Chris:
I am 39 and, I think, according to my scale at home, I weigh between 115 and 120. I am 5’7, and I work out every other day without fail. I do cardio and weight training and I eat all the time! My question is why in the morning is my Doctors scale 14 lbs heavier than mine? I almost flipped!
Jennifer
Jennifer:
Calm down, there’s a perfectly logical reason why you’re doctor’s scale weighed you 17 pounds heavier than you’re scale.
In fact I believe there are several reasons.
For the sake of argument lets pretend you’re day went something like this.
You woke up in the morning got on you’re scale and then jumped in the shower.
When you finished drying off you decided to eat breakfast.
You have 2 pieces of toast, 2 eggs a 16oz. cup of coffee and a glass of water. You stop at Wa-Wa on the way to you’re appointment and get another cup of coffee because you’re not quite awake yet.
Congratulations you’re 3 pounds heavier than you were when you weighed yourself the first time because you’re stomach is full of food but hold on tight because it’s just the beginning.
You arrive at you’re Doctor’s appointment, wait 20 minutes and the nurse asks you to get on the scale in the back room. You remove you’re shoes but leave the rest of you’re clothing on because getting naked at the doctors office is something you’d rather not do unless you have to. So you blindly jump on the scale fully clothed without a second thought.
You’re wearing shorts with a belt, a shirt socks and of course you’re underwear. You’re car keys are in you’re pocket with some dollar bills and some change.
The extra clothing, keys and change added an additional 3-4 pounds for a total of seven pounds of weight gain.
You now get on a scale you’re doctor uses to weigh patients.
You’re doctor has a good practice and sees an average of 15 patients a day 5 days a week, every month for most of the year.
This means approximately 75 people a week, 300 people a month and a whopping 3,600 hundred bodies a year get on and off that particular scale.
What do you think the chances are that it’s 100% accurate?
That’s right you guessed it, not very good. In fact it’s very possible for it to be as much as 10 pounds heavy due to the high volume of wear and tear and the large amount of people using it.
Add it all together and you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 pounds of undeserved weight gain, so there’s no reason to flip.
The moral of this story is doctors have more important things to do than get their scales recalibrated every month to make sure their 100% accurate. Nor are they going to ask you to jump on the scale in you’re birthday suit to prove they have you’re weight perfect.
They’re looking for drastic changes and patterns of weight gain or weight loss.
So the next time you get all bent out of shape about someone else’s scale remember there are many factors that could give you inaccurate results.
My advice would be to check you’re weight once a week on the same day, in the morning before breakfast and after using the bathroom. Remove all clothing and use you’re scale only.
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