# Bathroom Scale **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737 "2008-11-20T23:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/1 "2008-11-20T23:06:27Z")
I’m going to buy one online in the next few days. My main criteria is accuracy, followed closely by not wanting to spend more than $50 or so. Anybody have any good ones, or know of any I should avoid? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/2 "2008-11-21T15:58:26Z")
We have [one of these](http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2783371&cp=&sr=1&kw=scale&origkw=bathroom+scale&parentPage=search). ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/3 "2008-11-21T19:50:58Z")
Whatever model you get you do realise that weighing yourself more than once a week is pointless, right? ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/4 "2008-11-21T22:02:31Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Whatever model you get you do realise that weighing yourself more than once a week is pointless, right? I used to wrestle in high school. I would know what my exact weight would be before I stepped on the scale, based on how much water I had that day, how much I had eaten, and how many times and how much I peed and pooped. For the most part, you are right, but when I’m watching what I eat and exercising regularly, it is very informative for me to know what my body is doing. A lot of the fluctuation you’ll see is water weight, which is part of what I want to be tracking. Many people use the scale incorrectly, IMHO, but I think my habits in the past have allowed me to attune a sense of what my body is doing. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/5 "2008-11-21T22:03:31Z")
If you say so. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/6 "2008-11-21T23:03:30Z")
I read an interesting variation on the ‘only weigh once a week’ dictum. This author suggested weighing daily, and putting up a graph where you saw it many times a day, but you tracked two line: 1. daily weight AND 1. the average of today’s weight AND the previous six days. The idea being that you got feedback more rapidly on whether our weight was trending up or down or plateaud, but the disheartening swings caused by temporary water retention wouldn’t make you believe (falsely) that you hadn’t made in progress in A WHOLE WEEK. Maybe it affects women more than men, but a lot of us do hold on to four or even more pounds in the days leading up to your period, and then it goes away over 48 hours or so. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/7 "2008-11-22T00:09:27Z")
[Here](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15234322/) is an article about a study published in _The New England Journal of Medicine_. It talks about daily weigh-ins helping to keep weight off. > [@](#): > > Daily weighing was key to keeping the weight off, the authors say, noting that women in the intervention groups who stepped on the scale each day were 82 percent less likely to regain lost weight compared to those who did not weigh themselves daily. I say if daily works for you, do it daily. If it discourages you do it once a week. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/8 "2008-11-22T00:09:37Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Whatever model you get you do realise that weighing yourself more than once a week is pointless, right? Maybe for those who are not intelligent enough to realize that their weight is going to fluctuate from one day to the next and will freak out (and even give up!) if they appear to gain a pound due to water retention. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/9 "2008-11-22T00:27:12Z")
> [@PatriotGrrrl](#): > > Maybe for those who are not intelligent enough to realize that their weight is going to fluctuate from one day to the next and will freak out (and even give up!) if they appear to gain a pound due to water retention. My point is that without access to methods of muscle/fat/water breakdowns the changes from day to day are - as you say- just that. To get a better picture of growth or loss it’s better to do one weigh a week. I’m pretty clued up about weight fluctuations but weighing myself every day doesn’t tell me anything useful. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bathroom-scale/473737/10 "2008-11-22T01:46:05Z")
I always thought weighing yourself first thing in the morning helped offset the water variables…but maybe I’m wrong.