagine what the point of that is, can you?
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I have a digital (Taylor) scale and a regular old-school mechanical scale. The digital one drives me nuts, it does weird things like yours. The old-school one has tiny numbers that are hard for me to read, but at least it seems more "honest"
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For consistency get an analog, non digital scale. The digital, electronic ones are too fussy.2
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I had a similar problem and it was my uneven floor. Scale was making me crazy until I placed it atop a 3/4 inch plywood square (just slightly larger than the scale so that all 4 feet are on there securely.
That made all the difference in the world. Tiles/hardwood can be uneven. I still have a slanted floor
because I have an old house - but at least now the scale doesn't have to "bend" when I stand on it and can give me a consistent weight. 3 -
No, at least nothing that's anything remotely close to probable. I get that it wasn't clear from my post, but from what you say, I agree that your scale is pretty imprecise. I wouldn't like that either.zebasschick wrote: »I don't know whether this is what @zebasschick was up to (probably no, since she peed), but there absolutely are reasons to weigh before and after a sweaty workout: A home scale ought to be accurate enough to run a rough check on fluid loss during the workout.
There is no correct "true" weight, though, IMO: Realistically, every up and down from fluid/waste loss, food/fluid intake . . . is a real weight. Daily weight isn't a number, it's a range.
I can still understand wanting a scale that would be reasonably consistent.
I have a cheap Beurer scale, not sure which model. I got it at (I think) Bed Bath and Beyond, but Amazon has Beurers. It's consistent as long it's in exactly the same spot on the hard-surface floor, but doesn't seem to have the "false consistency feature" where if a person weighs several times in a short time and is close in weight, the scale will spit out the same number from memory.
i know weight varies, but - and there could be something i don't know here - i can't see how my weight would increase without eating, drinking, having wet hair or putting on clothes. it drives me crazy that it sometimes it shows i've picked up 2 or 3 pounds during a workout with no food or drink.never owned a Beurer. i looked 'em up on amazon, and they have some scales with pictures from iconic cities on them, which made me grin
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSQZTJR/
i briefly owned one with a memory like that. i emailed the manufacturer to find it would show the same number until it saw a 3 pound or more change. i can't imagine what the point of that is, can you?
I kind of get it. People freak out about scale weights far beyond what's rational.
A home scale is only going to be just so accurate, in the sense of repeatable. (That accuracy under home conditions could even be more than one increment - tenth or of pound or whatever - that the scale shows.) If someone's around the borderline zone between one weight and the next, the scale's going to read differently seconds apart.
IMO, users shouldn't see that "up or down by one increment of accuracy" to be a big deal . . . but it's a thing that will likely make a bunch of people upset to the point of complaining to the manufacturer. Add to that the people who don't get that if you drink a pint of water you're going to weigh a (totally meaningless) pound more, and I think manufacturers were motivated to do the "false accuracy" thing. It would be pretty easy to implement with an electronic scale, no major increase in cost to manufacture. It's going to make a fair fraction of people think their scale is more accurate and reliable, I think (and most of those people will never figure out that the "false accuracy" feature is there).
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I often weigh myself a couple times a day, not being obsessive, just interested.
Very often, I find myself weighing more after a morning of workouts (I try to turn my move ring 3x by lunch 🤷🏻♀️) than before.
I chalk it up to exercise stress, muscles doing weird things, water absorption during aquafit.
The only time I ever weigh less on the second weigh is after my Saturday mornings, when I pull double hot power classes, and sweat buckets.
I am my own science experiment. It’s all endlessly fascinating and it never gets old.
I’m certain it’s not the scale because it’s so regular.
Mine is a cheapo Renpho bluetooth from Amazon, btw. It works great and love the charts on the app, although everything outside of actual weight is only good for a giggle.0 -
I have the whiting scale. Last night I lost 50% Body Fat over night which is exciting and extremely successful diet.
Lolz. Probably wouldn't recommend 😂3 -
springlering62 wrote: »I often weigh myself a couple times a day, not being obsessive, just interested.
Mine is a cheapo Renpho bluetooth from Amazon, btw. It works great and love the charts on the app, although everything outside of actual weight is only good for a giggle.
