Is the scale at the doctor’s office more accurate than every other brand on the market? Digital, “smart”, super analog. I’ve weighed myself at home at roughly the same time of day as I would at the doctor, wearing the same outfit and shoes or coat. And I will always weigh 5-10 pounds more at the doctor. I’ve tried moving the scale to other surfaces like carpet or linoleum too.
*do not need advice on not caring about my weight and that’s it’s just a number
Even if I weigh myself at home 30 minutes before I weigh myself at the doctor, I am still heavier at the doctor.
Are you wearing shoes? A coat? Holding your bag or wearing a sweater or jeans? People often forget that they’re usually barefoot at home and wearing shoes and more clothes when they get weighed elsewhere.
clothes, shoes, belt, cell phone, watch, keys, coins, wallet, all add up.
They really should have you empty your pockets and take your shoes off at least.
I'm 6 ft tall and carry a lot of stuff in my pocket so I always weigh five to eight pounds more by the time my shoes and clothes and pocket contents are accounted for. It kind of bothers me because I'm so close to the line that those extra pounds pushes me over 200lbs
What is in your pockets and shoes that contributes 5-8 lbs that is wild
Your phone. Phone has a camera, camera adds 10lbs. That's it right there.
/s just in case
My phone has 5 cameras...
That means the scale is off by 50 lbs?
No you don't add them, it's a diminishing return. So each extra camera adds 1 less pound. So you add 45 pounds... At some point tons of cameras will remove weight, ie celebs that photo edit....
Jeans plus phone is almost a pound by itself. Size 14 shoes makes it almost a pound. I have a lot of keys on a keychain and then a wallet with a chain too so that's probably another half a pound. I also carry things like a knife and earbuds which aren't heavy but add up. Stainless steel watch on my wrist. Leather belt. It's not a matter of any one thing but a matter of a whole bunch of small things.
8 lb is definitely a stretch but I would almost be willing to bet that with all of my clothing and items I normally carry could hit 5 lb extra.
I mean, they probably don't care about your exact weight at the doctor. They just want an approximation and to track your weight over time, I'd assume.
Last time I went to my regular doctor they said exactly that. That I could take whatever out of my pockets and take my shoes off if I wanted to. Maybe things are changing, as I don’t remember them ever saying that before.
Yep, shoes are a couple pounds, pants and top is a pound or two, it adds up
I'm usually 5-8 pounds heavier in clothes.
just imagine carrying a stack of folded towels. it's not super heavy, but if you imagine holding a 16 oz water bottle (just about one pound) vs a stack of towels, it becomes easier to comprehend how much fabric can weigh.
My husband admitted that he gets on the scale at the doctor’s office with his work boots on. He didn’t think it was a big deal. I said I had to take off my shoes to give myself a fighting chance
As long as he’s consistent it’s probably fine, they’re usually not worried about a few pounds anyway.
Scales have to be rebalanced, and people don't do it often at a doctor's office. I've seen a 5 pound difference based on which scale in the office was used.
I've even seen the height measure get screwed up by 1.5 inches, which can mess up a BMI.
I measured an inch shorter at the doctor’s office than I did on my driver’s license because at the doctor’s office they took 2 seconds to do the entire measurement and I didn’t have a chance to stand up straight before I was ushered back off the scale.
im 6'4" but if i dont shrink down a bit the poor little filipino nurse cant even reach the measuring arm
im barely 6 foot acording to my doctor ROFL
My doctor’s office is horrible with height. My records list me at 5’3”. I’m 5’8”. I brought this discrepancy up at my last visit. They remeasured me. 5’6”. 🤦🏼♀️ No, still not my height.
I was told that I was 5’4 and a half for YEARS. Then I moved. New doctor. I’m 5’2. Went to a specialist. Also 5’2. I’m 2.5 inches shorter than I thought I was for 15 years.
