Your guide to scale accuracy

6 steps for successful weigh-ins:

While it’s true that our body weight can fluctuate over the course of the day as we eat and drink, one can also see fluctuations related to how they’re using their scale. Here’s how to use your scale to ensure that you get accurate readings every time.

1. Find a good spot for your scale: Since your scale relies on a cellular signal, your bathroom might not be the best place to put it. Consider keeping it in the living room or bedroom to ensure the best cellular signal. Bathrooms also have a lot of moisture (from showers, etc.), which can harm the internal components of digital devices.
2. Place the scale on a hard, flat surface: Your scale has four sensors, one in each of its four corners. Carpeting or other uneven surfaces can cause pressure on the four sensors in the corner of the scale to be uneven, and therefore the reading to be inaccurate.
3. Stand straight and be still: Try to stand up straight, apply your weight evenly to all four sensors and hold still. Think of it as a yoga pose. Moving around, bending your knees and shifting your weight may cause you to apply uneven pressure to those four sensors, which could lead to an inaccurate reading.
4. Wait to weigh yourself after moving the scale: If you move the scale, even a little, let it automatically recalibrate for a few seconds before doing another weigh-in. It will reset its internal parts and find the correct “zero” weight again. If you don’t let it recalibrate before the next weigh-in, it may lead to inaccurate readings.
5. Weigh yourself at the same time of day: Weighing yourself at a consistent time of day, like right when you wake up and after you go to the bathroom (your bladder can hold close to 1 liter of urine which weighs over 2 lb), minimizes the shifts in your weight from drinking and eating.
6. Go barefoot: In fact, try to wear as little as possible. This creates more consistency from reading to reading.

Your weight can fluctuate up to 6 lb a day.

Even the most advanced digital scales must be set up correctly and used consistently to get the most accurate readings.

What your scale does after you move it:

Your scale is a highly precise instrument. If you move it, even by an inch, you should allow it to “zero” itself before using it. Just tap the glass with your foot to turn on the display. Then wait at least five seconds while the display is at 0.0. That’s it. You’re ready to weigh in. This allows your scale to recalibrate its own weight – something that it also does automatically while the display is off. It does this to ensure that changes in temperature, subtle movement or other environmental factors don’t interfere with its accuracy.

Using your scale data to make progress: