How to Weigh Yourself Properly

Weighing yourself doesn’t seem like a hard thing to do. But the scale is a tricky device and you have to follow some rules to get a precise result. 5-Minute Crafts prepared a short guide on how to use scales properly to track your progress and consider factors that might cause weight fluctuations.

1. Come up with a schedule

You don’t need to weigh yourself every day — 1 time a week is enough. Your weight may change on a daily basis because of water fluctuations. This means you won’t be able to see a clear picture of your progress if you weigh yourself too often. Decide on your weighing schedule and stick to it.

2. Pick a time

Our body weight fluctuates during the day and it can be influenced by many factors, including the food we eat and our workout schedule. It’s better to hop on the scale first thing in the morning after you’ve emptied your bladder but before you take a shower. Since we usually don’t eat or drink during the night, our body has enough time to digest food by the morning.

3. Find the perfect spot for your scale

Place your scale on an even and hard surface. Don’t put it on carpet or a wooden floor because, this way, the device is likely to be calibrated poorly. A bathroom floor that is covered with tile may also not be the best option because you need to be sure that it’s flat enough.

Keep your scale in the same place and don’t change its location to get more accurate measurements.

4. Use the same equipment every day

Different sets of scales may vary in settings and be calibrated differently. So to get accurate information about your weight and be able to track your progress, try not to change the equipment you’re using. You need to be sure that the number of the scale changed because you lost or gained some weight and not because of the equipment.

5. Decide on your clothes

Since you need to eliminate all the factors that can possibly influence the number you see on the scale, there are 2 options:

• Weigh yourself without any clothes on.
• If you have to wear clothes, pick the outfit and try to wear it every time you weigh yourself, to avoid any fluctuations.

When it comes to shoes, read the instructions on your scale first. Some devices, like a scale that can calculate body fat index, require you to be barefoot. If there are no specific requirements and you decide to wear your shoes, make sure you put on the same pair every time.

6. Be mindful of your body position

Smoothly step on the scale and keep your feet flat on each side of the device without moving them too high or too low. Make sure you distribute your weight evenly between your feet. Keep your body straight and don’t lower your chest.

7. Track your progress

Consistency is the key and your goal is to understand in what direction you’re heading in terms of weight. You can keep a spreadsheet or use an app to track your progress. This way, it’ll be easier for you to stay motivated.

8. Consider other factors

Your body weight may be influenced by various factors. So keep in mind that:

• Women may feel bloated and retain water before the start of their menstrual cycle and during the first days of their menstrual flow.
• If you consumed a lot of salty products before weighing yourself, the number on the scale is likely to be higher since salt retains water in the body.
• If you noticed some weight loss right after working out, it’s likely you lost water weight.
• You should consider your body composition, especially if you train on a regular basis. Because in this case, you’re not only losing fat but growing muscle as well. And as a result, the number you see on the scale may not change dramatically or may even go up.

Bonus: We found 5 awesome bathroom scales on Amazon especially for you.

1. The Renpho bathroom scale is a good assistant to help you reach your fitness goals. Easy to use and ideal for any space.

🖤 No gimmicks. No setup. Just tells you the weight.
👍 43,469 global ratings: 4.5 stars out of 5

💌 Promising review: “Do you need a simple scale for the bathroom? No fancy BMI or Bluetooth connectivity? Just a scale that is accurate, inexpensive, and supports lbs and kg?
This is it.
I bought 2 for the house to go in different washrooms. They work consistently and quickly. No delays between each use. Others I have used to make you wait 1 or 2 seconds between each use, this one does not. Seems to self-calibrate each time it’s woken up. It takes 2 AAA batteries, which are actually supplied by the company.
💖 Pros:
➕ Super simple usage. No gimmicks. No Bluetooth, no BMI... just the weight.
➕ Appears to be fairly accurate. I matched the weight from this scale vs 2 other much more expensive scales, and this product has the same results give or take a tenth, and actually produced the result faster.
➕ Really fast instant on and instant reading. Back to back. No delays between each weighing.
➕ Bright LCD display for clear viewing without glasses.
➕ Unit supports pounds and kilos. Swap between the 2 by swiping that UNIT circle and it changes between lbs and kg.
➕ Simple modern look.
➕ Well priced.
💔 Cons:
➖ It is a glass top which means it could be slippery with socks or when wet after a shower. Be careful.
➖ The scale is actually somewhat on the small side so If you’re fairly large or perhaps you’re pregnant, you may find the size of the scale a bit on the ‘too small’ side.
I’m not into completely feature-rich scales, and I just needed something that’s accurate and fast and cuts out the gimmicks, so it doesn’t cost so much. This fit the bill perfectly, and I can easily recommend it to those like me who don’t desire gimmicky feature-rich bathroom scales.” © LuckyLucy / Amazon

🎁 Buy the RENPHO bathroom scale on Amazon now.