The nurses at my primary care like to switch me from 5'10" to 5'9". Like every other time the vascilate between the two. But I know I'm almost exactly 5'10" from the specialists' offices, OBGYN, fertility, endocrinologist, and so many others, plus just...knowing my height compared to others who have been measured...I know. So crazy how these 5'2" ladies always want to take an inch off of my height
Height varies during the day too, not to mention, steadily decrease with age after reaching a peak. Many people keep saying the height they had when they were in their prime, even if it hasn't been that high in decades!
(Regarding the height variation during the day, the spine gets compressed by gravity during the day, and then gets relaxed while you sleep).
I’m 68 and no one at the doc’s has checked my height in decades. And now I’m afraid to ask. I shot up early as a child and my beloved pediatrician told me I’d be 5’8”. I stopped at 5’5”. Today … I don’t want to know.
I always say I'm 5'3" if I don't slouch.
For a while I was getting weighed regularly on one of the balance scales that was supposedly the most accurate way to get weighed. I discovered that I could change the weight by up to 10 pounds one way or another by subtly pressing down on either my left heel or my right toes. Once I did it back and forth and watched the nurse's frustration as she couldn't get it to balance at 0. Moral: you're not going to get an accurate weight anywhere, even a doctor's office.
I recently had a doctor measure me as 5cm higher than anywhere else did, but also 5kg heavier. I guess over-measuring both at least makes it impact the BMI less 😅
The BMI scale is flawed enough to begin with, it’s not a reliable indicator of overall health outcomes.
Example: if you’re a muscle-bound person who weighs 190 lbs at 5’7” tall, you are in the same BMI category as a sedentary individual with no extra muscle mass. Simply because the BMI scale only accounts for height and weight.
Yea but you can look at someone and see that their bmi is bc they are fat not bc they are a body builder. For those ppl bmi is an indicator of health out comes. It’s a body mass index scale it’s a number that takes eyeballs and health history to interpret. Not all data is to be used alone. Just like some labs mean nothing unless other labs are also messed up. You pair the scale with your assessment.. I’m not sure why this isn’t understood about the bmi. Ppl say it’s outdated bc they don’t understand how to use it
i mean yeah that's exactly what it is, a body mass index
of course outliers exist and they will be accounted for because a 5'7" that weighs 190lbs just because of muscles will be very noticeable
also not even 5'7 body builders weigh 190lbs
unless you take enhancing substances your muscle mass is maybe gonna take you into the lightly overweight category and even then you will be packed with so much muscle that it's immediately obvious
even then without muscles being slightly overweight isn't even seen as bad or unhealthy, being obese and having a bmi above 30 is where doctors will start to worry. and unless you swallow substances and dedicate your whole life to body building you aren't even getting close to this
so all in all BMI is a good indicator, of course not the only one, of overall health focused on weight
it's a number, like temperature, to give you an idea of where you at and whether you need a tshirt or a sweater
Yep. It’s remarkably decent when talking about the average person…which is what most people are.
How many absolute meatheads or 700lb Jabbas are actually out there? Whatever the number, it’s not enough that BMI magically stops being a decent “first glance” metric.
That is like a mandatory comment to any mention of the bmi at this point, don't bother answering
Your average home scale measures weight by having elements inside that get compressed when you apply the force of weight to it. The scale is programmed to transorm the amount of compression into a weight.
For easier visualization imagine your average compression spring like the ones in any ball pen. The scale can transform the amount of compression by that spring into a weight to display. But if you put your scale on any soft surface, a carpet for example, that carpet will also be compressed by your weight therefore taking away some compression of the spring within the scale so now your weight is off by that.
Older mechanical scales as you call it might still use a mechanism like that or they completely internalize the weighting by using a leverage and counterweight system - if that's the case it's completely irrelevant where the scale is placed because the system in itself is closed and will not be affected by those outside elements.
I have an old doctor’s scale with a weight and beam at home. I’ve leveled it and calibrated it. I can confidently say I always weigh more at the doctor’s office because their scales are not calibrated and are wrong.
