Gym scale says I weigh 10 pounds more than other scales...

[Eighty_nine]

I'm on a mission to lose about 15-25 pounds. It's hard to know where I'm starting from though, because my gym scale says I'm 10-12 lbs heavier than my home scale & a friends home scale. The home scales seem much more accurate, whereas I definitely don't look the number the scale says at my gym.

 

At the end of the day I know it's sort of irrelevant, but I'm trying to have a goal loss in mind and it's difficult when I don't know where I started.

[carhill]

Since most people go to the gym to lose weight, marketing tactics are geared to that goal. If you have a friend who weighs different than you do who you can scale on your home scale and the gym scale for comparison, that should verify the percentage of marketing efforts, err, error in the scaling. Alternatively, one can place a known weight disc, like a 50lb free weight, on the gym scale for comparison.

 

Sound cynical? Heh, I've been in business nearly 30 years and have seen it all.

[loveweary11]

From a purely numerical standpoint, it doesn't matter if the gym scale says you weigh 500lbs and the home scale says you weigh 40 lbs.

 

Either way, your goal is to weigh 480 at the gym and 20lbs at home.

 

I do like how the gym scale tries to make wonen feel heavier...lol... Good for business.

 

Do they have fat mirrors in there too? And skinny ones in the men's locker room?

[PegNosePete]

Are you measuring at the same time of day? If for example you're weighing yourself at home when you wake up then weighing yourself at the gym after work, a difference would make sense. Your weight can vary greatly throughout the day simply due to eating and drinking. A litre of water weighs 2.2lb.

 

If you always weigh yourself at the same time of day and using the same scales, then you'll have an accurate measurement of the loss.

[Eighty_nine]

Are you measuring at the same time of day? If for example you're weighing yourself at home when you wake up then weighing yourself at the gym after work, a difference would make sense. Your weight can vary greatly throughout the day simply due to eating and drinking. A litre of water weighs 2.2lb.

 

If you always weigh yourself at the same time of day and using the same scales, then you'll have an accurate measurement of the loss.

 

It's pretty much always after work, which is when I go to the gym most of the time. Then I'll come home and weigh myself again and the difference between the two scales is drastic. I do try to avoid weighing myself at home in the morning, just because that's not my normal "weighing time" and I don't want to add to the confusion.

 

In any case, both scales said I lost 2lbs last time I checked so yeah, it doesn't really matter. I might try weighing a "known weight" like a barbell and see if the gym scale is accurate. Now more than anything I'm just curious to know whether or not the scale is skewed by the gym.

 

I think I'll just start with aiming to lose 20lbs and go from there. (So only 18 left to go, ha!)

Edited April 22, 2015 by lissvarna

[Phoe]

Only weigh yourself on one scale, pick just one and only that one.

 

Don't weigh yourself everyday, just once a week, and always in the morning right after you get up and go to the bathroom.

 

Doing that will cut out a lot of the natural variables that can cause fluctuations in what the scale says.

[thefooloftheyear]

Like previous poster stated...Cut out variables...

 

Weigh yourself at the same exact time of day, and use the same scale..

 

TFY

[Eggplant]

My weight fluctuates by almost 10 pounds on a daily basis. If I wanted to keep track of my weight scrupulously, I'd take several measurements throughout the day. Then after a month or 2 I'd plot the points and try to fit a line through it. The actual weight loss would be in the general trend, but there's a lot of noise in that data, so don't freak out over 10 pounds in a day -- that's water.

[Diezel]

Never understood why people will weigh themselves in the afternoon, after having meals, possibly 2-4 pounds of water, fully clothed, sweating, and on a gym scale.

[PogoStick]

I agree to weigh yourself 1st thing in the morning after you pee. Naked. This is also your lowest weight of the day which is good for your motivation. People lose around 2 pounds of water just from breathing while they sleep, depending on the humidity and temperature. As mentioned, that means you're already short a liter of water when you wake up.

 

I also like to weigh daily. Daily fluctuations tell you about your hydration and bowel habits. Weekly trends show your permanent changes.

 

Studies show people who weigh daily are more successful in reaching and maintaining their weight goals.

[Els]

I agree that water weight varies (and more so for women), but you don't vary 10 lbs in one day, ever. I'd definitely test out either of the scales by putting something of known weight (an actual weight, or a 1 litre bottle of water, etc) on it and seeing how it works. Sure, it doesn't actually matter since what you want is relative weight loss, BUT if a particular gym is trying for underhanded tactics by calibrating their scales wrongly, who knows what else they're trying to scam you with? I wouldn't sign up for a package at such a gym when there are honest options out there.

[Emilia]

Maybe it's the home scale? Honestly I've never experienced underhand tactics at any gym, my current one uses a scale similar to those in cattle markets where you have to slide the weight along for 10s of kgs first then for grams. It's very sturdy and reliable. I've weighed myself in lots of places from Doctor's surgeries to supermarkets where you pay 20 pence. Never had more than 2-4 lbs fluctuation.

 

I agree that time of the day matters, especially if your eating and bowel movement habits are regular. Doesn't matter what time of the day you weight as long as it's consistent.

 

Most gyms try to make you feel good about yourself so that you keep going back, especially for less confident, overweight people because they often give up easily. I've never ever seen anything underhand in any of these places in my life.

[compulsivedancer]

When I weighed myself regularly, I also threw out the couple of days before my period, as girls weigh more then (I still weighed myself, but I didn't record it). I found that giving myself a break those days kept my morale up.

 

Just always use the same scale under the same circumstances, so you're comparing apples to apples.

 

Also, remember that the number doesn't really matter and is just there as a ballpark. The real measure is whether you're more fit, losing inches, gaining muscle, gaining endurance, etc.

[SoleMate]

I've seen that my home electronic scale is extremely repeatable and credible, then when I go to my doctor's office, I get a different and substantially higher reading (yes, even correcting for input/output). I've asked several times at the medical offices and they've all made it clear, they don't really care much about +/- 5 pounds and they don't even have a calibration program. Any gauge that is not calibrated is basically for entertainment only - IMO.

 

The best measure I've found for overall fitness and preventing fat gain is just to try on some old, familiar pants. I know exactly how much they can stretch. As a bonus, the pants don't "penalize" me for turning fat into muscle - as we all know, fat is less dense, so adding muscle means the body gets smaller and also a bit heavier. No scale knows that difference, but the pants definitely do!

Edited April 26, 2015 by SoleMate

[deathandtaxes]

Don't compare two different scales. use one at home regularly and notice the changes.