jwells777

I need to buy a scale and was wondering if there is any reason to buy one over another or can I just buy the cheapest thing I see. Also, if anybody knows a place on-line where I can buy a decent scale cheap, that information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

J

Phaenx

Most people will tell you scales are kind of useless, they're alright to use every once in a while but mostly I think the general conensus is to invest in some body fat calipers, they're accurate and much more reliable then a scale ever would be.

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Strange Famous

It probably would depend on how heavy you are - the heavier the more likely to need a better quality model (if you want it to stay accurate)

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cait987

If you just want to glance at a scale for fun, then get the cheapest one possible, and honestly like Phaenx said, if you intend to keep track of you weight progress get some calipers, cheaper then a body fat scale and much more useful in keeping progress. Personally, I see no real reason to buy an expensive scale, hardly any scales are 100% accurate and well if the weights going down every time you weigh yourself then your doing something right :

magua

If all you're interested in doing is losing weight, just buy the cheapeast thing you can. If it breaks, oh well, it was cheap. Buy another.

If you care about muscle loss vs fat loss, you can buy one of those BF scales (eg, Tanita) -- BUT -- they're not reliable. Useful if you want to track changes over a long time, but I wouldn't believe the BF numbers.

(Although I wouldn't believe the numbers from calipers or tape measure either. Those are heavily prone to user error. But, again, if you can do it consistently, good for tracking changes over time. And a lot cheaper than a BF scale.)

jfreels

You can get a Taylor or Tanita for around 30$ now...or for 5-10 more add bf function. But if you really want cheap then get an analog from wal-mart for 7.99.

For anyone wanting a great scale and wants to fork out the cash get this one...

http://www.homescales.com/and/321.html

jwells777

Hmmm....that link gave me the coolest idea for a fancy scale since it has the serial port connection. A scale that had 802.11 built in that would record the time/date/weight information whenever you weighed yourself and automatically dump that information to a PC on a regular basis. Should be really easy to build and could probably be sold for around $60-$80 dollars if mass produced.

Think anybody would be interested in such a thing?

magua

Note that BMI -- which the above-linked scale uses as a selling point -- is useless for determining BF%. BMI is simply a height/weight formula, and doesn't measure body fat at all. Just about anyone who lifts weights will have an 'obese' BMI because of their extra muscle.

jwells777

Does anyone know of any other scales besides the one linked that have some capability to talk to a computer (serial, parallel, ethernet, USB, etc.)? I think I would dig a scale that I could write a custom weight logging program for but am not all that fond of spending $150 for the scale...

jfreels

There is software out there that already interfaces with this scale and scales like it. Infact I got a copy from my gym, but have not loaded it yet. When I get home I'll take a look at it and give you it's name.