Someone didn’t read your original post lol
Maybe bring your scales at the doctor and check.
Right‽ Could be a local gravity anomaly
You don’t get naked at the doctors scale
Maybe it's to keep us on our toes so we don't eat donuts as soon as we leave their office.
I always weigh exactly five pounds less at home than I do at the doctor's office. I've even tried different at-home scales. It's always five pounds. I don't freaking know why, but I'm also curious.
My dr's office is always exactly 6lbs more! No matter what.
Clothes
This was me. Then i noticed my mom’s scale was 5 lbs more. Then I got a new scale.
My sister got this fancy digital scale while I have the old school, no batteries scale. They both say the same thing. I've even gone to stores and tried out theirs. It's interesting. I'm starting to wonder if I'm more mindful about eating when I'm going to see a doctor soon. I tend to forget to eat pretty often.
It's the doctor's scale that needs rebalancing.
Be aware, there is actually a difference between a scale and a balance. The old-school "scales" with a sliding weight at a doctor's office is actually a balance. That instrument would give the same result on the moon or on Earth, because it is balancing your mass against a fixed mass. A bathroom "scale" is actually measuring the force of your mass under the acceleration due to gravity.
Both must have calibrations checked.
Oh, cool, I didn't know that. I haven't seen a scale like that at a doctor's office in a while. I loved those things when I was a kid. I always asked the nurse if I could do it and one actually let me. Highlight of my life.
I always weigh a few pounds less at the doctor’s so it can go both ways. So strange!
Your clothes have weight. Are you wearing shoes at the doctor's and not at home? That's about 5lbs right there.
No, I'm always in jeans, a t-shirt, and shoes, even at home. It's been this way over the course of years with many doctors offices. I'm telling you, they're up to something with those scales. lol
I had a kitchen scale that was terrible—iirc it weighed only every three grams, but spit out a number that wasn’t an exact multiple of three, so it wouldn’t be obvious (I believe I tested it with pennies to figure this out), anyway, after realizing how utterly crappy it was, I noticed that my bathroom scale was the same brand.
Then I learned that’s the most commonly available scale brand.
Then I just gave up on weighing myself entirely.
What’s the brand?
Taylor
What the hell?! You used the same pennies each time? Not the same number but actually the same.
US coins have a known standardized weight. I used this method to test my own kitchen scale. I put one quarter on it, then another, then a third. Since a quarter weighs 5.67 grams or 2 oz, I could see if the scale was close enough to accurate for me to use and it seemed to be.
5.67 grams is .2 oz, not 2 oz
Worst drug dealer ever.
Or the best. Depends how he weighed it.
Strawberry oil know what’s up. With that dealer you get ten times the product
It was a few years ago, and mostly I remember the irritation, disbelief, repeated attempts to measure, and the satisfaction of my replacement scientific scale working correctly.
Accuracy of the scale is actually less important than consistency of the scale — sudden changes in weight, or consistent trends in weight tell more of a story than just being 5-10 lbs different on different scales.
Expected value and standard deviation combined :p
Maybe your scale at home doesn’t want to hurt your feelings.
Maybe the doctor is trying to get EVERYONE to lose some weight.
My doctor's scale makes me hopeful, then I go home and see that I actually haven't managed to gain five pounds. I'm questioning the money I'm spending on weight gain shakes.
I wish my scale was so thoughtful :P
When I was growing up, we had one that you could set past the zero. I would always account for my hair lmao. Men don't have hair to weigh, so why should I? That scale was very nice to me and I miss it dearly.
My hair also weighs 20 lbs.
Today I learnt that I am made mostly from hair.
💀💀 am dead
“That’s obese.”
Maybe your doctor wants to hurt your feelings.
I’m guessing it’s calibration. My home scale is very accurate for my toddler (it’s within 0.5 pounds of what she weighs at the doctor) but it’s often off by several pounds for me. I’m guessing pediatricians offices are much more diligent about zeroing out and calibrating their office scales because a two pound difference is much more meaningful in a 25 pound toddler than a 150 pound adult!
