New scale *sigh*
 

I bought a new digital scale that shows my weight at 10 pounds heavier than my old dial scale did. :(

So I've adjusted all of my statistics 10 pounds upward, but left my goal weight the same—though I'm not confident of the wisdom of that decision. I figure at 5'5", 150 lbs. is considered a high "norm," so that's what I should use. However, that's what I weighed in my 20's when I was thin. I'm in my 40's now, so perhaps I should goal at 160? I've always been active and a little on the muscular side. In fact, these days I lift weights, so I probably have even more LBM than I did in my 20's...

Back to the new scale...at least the digital scale is consistent. I can get on and off of it several times, and it only fluctuates within a fraction of a pound. My old dial scale would fluctuate wildly, sometimes within a 7 pound range, so that I would have to weigh myself three or four times and take the average of the results received. (It was sort've a fun scale though...depending on what direction you leaned, your weight reading would suddenly plummet...a nice illusion...) :p

-G.

You have a great attitude and keep it up, if you choose to use this new scale.. make it your only scale. all scales seem to have a difference in them.

We have a supermarket here called Publix and they have this huge scale outside for the courtesy of it customers.. I don't know why??? :q: but I went on it one day and it was 15 pounds heaver boy did I lose my mind. thinking my scale is off by that much. I went to the gym and went on there scale and it was my correct weight ... minus a pound. so you may wanna just check one more scale it could be :q: that the scale was damaged during shipping or something like that..

vivian :wave:

I bought a digital scale about 2 weeks after I started this WOE. I brought it home and it said I weighed about 60 (yep, sixty) pounds less than I actually do, with some ridiculously low BF%. As nice as that was, it wasn't very realistic. So I took it back and tried out a scale - took it out of the box, unwrapped it, the whole deal, and made sure it was correct. :-)

i did the same thing and it said i was half a stone heavier

my advice is to steer clear of buying a new scale than the one you are currently using for your sanity

the way i see it now is that any old scale you may have will still tell you if you are losing weight if not your accurate current weight

if your accurate weight is slightly higher than your old scale is saying do you really want to know that????

Especially if you are on a high with how you are doing only to find out that the 3 pounds you last over the last two weeks have to be lost again

even though they wouldnt have had to be if you had just dealt with the old scale


(i wonder why we feel the need to buy a new scale in the first place) :confused:

Hi there Gwyn....

I sure understand your confusion about a goal weight. When I began LCing, I thought I wanted to get down to around 140. Since then, I've been working out and readjusted my goal to 150 as I started losing inches but not pounds. Today, at 167.5, I'm fitting into clothing that fit me in the past in the 140's. Bottom line....I really don't care what I weigh. My goal is about the shape I'm in and I honestly don't know what my weight will be when I get where I'm going. The number is truly irrelevant.

Wishing you continued LC success!

Marlaine

Well...
 

Danwoody,
The reason that I bought a new digital scale is because, as I'd mentioned, the old one fluctuated so wildly that I could not trust it. I grew weary of the math: weigh four times and average. I just wanted to step on a scale once, trust the result and go on with my day. :) Because the new scale provides that, I'm willing to live with the increase of 10 pounds (I'm not happy about it, but I can deal.) Further, the new scale is one of those models that measures bodyfat percentage. I do a lot of heavy lifting at the gym, and so I am interested in monitoring BF %.

Marlaine,
Thank you so much for answering my question. I think that I will modify my goal weight from 150 to 160, just so it doesn't seem that my goal weight is impossible to attain. And as I get closer to my goal, I'll then know how my body feels and what it will look like, and can adjust accordingly. One lesson I think that we can all take away from this is the charts that we see that list "proper" body weight by height for men and women do not work for every individual. :)

Happy LCing to all!

-G.

Gwyn.......

When you adjusted for the 10 pounds, did you up your original weight too? I think you stats should reflect the total that you've lost no matter what the numbers are, because you are still a success.

Marlaine

Adjustments, yes :)
 

Marlaine,

Yes, I did adjust my stats all the way around. They used to read 230/214/150, and now read 240/224/160.

Though I have to admit that I am still in shock over my starting weight. It was the 230 number that scared me in to changing my WOE in the first place...the 240 number just floors me...

But at least I am doing something about it. :)

Thanks for asking, and for your support. T'is much appreciated!

-G.

My scale
 

I got so frustrated with bathroom scales of any variety that when I started LC, I bought a doctor's professional balance scale from a medical supplier. It cost over $200 but it was worth it! This is a scale I can trust and get precision feedback from. (actually, although I weigh myself every morning, I only officially record the results every other day, to allow for natural variability. Keeps you sane.)

I was 3 lbs. heavier in the doctor's office, but that was because of clothing. Back home in the same clothes I weighed the same 3 extra pounds. So the scale is fine and I just built that differential into my goal.