Candy6900's Journal, 17 Mar 16

always use the same scales place them in the same place on the floor, weigh your self once a week preferably at the same time of day and use it as a guide - should remain consistent either same or up/down. cheaper than new scales, non of which are 100% accurate!!!! hope helps 

I was recommended these ones (BalanceFrom High Accuracy MemoryTrack Plus Digital Bathroom Scale), but the ones I use are a set of Salter scales, I bought years ago. Although digital, they only record to the nearest lb or half kilo. Secret is to have them on a firm base. I have a thick plywood board that I put between the scales and the carpet. 

I use weight watchers digital scales. Weight myself at the same time of day in exactly the same place and never ever get the same reading twice or an accurate reading. Now I get weighed at my doctors  

It's possibly not the scales - it's how bodies are - we all have a weight range (of around +/- 5lbs) and not an absolute scale weight. This is due to natural water weight fluctuations. Your scale should be on a flat hard surface and not moved - not on carpet or floorboards - or use a tile or flat board underneath like Jocko says You can make sure it is configured accurately by weighing something you know the weight of (I have a barbell I can load with 10Kg to check and my scale is within 0.2lbs) A lot of the newer scales have a system whereby it memorises your weight so gives the same weight each time you weigh - this makes you believe they're more accurate - but they are still prone to different weights dependent on where sitting best advice would be to always weigh at the same time - ideally first thing in morning, after using the loo and nekkid  

I use a make called Tanita. The weight readings are good, but the body fat % part tends to be off. Every now and again I use the weight scales at the gym. Put in a £1 and you get height, weight, BMI and body fat.  

All BF readings on scales are off. The margin of error is something like 13% and generally worse for women. It's because bio-impedence is not a decent way to monitor BF Can be useful in monitoring changes over time (as in months) but if you want to know your BF% you'd need to fork out for a 4 compartment DEXA scan and last I saw that's over £150 The online calculators aren't a bad guestimate - particularly the US military calculators  

Hi rabbitjb. Do you think the scales at the gym would be a more accurate reading? There is always about a 10% difference between my readings. (sorry to hijack your question, Candy!) 

TBH not really - they just seem it because they probably have hand-held points too - I just believe, from all the research I've read that BF estimation by bio-impedence is a really inaccurate method unless you're tracking movements over the long-term (talking months). I also, on another note, have a concern over how well calibrated and maintained public access scales are - the more people hopping on and off the more likely the calibration will go I have known people go for a DEXA scan and use that as a point to judge their scales on - some find it fairly close (eg a couple of %age points but I've heard of much higher variance) Personally I'm a first thing in the morning, own bathroom and nekkid kind of girl and an expectation of flucatuations within 5lbs of my 'goal scale weight'  

This study suggests the range of error may be slightly lower - but that actually Bio impedence analyser is brought to makret with formulaes based on specific target groups and that for females there may be even less accuracy due to where we hold fat. It's certainly interesting "studies suggest that segmental BIA provides a relatively accurate estimate of percentage body fat in specific populations such as high school aged children (17, 21), male wrestlers (32) and the elderly (26). At least two studies specifically indicated that BIA measures are not valid in female populations (10, 13) as was found in the current study. It is possible that there is greater variation in the location of fat deposition in females which makes it more difficult to use a single generic formula to accurately measure %BF using segmental BIA models." http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1303&context=ijes 

thanks for the detail. I appreciate your input. 

Salter BMI scales. £10 in Asda. Make sure you put them on a hard floor, not a rug or carpet. You are weighing yourself too often. Only record your weight once a week at the same time in the morning each week. If you aren't exercising too dieting will only make you depressed. 

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll check them all out. As I said before, my two home scales are persistently over 1.2 kg reading compared to the two slider scales at the GP's. Not only that, but several readings fluctuate by .1-.3 kg just by getting on and off them! I know about putting them on a hard surface, not a carpet. I weigh myself every day at the same time so the readings are consistent in that respect. I weigh myself every day because it's interesting, informative, rewarding when it goes down, and a warning when it goes up. I think I'm mature enough not to become demoralised by the results, whatever they are on a given day, and a loss is always to be celebrated! 

you might like logging into a trendweight app because they smooth out the very natural day to day fluctuations and give you a better read on fluctuations I use trendweight.com - because it synchs directly from my fitbit - that's what my avatar is - it shows actual weigh ins dancing around the trendline and an extrapolation there are also apps - HappyScale and Libra that do similar It's certainly a great tool for daily logging (also try putting a known weight on your home scales - and you can see what the basic margin for error is - I know mine is out by 0.2lbs .. meh) hope that helps  

This trendweight app is really interesting, thanks very much. It vindicates daily weighing as well. I'd never heard of any of this so lots more reading, thanks. Putting a known weight on the scales is really clever ideas, thanks again! 

I too have just set up a TrendWeight account so I will see how things go. 

Good scales take an average of weight measured over a couple of seconds.