I noticed it also the one time we took my daughter to a non- pediatric urgent care and they clocked her weight as about 2.5 pounds heavier than she had been at the pediatrician just a few weeks prior. When I weighed her at home she was still the same as the ped had said, so I’m guessing the urgent care scale was off.
This is the right answer.
This is the kind of thoughtful reply we should see in Reddit more often.
Due to a medical condition I have to occasionally see three or four doctors, in different offices, and without fail, none of their scales are ever close to each other in giving a weight.
How far off are they, out of curiosity?
Ive seen it vary as much as 40 pounds between the lowest and highest.
How much do you weigh total if you don’t mind me asking? Because 40 pounds is like an insane amount to be off by, unless you weight like 450 pounds or something.
I'm 6'2" and weighed 350 when I started losing weight. The inconsistencies didn't show up until I had dropped a lot. The office scales vary from 230 odd to 270 odd.
My home scale, a good one, weighs me consistently between 220 and 240, depending on whether I decide to drop a few pounds.
WTF!! that's wild
Absolutely.
Press x to doubt.
I don't weigh myself at home wearing heavy shoes and jeans. The difference in clothing weight can be part of that.
One of the nurses at my Dr's office told me about a lady one time who went through the whole process of taking off all her jewelry before stepping on the scale. She them put it all in her pocket(s) and proceeded to step on.
😂
Duh, unequipped items don't contribute to your weight. Haven't you played Dark Souls?
😂😂
This sounds like a SNL skit, or at least should be. That's so funny.
Pocket dimension, obviously
Yeah, and yet when I try to weigh in naked at the doctor's office, they threaten to call the police!
I will wear the exact same combination of clothing at home too
Tbh I've wondered this too OP. I personally avoided a digital scale so I can very easily adjust it to zero before I get on at home each time, and set it with a known weight like a dumbbell if I feel the need. I can't be sure how often the scale at a doctors office is getting calibrated, and how much 5-10lb difference for patients would make for them, so they might read off after a while?
As a former office manager, this is the issue. I was the only person who cared about zeroing (there is a little screw you can tighten/loosen) the professional scales.
I also consistently weigh more at the doctor's office, but when I worked at a veterinary hospital and weighed myself on the dog scale, it always matched my scale at home. The vet clinic had their scales calibrated every month. I assume human medical offices just don't calibrate their scales as frequently?
FWIW I strip down and weigh myself before my morning shower and before eating anything. I usually lose about 2 lbs each night between peeing, exhaling all night and sometimes sweating. It's very consistent each morning other than when occasionally pigging out the night before. Then before going to the Dr office I weigh myself in the same outfit for comparison. During the past four years I've noticed a conistent four-five lb difference between my scale and the one at my GP clinic whereas my scale is within one pound of my heart clinic.
I feel your pain! My scale gives different figures depending on where on the bathroom floor I place it. I swear my house is lopsided (seriously!)
I’ll never forget Red Green’s invention of helium filled pants so he could weigh less at the doctor’s office.
Wow haven't heard anyone mention him in a long time. Possum Lodge.
Could be that one of the scale is just not calibrated properly. maybe try with a third one and see which one is off. 2 out of 3 is always a good indication.
Also, I have seen digital scales on carpet tend to show a few kgs lighter, idk why.
My (amazing) provider and I have a running joke about the scale at her office. She said she refuses to ever weigh herself on it, and I said I'm going to start bringing my home scale to my appointments.
Actually it's a proven scientific fact that gravity is thicker around a healthcare facility. Science really doesn't know why for certain but the leading theory is that the residual radioactivity left over from where they sterilize the bandages at the factory actually results in an increase of electrons in a given area as compared to a non Healthcare facility.
It's also entirely possible that I'm a dumbass on Reddit trying to pull your leg.
