Don't trust the scales!

(Mark Kenyon II) #1

This is part funny story, part progress report.

So, in January 2018 I was 220. This was my old spring/dial scale I’d been using for > 10 years. I lost some weight on the flu diet, then started Keto in March. I’ve been losing weight about 1lb a week since then.

I know I shouldn’t weigh myself every day, but I’m curious. However, it’s hard to read small changes on a dial scale. So, I ordered a digital scale.

The big day comes, I’ve got my scale, put it right next to my old scale, and climb on. 147 lbs!!!

I know I’ve been doing well, but my last measurement was 203lbs a couple days earlier. I thought about it, and decided it must be that it was because the scale is on carpet.

I moved it to the tile floor, and now it read 199.7. Hmm… great, but I wasn’t ready to cheer. Moving the old scale to the tile floor, it read even less!!!

I guess I’ll never know my exact weight with the old scale, but today my weight was 199.4, so the new scale on the tile seems to be consistent.

The takeaway?

  1. Don’t use a scale on carpet.
  2. I broke the 200lb barrier!!! I love it! Still can’t believe it, but hey, I’ll take it.
(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

You can calibrate the old style spring scales. There’s usually a dial on top. Just put a known weight (I use an actual 10lb weight) then adjust the dial to exactly 10lbs. And yes, different floor surfaces will alter scales. Even a tile floor if the tiles aren’t perfectly level will change weights when the scale is moved. It’s best to keep the scale in one spot and leave it there. The more important thing to me than the actual number is the trend. Even if a scale is off, if it’s going down, you are doing good. And yes, I know it’s not the only way to measure success.

(Mark Kenyon II) #3

Another plus, is my wife says I seem to have more energy. I’ve lost an inch on my waist, and I’ve started skipping meals! Yesterday I did my Bullet Teechino (herbal coffee) for breakfast, a big taco salad for lunch, and just a snack (keto) when I got home. I went to bed NOT hungry!

One other side note, Keto can get expensive. I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe!

(Robert C) #4

I would stick with measurements as they are better about composition. If you gain muscle and lose fat and the scale doesn’t move - the measurements do. That’s what you care about - when people see you, you’re not wearing a T-shirt with you recent weight written on it - but people can see you getting a little slimmer.
Here’s another reason not to trust a scale (if you have kids). When I was a kid we had a dial scale and I would jump on it as hard as I could to try to get the highest number. I found that better than jumping, I could get the numbers to go high if I rocked up and down on it faster and faster. It always still sort of worked but, looking back now, I’m pretty sure anyone in my family using that scale consistently, would have been very confused.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

The most accurate scale is a balance scale. Anything involving a spring is inherently going to be unreliable.

I like to have fun with the scale I inherited from my mother. I’ve gotten on it five times in a row and gotten five completely different weights (though within a ten-pound range, more or less). Sometimes I have “lost” five or six pounds in the shower, and once I weighed a few pounds more naked than I had clothed. It is very important to stand on it the same way every time. I have found that just where and how I stand on the scale makes it give considerably divergent readings.

Fortunately, as Annie points out, the trend is more important than the actual numbers. If I weigh myself consistently each time, then regardless of how inaccurate that scale is, at least the readings are going to be inaccurate in more or less the same way.

(Brian) #6

I would love to have one of those balance scales. But they’re generally quite pricey.

I do find the electronic ones (most of what’s for sale these days) rather frustrating because they seem to have too wide of a range of error. My mom had congestive heart failure and just a pound or two was a big deal. Several scales, though, would be a pound or more different stepping on them and then stepping on them again, sometimes right away. I understand a person can change weight over a few hours, maybe through perspiration, breathing or excretion. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about stepping on, stepping off, and stepping right back on again and getting a different number. GRRRR!!!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #7

I used to work at a factory that had a floor scale used for large items for shipping where you could weigh a whole pallet. It was calibrated regularly. I use to step on that to weigh myself.
Not very accessable for most people, but pretty accurate.

(Brian) #8

Funny thing… for a while, I was living next to a farm where they had a grain drying operation. They had a scale where they would drive their trucks onto and weigh. They often left the scale on even when no one was around so I decided to step on a few times. Not having had a good scale to compare it to, I don’t know how accurate it was. But for a scale that could weigh probably 40 or 50 tons, it got danged close for my 285 or so pounds at the time.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #9

I’m a little surprised a scale meant to weigh by the ton would be that accurate. But then again, if the company is reputable, they will calibrate scales often, so maybe it’s not that crazy.