I also have an inexpensive Renpho scale (<$20) as well and have it on top of a ceramic 12"x12" tile I got at a hardware store. Works great.0 -
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I would stop weighing multiple times per day. For me, once every 2-3 weeks is best and I am not tortured by normal fluctuations.1
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I'm tossing my scale in the garbage. I have a digital one that supposed to break down my muscle, fat, water etc. I've been working out, lifting hard. I know I'm gaining muscle because I'm stronger. Yet it keeps telling me im.losing muscle and I've gained 5lbs of fat. All its doing is giving me an eating disorder and not wanting to eat. Also I get anxiety every time I get on it. I'd rather just go off how my clothes fit.2
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lol, yeah pretty much. It’s like if the scale gives you bad news in the morning your whole day is a mess.shekicksass wrote: »I'm tossing my scale in the garbage. I have a digital one that supposed to break down my muscle, fat, water etc. I've been working out, lifting hard. I know I'm gaining muscle because I'm stronger. Yet it keeps telling me im.losing muscle and I've gained 5lbs of fat. All its doing is giving me an eating disorder and not wanting to eat. Also I get anxiety every time I get on it. I'd rather just go off how my clothes fit.
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shekicksass wrote: »I'm tossing my scale in the garbage. I have a digital one that supposed to break down my muscle, fat, water etc. I've been working out, lifting hard. I know I'm gaining muscle because I'm stronger. Yet it keeps telling me im.losing muscle and I've gained 5lbs of fat. All its doing is giving me an eating disorder and not wanting to eat. Also I get anxiety every time I get on it. I'd rather just go off how my clothes fit.
Scales that claim to record anything other than weight and BMI are notoriously innacurate.
Mine did this the first month of weight loss. All the stats fell off the cliff like this at some point:
Watch the weight. The rest is just noise. Static. No real meaning.0 -
Even BMI is questionablespringlering62 wrote: »shekicksass wrote: »I'm tossing my scale in the garbage. I have a digital one that supposed to break down my muscle, fat, water etc. I've been working out, lifting hard. I know I'm gaining muscle because I'm stronger. Yet it keeps telling me im.losing muscle and I've gained 5lbs of fat. All its doing is giving me an eating disorder and not wanting to eat. Also I get anxiety every time I get on it. I'd rather just go off how my clothes fit.
Scales that claim to record anything other than weight and BMI are notoriously innacurate.
Mine did this the first month of weight loss. All the stats fell off the cliff like this at some point:
Watch the weight. The rest is just noise. Static. No real meaning.
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »
Even BMI is questionablespringlering62 wrote: »shekicksass wrote: »I'm tossing my scale in the garbage. I have a digital one that supposed to break down my muscle, fat, water etc. I've been working out, lifting hard. I know I'm gaining muscle because I'm stronger. Yet it keeps telling me im.losing muscle and I've gained 5lbs of fat. All its doing is giving me an eating disorder and not wanting to eat. Also I get anxiety every time I get on it. I'd rather just go off how my clothes fit.
Scales that claim to record anything other than weight and BMI are notoriously innacurate.
Mine did this the first month of weight loss. All the stats fell off the cliff like this at some point:
Watch the weight. The rest is just noise. Static. No real meaning.
What she said is 100% correct. She's saying the scale will give an accurate number for BMI. As long as it knows a person's height and bodyweight, it will indeed give an accurate number for BMI. It's just easy arithmetic.
Whether BMI is a useful metric, and if so, in what context - yeah, youbetcha, there's a lot of debate about that. But that's a different question entirely than whether the scale accurate calculates that number.
Please, let's don't rehash debate that here for the 9,527th time.
Anyone who wants to debate that can revive one of these threads over in Debate Club:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10438075/how-do-we-judge-a-healthy-weight-range-bmi-is-no-longer-valid/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10611159/is-every-single-body-in-the-world-intended-to-be-within-the-so-called-healthy-bmi-range/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10466050/bmi-calculations
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10713113/bmi-controversy-️
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i've started pulling out the scale battery before weighing myself and now am getting accurate weights every time.
btw, since i'm a type 2 diabetic, i find tracking my weight helps me accurately figure out my calories to keep my blood sugar down.2 -
EatSmart Products Free Body Tape Measure Included Digital Bathroom Scale with Extra Large Lighted Display, One Size, Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KXZ808?ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_dp_NSABYEFTGHHR43VVC4CS
This is what I have. It's under $20 and it's been working great for years.0
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