Actually it's a proven scientific fact that gravity is thicker around a healthcare facility. Science really doesn't know why for certain but the leading theory is that the residual radioactivity left over from where they sterilize the bandages at the factory actually results in an increase of electrons in a given area as compared to a non Healthcare facility.
can confirm am also a reddit scientist
If you’re not already part of r/shittyaskscience, you should be
You can't say how accurate a scale is without calibrating it.
There's a decent chance your home scale is good within 1% or maybe 2% of its full measurement range (so, within 3-5 lbs / 1-2 kg) but you can't really know without comparing its reading to a known reference weight.
Your scale could be off, but so could the doctor's scale. If they don't have a regular calibration interval (every 1-2 years), there's no guarantee about their accuracy, either.
For most grown adults, 5-10 lbs difference is not super important. As long as your home scale is consistent with itself and your doctor's scale is consistent with itself, the measurements will show any general trend and let you know what your body is doing (if you care to track it). It doesn't really matter if I'm 195 lbs or 200 lbs, but if scales can show if that number is increasing vs decreasing vs static then that's all I need to know.
This is correct. Chemistry background here. What most people forget that they learned in highschool is that everything that measures has some margin of error. That 1 cup measuring cup in your kitchen may be up to 10% off. I have 4 - 1 cup measuring cups and the water in them weighs 228g, 238g, 256g, and 258g. There is always going to be some error when measuring anything. But the difference with high end measuring is 1) it tells you what margin of error is and 2) usually comes with protocols on calibration if not a set of standards to calibrate.
And like not everything needs to be super precise and accurate. If your weight is within 5-10% that's fine. A big glass of water weighs about a pound so depending on how much you recently drank/urinated it will change your weigh ins. We don't all need to know time to the .000001 seconds, for most things minutes or seconds is plenty enough precision.
Exactly.
One big thing that trips people up when they start to look at equipment accuracy is that it's often rated as a percent of the full measurement range, not of the current measurement.
So, it doesn't matter if I weigh my 40 lb dog or my 200 lb self on my home scales, both of those measurements will be +/- 3 lbs. (I write calibration software for what amounts to industrial quality scales, to calibrate each unit before we ship it.)
Weigh yourself at home just before or after doctor visit with exact same things on. Like keep shoes on, etc. Then you'll see the real difference. Make sure you use your home scales on a flat, uncarpeted surface. If the difference bothers you, most scales can be adjusted.
Could just be a calibration issue with your scale. It can drift over time or be off straight from the factory and the only way to truly tell for certain is using a set of standardized weights that are themselves calibrated. This could give a consistently different measurement if it’s off.
Source: I run a ISO certified QC lab at a chemical plant, and we have to maintain calibrations on our equipment.
I was an industrial scale tech for 30 years , I went every where from the guess your weight scale at a carnival to a center of mass calculator for the air force , I never checked a scale at a Drs office
I wonder if it could be the accuracy due to the maximum weight of the scale. The closer you weigh to the max scale weight the lower the accuracy of the scale. So if your home scale is max 300lbs and you weigh 250 it’s probably going to be less accurate than a scale (like at a doctors) which likely has a max weight of 500-600lbs.
(I have some tangential experience with weighing goats. One of our goats starting pushing 250 lbs, which was the max of our hanging scale, so we had to get a scale made to weigh calves that went up to 500 or so. And we had to make a special harness that could safely fit around the very big boi.)
A lot of doctors offices still have scales that only go up to 300 lbs. it’s actually ridiculous how widespread available scales are now that have 500 lb or more max weights, yet literal healthcare facilities are not accommodating people of higher weights. Even worse, cost of replacing the scale is often cited as the reason they haven’t gotten a new scale with a higher max weight, and I get that medical grade equipment probably costs more, but you can literally get a scale that goes up to 500 lbs for like $20.
Clothes, shoes, normal inflammation from being up and moving, food, water intake. All those things can add a few lbs. at the doctor.
I tend to weigh myself first thing in the morning. After I’ve used the bathroom and undressed, but before getting in the shower.
