Which Scales to weigh yourself?

[Barrington]

To accurately measure your weight what are people using?

I had some Salter digital bathroom scales a little while ago but they were very inacurate and gave a different reading every time you stood on them within minutes, then they just stopped working.

I have bought some 'analogue' bathroom scales for £20 but am wondering if they are going to be accurate enougth.

Are those big electronic ones you see in fitness type gyms and swimming pools the best?
When i have cut down and attempt a 'lean bulk' i am going to need pretty accurate ones to measure the 2 pounds a month optimal gain.

[Zeigler]

I've found that most arent that accurate. The mirror and callipers are my main go to's now.

Im sure some of the top electronics brands do some fairly good ones....for a high price. Just dont get sucked into the ones that claim to read your body fat, muscle mass etc. Waste of money!

You could always weigh yourself everyday and then take an average for each week, that'll give a fairly good idea.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

Most scales will be inaccurate within a certain range or margin of error. What is important is that, whatever that margin of error is, they weigh consistently. In that way, you can fairly accurately determine the changes in your bodyweight.

Back in 2008 there were concerns raised that hospitals and GPs surgeries were using inaccurate scales to determine patient body weights (specifically where these weights were being used to determine the correct dosages of drugs). Apparently they should only be using 'Class III' (or medical) weighing scales for this purpose. Class IV scales are only suitable for recording body weight for general patient records. So it would seem scales rated class III or class IV are the ones to look out for. Seca are the brand that make medical scales, so maybe look out for these that are suitably rated for medical use? You may find them prohibitively expensive though!

Apparently a home-use bathroom scale has a typical margin of error of +/- 0.25lb (+/- 0.12kg). If you want to determine how accurate/inaccurate your scales are, why not place something on them of known, fixed weight and see what reading you get?

@Ziegler: Love the Serge Nubret quote in your sig. That's just what I always say - glad to see I am in good company!

[Barrington]

I have seen some ridiculously expensive ones, seems like you have to pay through the nose to get good ones then.
How you are supposed to gauge gains of 1-2lbs when you are lean bulking without accurate scales i don't know.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

As I said, it is not important to know your accurate bodyweight - only the changes in weight over a period of time.

Let's say you actually weigh 80kg but your scales say 79.5kg (an error of -0.5kg). A month later your scales say you weigh 83kg but your actual weight is 83.5kg (the same degree of error). So while your measured weight is inaccurate, the amount gained is still the same (3.5kg)!

If a typical margin of error for bathroom scales is +/- 0.12kg (much less than my hypothetical example above), then it is not going to significantly impact on the accuracy of how much you have gained - or lost - over the longer term. For example, let's say you have a pair of scales that have a margin of error of +/- 0.12kg. You start out at a measured bodyweight of 80kg (error of +0.12kg, so actually 79.88kg). 2 months later you weigh in at 86kg (error of -0.12kg, so actually 86.12kg). Your scale says you have gained 6kg while, in actuality, it may be 6.24kg. Is a difference of 0.24kg over two months (about 0.027kg per week) really worth getting bothered about?

All measuring devices - even the most expensive, state-of-the-art - are prone to increasing levels of inaccuracy with use. This is why all institutions and industries that rely on accurate measurements have to have all their instruments re-calibrated on a regular basis. It is quite unrealistic to expect any instrument to be 100% accurate all of the time and in the case of those designed for home use - and priced accordingly - it is probably not realistic that they should be 100% accurate at all!

[MJ.23]

As Nu said; it is all about consistancy. Even at its highest tolerances it will not be a drastic alteration to your actual mass.

If in doubt you can "self calibrate" using a known mass. An example would be using bumper plates to check the accuracy of the scales. Bumper plates are produced to be incredibly accurate (for competition) so would be a good way to test the accuracy.

Even a bag of sugar would probably do (You then have to take into account the error on the manufacturing end and add the errors in quadrature.)

The most accurate scales (available to the mass market) would probably be the ones used routinely by physicians. They use known masses on a slider which acts on a fulcram to counterbalance your mass.

An easier method would be to weigh yourself on multiple scales round friends/family and obtain an average. Bit of a bother but if you want accuracy you have to work for it!

[Pkant2002]

I bought some scales the other day from BHS i ended up having to take them back twice before i final got one that worked to any sort of accuracy. I weighed myself in the shop infront of them and it gave me 2 different readings witha difference of 10lbs. I think if you want a decent set of scales you are going to have to invest a fair ammount of money, the ones i got where 20 quid and there **** worst buy ever.

[Elvis]

DC Rainmaker: Withings WiFi Scale In Depth Review

Upload your weight to the internet, it's what all the cool kids are doing!

Pretty sure this is what Nu has ;-)

[Pkant2002]

Just spent the last 10 mins ripping through my bin looking for my recipt with no succsess. Weighing scales just under weighed me by 12 pounds and now i have to jump on it to turn it on. Do you think BHS will give me my money back if i have the box and show them how crap it is but no recipt.


EDIT

Found the recipt under about 10kg of potato and carrot peelings urghhhhh

[Barrington]

Its not made by Salter by any chance?