2. RENPHO Body Fat Scale that will help you to monitor not just your weight, but also your BMI, body fat percentage, water percentage, bone mass, visceral fat, metabolic age, and other key measures.

🖤 One scale for unlimited users.
👍 250,240 global ratings: 4.6 stars out of 5

💌 Promising review: “I am a student working toward an accredited Human Nutrition degree and we use various professional equipment for body composition readings at the university. I have tested this scale against our very expensive bio-impedance scale and they both have pretty similar readings, which only shows that this is a good quality personal body composition scale! Obviously, there will always be differences in results from various body composition methods as the perfect method hasn’t been discovered yet. So far, bio-impedance methods are highly accurate and a good indicator of where you stand. This scale is very easy to use, and the fact that you can connect it to your phone is pretty awesome! The value is also great, I can only recommend it!” © M / Amazon

🎁 Buy the RENPHO Body Fat Scale on Amazon now.

3. Salter 145 BKDR Doctor Style Mechanical Bathroom Scale for those who prefer “old school” devices. No battery required and very easy to use.

🖤 Features imperial and metric measures.
👍 13,847 global ratings: 4.5 stars out of 5

💌 Promising review: “Solid build and easy to read. You have 2 options on the scale, kg and st.
Results are accurate. I have a digital scale as well, but this one you can use even on carpet, for digital, you have to have a solid surface. Good to have at home.” © Namemu / Amazon

🎁 Buy Salter 145 BKDR Doctor Style Mechanical Bathroom Scale on Amazon now.

4. HomeFashion Digital Electronic Bathroom Scale, which measures in kilograms, stones, and pounds.

🖤 Good price. Comes with batteries.
👍 16,929 global ratings: 4.4 stars out of 5

💌 Promising review: “Reason for purchase: my doctor told me to buy a bathroom scale so I can more accurately monitor a health condition. This scale seemed to be a good value for the money, looks nice, and has a large screen. However, I kept my expectation realistic and didn’t expect much for just over £10.

The product comes with a battery and is very easy to use:

• Pull the little piece of plastic (this is there to stop the battery from being drained in transit) out.
• Select your preferred measurement system by pressing the little button adjacent to the battery area — the scale supports kilograms, pounds, and stone.
• Make sure the item is on a level surface.
• Step on, and you should see a reading almost instantly.

Conclusion:

• Great value
• High-quality materials (e.g., toughened glass)
• Good build quality
• Large, backlit screen (blue)
• Appears to be accurate
• Instant readings

I highly recommend this product.” © PiersJ / Amazon

🎁 Buy the HomeFashion Digital Electronic Bathroom Scale on Amazon now.

5. Active Era^® ultra-slim digital bathroom scale with high precision sensors and tempered glass.

🖤 Very easy to use and set up
👍 26,483 global ratings: 4.6 stars out of 5

💌 Promising review: “Firstly, I was so skeptical about buying this scale. I tried to look at other products but found that every single product had good and bad reviews. So I decided to buy it. It arrived fast & in a durable, well-designed & packaged cardboard box that felt nice and study.

Secondly, it was super easy and simple to set the scales up, if you have trouble, there are simple instructions on how and how not to use them. It comes with batteries already inside, so you just switch it on, calibrate them, & they’re ready to use. Also, the scales have a sticker which shows you where to place your feet — this is important.

I own a few sets of dumbbells (20kg, 10kg, 5kg) & I decided to see how accurate the scales are when you place them onto the scales. I first placed the scales on my bathroom floor — the readings came back accurate on each set of dumbbells used.

I also weighed myself multiple times over and over, the readings came back between 0.1 kg-0.2 kg difference. This could be because my feet were in different positions compared to previous times. But a difference of 0.1 kg-0.2 kg is to be expected.

Lastly, the scales look pretty good, I keep them in my room, I’d recommend keeping the sticker on which shows where you should place your feet.” © Harry Buxton / Amazon

🎁 Buy the Active Era^® ultra slim digital bathroom scale on Amazon now.

5-Minute Crafts gets commissions for purchases made through the links in this post.