I always weigh 3-4 pounds less at the doctor. I thought maybe they intentionally set it that way so people don’t complain.
Fancier, more expensive, regularly calibrated scales will always show a different number to the cheaper, simpler, never calibrated after manufacturing scale at home. I tend to assume the doctors is correct, or take the average.
I work in a doctor's office and I agree. Our scales say I weigh more. Also am fat.
That happened to me often when I'd go see my Dr. I'd weigh myself at home wearing the same clothes for the visit (same day right before leaving) and weigh more there. (At one point I thought it was my scale so I bought a new one. Wasn't that) He liked to fat shame 😡
Home scales can get inaccurate once their batteries start getting old or maybe you aren’t using the scales on an even surface (carpets etc.)
Assume that Doc’s scale is your actual weight
When you ate last, what you're wearing, do you have shoes on, etc. And yes different scales may read differently.
It's okay if your scale is a little off, as long as it's consistently off. Apples too apples and all that.
Those with the bars and slidy weights are more accurate than domestic ones.
Bring your scale to the doctors next time to compare
Bring your scale with you
My Dr. Office doesn't appreciate it if I strip naked in the hallway at the scale. I told the nurse it wasn't right because my scale at home doesn't mind my nakedness so it's more accurate. She said something about other patients blah, blah, blah.
They make me wear clothes at the doctors office. Those clothes have things like my phone and wallet and keys also
CDC says its 'empty' weight in underwear or less in the morning. Add 2 pounds for clothes, some for shoes, one quart of water or coffee and a good breakfast and lunch, and you're easily up 8 -10 pounds.
Winter clothes for tall people might be a few more.
On the other hand ... not sure how accurate scales at home are.
The doc's scale is probably calibrated regularly and remains accurate
All scales can be inaccurate, like clocks.
If you're trying to track changes over time, the most important thing is to use the same set of scales over time because if they're inaccurate on day 1, they're inaccurate to the same degree on day one 100, but you can measure the difference between those 2 results.
Depends on quality of scale honestly. Or maybe more cloths being worn.
When menopause hit, I stopped looking.
There’s just some things I don’t want to know.
For several reasons so it’s a personal trainer who is doubled a lot of sports science, etc., and dietitian, it all depends on your food intake your bathroom schedule when you weigh yourself, etc. If you go to the doctor, let’s say 1 PM you’re going to weigh slightly more than if you go and weigh yourself right after you’re waking up at 7 AM
It makes my husband nuts that we have 2 different scales in the house and they will each weigh differently which is again different than the Dr's office.
I try to just consistently use the same one placed on the same place on the floor (based on the tiles) at the same time every day and just roll with it.
I’m not paying the prices I’m paying at the doctor for them to have the same cheap scale I have at home. They’re prescribing you things that could kill you if your weight is wrong, I’m not even kidding. We simply don’t need our scale to be that precise at home.
I have a medical scale at home. Scales in doctors offices can very often be off.
For years after digital scales were available, doctors kept using the old-school sliding-weights one. I thought maybe they were just slow to update but now I wonder if home-use digital scales just aren't accurate or reliable enough for doctors to use.
Scales at hospitals are most likely calibrated with respect to NIST traceable standards, plus most of them have significantly better accuracy and resolution(I think an extra digit). Your home scale is calibrated once at the factory and never verified again. From what you are saying, it seems that your scale might be reading a bit lower than actual weight.
This might be a bit out there, but if you search up the make and model of your scale vs the model at the hospital, the hospitals will probably have better accuracy if you look in the spec sheets.
It’s always 10 lbs heavier, even if I immediately weigh at home and then go straight to the appointment, wearing the same clothes and shoes.
I weigh in the morning after pee naked. It's the only way to get a number you can compare to yesterday or next week. At the Dr office you have dressed, drunk water or coffee, your phone is on your pocket , etc.
