Weight loss and dieting: To successfully lose weight you need to have and use a bathroom scale

Welcome to the 9th article in the Weight Loss and Dieting Fundamentals series. We’ve been slowly working our way through the most important things you need to know for a successful weight loss/diet.

Yesterday in part 8 we had a reality check of some of the cold hard facts of dieting and today we are going to look more carefully at the daily weigh-in reality check and take closer look at bathroom scales.

Links to all previous articles are at the bottom of the page.

Hopefully by this point, you’re starting to get a little excited about losing some weight. We know a lot more about human physiology and we know that fad and crazy diets are just diet industry hobgoblins, designed to cause diet failure and relieve us of our hard earned money.

We also know that our physiology will work against us every step of the way if we try to lose weight with nothing more than calorie restriction.

We know that weight loss is going to take a bit of time, however, and this part will come in the next article, if we can fool our body and brain, our diet can be successful without the horrible diet side effects, such as wasting valuable time wondering if the neighbors tabby should be served with red wine or white. Food obsession is a real problem with diets and it must be avoided, if only for the cat’s sake.

The Bathroom Scale: Friend or Foe?

The weight loss approach we are building is high tech. We are going to use every last bit of human physiology and biochemistry to circumvent the demented pleasure our body and mind seems to get form frustrating our attempts at weight loss. For this your scale has got to be up to the task.

If you’ve got one of those old pastel colored bathroom scales from the 60s or 70s, then you need to say goodbye to it and here's why.

Understanding scale error

A reasonably priced modern digital scale has an error of plus or minus 1%. To get scales with lower numbers (doctors style mechanical scales) will cost you more, sometimes a lot more ($200 and up).

The error value is the size of the mistake the scale can make and still be considered accurate. For instance, you go to the doctor and a (properly adjusted) scale says you weigh 170 lbs. Now you go buy a new digital scale, hop on and it says 171.6 lbs. Your are outraged! You haven’t eaten anything, you have drunk anything, you’re wearing the same clothes -- How is it possible you gained 1.6 lbs. You call the manufacturer and complain. The customer service agent says, I’m sorry, but 1.6 lbs is within the accuracy range of the scale. Which means, 1.6 lbs is within plus or minus 1% of your weight.

To find out what 1% of your weight is, just divide you weight by 100. In this case 170 / 100 = 1.7 lbs. Since 1.6 is less than 1.7, the scale is working as advertised.

The scale could have also said that the person weighed 168.4 lbs. This too is within the advertised error range of the scale. Although, the person in our example probably would not have called the manufacturer, instead they would have praised themselves for having burned 1.6 lbs while buying a bathroom scale.

Now you see the problem. Depending on what the scale says you are either in weight loss hell or soaring in weight loss heaven -- all while weighing EXACTLY the same.

There is no way of knowing what kind of mistake the scale will make each time you step on it. Most scales only measure in 0.2 lbs, but let's assume this one measures in 0.1 pounds. When we step on the scale, any value between 1% low (168.3 lbs) and 1% high (171.7 lbs) is accurate as far as the scale is concerned. It means you NEVER know your real weight when using a bathroom scale. On top of that, you weight fluctuates a little each day based on water content. From day to day we tend to either be a little under hydrated or little over hydrated. When you put these two things together, you can see how knowing your EXACT weight is impossible. Even the expensive doctors scales, can’t account for variations in the water content of your body.

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