It's just the difference in elevation of your home vs. the doctors office
You have clothes on at the doctor. Also make sure your scale at home isn’t on carpet or some other squishy surface
You’re not naked or barely clothed at the doctor. Clothes add 1-5lbs depending on what you’re wearing.
You’re wearing clothes at the doctors appointment. Blue jeans weigh about a pound and a half all by themselves.
I used to weigh myself in the bathroom. I was doing some cleaning and moved the scale to my kitchen and noticed the reading was a few kilos lower. I realized the uneven surface of the bathroom tiles throws off the scale so make sure the surface you measure on is even.
Coz that scale is a liar
I have the same problem. Ignore all the comments that say "are you wearing the same stuff". I just waited for someone to say you should clip your nails and pick your nose before going to the doctor.
have you been drinking liquids and eating since?
The doctors scale measures mass, your bathroom scale measures force. Maybe you have a low gravity environment at your house?
I’ve been told your “true weight” is in the morning before you eat, shower, and while wearing minimal/light clothing. Usually when you go to the doctor, you would be wearing heavier clothes (such as shoes), and probably would have eaten by then. So that’s probably why you weight more at the doctor’s office.
Lots of home scales are inaccurate. Medical office scales should be calibrated frequently. Get a gallon of water and set it on your scale, it should read 8.3 lbs or close to that with the little weight of the plastic container. If it's way off, more than 1/2lb difference, then your scale isn't correct
If you relieve yourself in the morning before you weigh yourself you can drop your weight by 2.0+ lbs. I weigh myself totally undressed before breakfast to get a close to a realistic weight.
Calibration.
Also depends if you already made poop or not
Are you wearing clothes on your home scale? Do you have stuff in your pockets? Are you wearing shoes on one and not the other? Are you weighing yourself at a different time of day at the docs office as opposed to at home? Are you more or less hydrated? Have you eaten and how much before either one?
I always secretly assumed that most doctors think everyone could loose some weight, so they tilt their scales
Yes i weigh myself at home naked, at the office I take my shoes off and anything heavy then tell them to subtract 5 pounds for clothes lol
The nurse is lazy.
The last time a nurse weighed me and took my height, he added two inches to my height. When the doctor saw me, she looked at the numbers, did a quick BMI calculation, and was seriously concerned that I had somehow become seriously underweight since my last visit.
Hi I work at hospital. Ours are trash and I’m pretty sure it spells kilograms wrong. It’s a cheap one for sure. The bed scales are terrible because god only knows what the mat actually weighs and then the 20 blankets
I have calibrated my home scale with the scale at the doctor's office. I weigh myself right before I leave home and wearing what I wear when weighed at the doctor's office. They will be very close. I also weigh myself at home same day naked without anything, then subtract to determine the weight of clothes, shoes, phone, diabetic gear, keys, etc. I calculate my BMI index from my naked weight.
I can't get naked in the hallway at my doctor's office anymore.
when chatting with one of the nurse's about this very subject she gave me a great insight. She said you've been coming here for years, we're looking at the trend. Oh you're up 15lbs in 6 months? That's a problem. The weigh in is kind of a baseline. They don't care that you're really 5 under their number because that extra 5 will be there next visit as well. It's how you're trending up or down they're looking at... it then made sense to me and I stopped worrying.
when u get home from a doctor's visit , weigh again and adjust the zero on your scale
Doctor’s scale is made for accuracy. Home versions are economic.
I’m always 5-7lbs heavier at all my doctors offices. So, I checked my scale by placing a 5lb weight on it, and it was only off a few ounces. I then checked by luggage before a flight, and it was exact. It ticks me off that the doctors office uses a wrong weight. I’ve stopped allowing them to weigh me. I tell them the weight I am that morning. I don’t care if they don’t like it, it’s accurate and that’s all that matters.
Usually because you weigh later in the day. If you weigh at the same time and in the same clothing, then someone's scale is off.
I always weigh 5ish pounds more at the doctor than when I weigh first thing in the morning when just out of the shower. Well, always except one time, when I weighed like seven pounds less at the office.
I am convinced their scale was miscalibrated but since I'm overweight, not underweight, I didn't argue!
Clothes, shoes, eating, drinking all make a big difference. Just make sure your scale at home is properly calibrated and you use it at a consistent time while naked. I always weigh myself in the morning after using the bathroom. Sometimes before and after using the bathroom if I want to see how much my poop weighs…
Every doctor's office doesn't own the same scale.
Water weight and food are definitely contributing, which is very normal
Shoes
Yep, I weigh several pounds more at the doctors office. My blood pressure always reads a lot higher than at home also.
You're probably wearing more clothes.
She did say yes to wearing the same outfit and shoes or coat. I weigh myself at home before my appointment and tell the nurses at the office my weight and leave it at that.
The scales are probably just calibrated differently, no idea which one is more accurate. It’s apparently pretty common for scales to be poorly calibrated in general.
Scales at doctors offices are higher grade and more often calibrated.
Scales at home are lower quality and have a larger margin of error.
I don't know about digital scales but, you can usually calibrate analog scales to ensure the weight is consistent with the doctor's
Yep. I always say do you want this weight or the one I got this morning naked after peeing? Depending on the nurse, they’ll take me at my word which my morning weight will be 3-4 lbs lighter than my doctor office weight
Let's face it, doctor scales are malicious and perverse! My docs scale never agrees with mine either.
I’ve never trusted home scales. Maybe get one of those older ones where the number circle spins. You know that kind? I don’t know know if they still make them but for some reason they seem more reliable
An article a out your problem:
Tl;dr :
Electronic scale is likely more accurate assuming you use it in accordance with the manufacturer instructions and its fully powered (i.e no low batteries).
I weigh myself 3 times at home. If two are the same, I go with it. If not, I go until I get the same thing twice.
Same scale even, can be 5+ pounds different, only seconds apart.
Water weight
For the same reason that MULTIPLE home BP machines (including older analog ones) show me at "high average" numbers but the ones at my PCP office showed me as WELL into the high BP range. It's an excuse to put us all on more medication.
Given the habit of fashion companies and their “vanity sizing” I’m willing to bet that it’s kinda deliberate. I certainly wouldn’t put it past corporations, at this point. Anything for being the “best” brand. Yes, I am being particularly cynical, but reading all the comments that seem to be assuming their personal bathroom scale stashed under the sink or in the closet is consistently more accurate than the doctors office was amusing me until it actually occurred to me that those folks believe their shitty bathroom scale over the doctor. So many comments about the calibration at the doctor’s office, but who has ever calibrated their own bathroom scale? We just trust it out of the box.
So yes, I’m inclined to think that retail scales available for home use are not as accurate as the ones used at the doctors office, in general. Obviously, there’s probably some weird people who calibrate their own bathroom scales, but I don’t think it’s the norm. Isn’t the norm to buy one and use it until it refuses to tell you anything before you buy a new one?
They purposely rig the scale so you weigh more and they can tell you exercising and losing weight is the solution to all your health problems…instead of actually doing their job and finding out the real root of the problems.
This happens to me too and it’s because when they weigh me I’m wearing more clothes and sometimes shoes and I don’t do that at home
The simplest way to check is to bring something you know the weight of, put it on the scale and see what it shows. Then take the object off the scale, step on the scale, then see if picking up the object adds the correct number of pounds.
Because the doctor doesnt adjust their scale to make me feel better
I went to a new doctor today, i had 6 wrenches, a ratchet, 3 sockets and 2 screwdrivers in my pockets. Also heavy boots. I'm going back next week in shorts and flip flops. I like to amuse myself.
Doctors scales are calibrated. Yours isn't.
You have your clothes and shoes on at the doctors office.
What time of day do you weigh yourself at home, vs. what time of day are your appointments? We tend to weigh more later in the day due to having eaten, vs. when you first wake up.