A lot of exercisers work out specifically to control their weight
Some want to lose weight, while others want to avoid gaining it
Instead, it’s what makes up that weight that matters
We call this your body composition
When you hop on the scales, you’ll see your weight, which is the sum total of everything that makes up your body
Your weight doesn’t differentiate between fat, muscle, organs, skin, or fluids
It’s all the same to your scales!
However, when it comes to being fit and healthy, what your weight is made up of is often more important than the number of pounds on the scale display
For example, there is a big difference between weighing a muscular 180 pounds and being 180 pounds where most of that weight is fat
So, while weighing yourself can be helpful for measuring your progress, it can also be misleading
Not losing weight could also make you feel like a failure, even if you are actually making progress that doesn’t show on the scales
For instance, losing muscle would result in weight loss
So, while it can be useful to track your weight, it would be a mistake to measure your successes and failures by what’s showing on your scales
In this article, we reveal how to weigh yourself without scales, plus alternative methods for tracking your body composition and progress
Table of Contents
Whether you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or maintain your current body weight or composition, use these methods to track your progress
The reality is that it’s all but impossible to determine your weight without scales, and why would you not have a set in your bathroom anyway? !
But, on the off chance you don’t have scales, there are none at your gym, and the scales at the drugstore are broken, you can estimate your weight using a seesaw and a pile of weights
Firstly, you’re going to need some counterweights
This can be anything you know the weight off
For example, weight plates from the gym are a good option, or you can use full water jugs, bags of sand or cement, bags of sugar, flour or rice, or any other known weight
Next, sit on one end of the seesaw and ask your partner to start adding weight to the other end
Gradually, as the weight begins to balance, the seesaw will level out
Make a note of how much weight it took to balance the seesaw, and that’s what you weigh
Needless to say, this is not exactly the most practical method, but it will reveal your actual weight in much the same way as a scale
While measuring your waist won’t reveal your weight, it will tell you if you are losing fat
As such, if your waist starts to shrink, it’s a fair assumption that your fat stores are decreasing, and you’ll probably be losing weight, too
In addition, losing fat from your abdomen is associated with improved cardiovascular health and a lower risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes
Unfortunately, there is very little you can do to specifically target abdominal fat
If your clothes start to feel looser, especially around the waist, hips, and thighs, it’s safe to assume you’re losing fat
Alternatively, if your clothes are starting to feel a little tighter than usual, you are probably getting fatter
It means you have easy access to clothes that fit, even if you’ve been going crazy at the all-you-can-eat buffet lately
If you lose weight, ditch your fat clothes as an incentive to avoid regaining the weight you undoubtedly worked so hard to lose
As soon as you feel your pants getting a little tighter, get your workout and diet back on track to avoid gaining back the fat you’ve lost
Weight Loss Progress
Most people lose and gain weight very slowly
One way around this problem is to take a series of photos
By comparing one image to the next, you’ll be able to see how your body is changing and how you are progressing
As you lose fat, your muscle definition will improve, and you’ll see your waist shrinking
Ideally, you want to replicate the same conditions for all photos, so you are the only thing that changes
There are several ways to estimate your body composition, but most are either invasive or require specialist equipment
However, there are some more straightforward methods, such as using an online body composition calculator
These calculators determine your body composition using scientific formulas and from readily available information, such as your waist measurement and current weight, assuming you know it that is!
It’s important to stress that these calculators provide an estimate of your body composition and are not 100% accurate
That said, they’ll give you a pretty good idea of your current body fat percentage, and you can use them to track your progress
Fitness Volt Body Fat Calculator
YMCA Body Fat Calculator
Body Fat US Navy Calculator
Lean Body Mass Calculator
Some gyms, health clinics, and personal trainers offer skinfold body composition assessments
This involves pinching and then measuring the thickness of skinfolds in various places around your body
Some skinfold assessments involve just 3-4 testing sites, while others use ten or more
The more skinfolds that are measured, the more accurate the test will be, but it’ll also be more invasive
Skinfold calipers are readily available online
However, you can’t do your own measurements, so you’ll still need to find someone to measure your skinfolds for you
Taking skinfold measurements is a skill, and some people are better at it than others
Skinfold calculators include:
Body Fat Skinfold Calculator
Body Fat Skinfold Calculator
Body Fat Skinfold Calculator
Body Fat Skinfold Calculator
Bioelectrical impedance analysis involves passing a very low, imperceivable electric current through your body and measuring the resistance to the current flow
Tissues that contain a lot of water (muscle, blood) conduct electricity well, while tissues with very little water (bone, fat) do not
The machine estimates your body fat percentage and composition by measuring the impedance
There are several different types of devices for BIA, including hand-held units, step-on scales, and BIA machines that pass the current through your entire body
Some units can be linked to apps for easier tracking of results
The best way to get useable results is to do several tests over a couple of days to establish an average reading
The basic premise of hydrostatic weighing is that fat floats while muscle and bone do not
By weighing you on dry land and then again in water, it’s possible to estimate your body fat percentage and lean body mass
Hydrostatic weighing is considered to be very accurate and was once the “gold standard” by which other methods were compared
However, it’s since been superseded by MRI and similarly high-tech methods
You need specialist equipment, an appropriate pool, a trained operator, and a willingness to be submerged in water for hydrostatic weighing
DEXA uses two types of X-rays to measure and differentiate between muscle, fat, and bone
DEXA tests take around 12-minutes and are very accurate and mostly non-invasive
That said, if you REALLY want to know what your body is made of, a DEXA scan could be the best option
On the plus side, MRIs are very accurate and will give precise body composition results
But, just like DEXA scans, if you are keen to know your precise body composition, an MRI will provide you with the results you want
Air displacement is a quick, easy and accurate way to assess body composition
You simply strip down to your underwear, get into a unit called a Bod Pod, which is pressurized, and the amount of air displaced is measured
From this, the machine estimates your body composition
While easy to use and accurate, Bod Pods are very expensive and relatively rare, so not many people will have access to this type of equipment
Although not the most accurate method, near Infrared Interactance is one of the least invasive and most readily available ways to measure body composition
An infrared beam is shone into your upper arm, and the amount of light reflected back at the sensor is measured
The difference between emitted and reflected light is then used to calculate your body composition
The assumption is that the amount of fat you have on your upper arm is representative of the rest of your body, but this is not always the case
As such, this method is very much an estimate, and may be inaccurate for some users
Weighing Without A Scale – Wrapping Up
Weighing Without A Scale – Wrapping Up
It’s often said that you cannot manage what you cannot measure
Weighing yourself can be motivating and reassure you that your workouts and diet are producing the results you want
However, there is more to getting in shape than just losing weight, and the scales only reveal a small part of what is happening in your body
That’s why body composition is so important
Losing weight is not always a good thing, and gaining weight is not necessarily bad
The relationship between fat and muscle is far more critical, and the scales don’t reveal that ratio
So, by all means, weigh yourself, or even break out the weights and hop on a seesaw if you don’t have access to scales
But, if you want to know more about how your diet and workouts affect your body, use one of the other methods to determine your body composition
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube for even more content
Facebook Twitter Reddit Flipboard LinkedIn
There’s a lot of things you might need if you’re going to cut, or focus on losing body fat: A gym membership, a diet plan, some willpower and motivation…
… But the most important thing you need might be a scale
Sure, you’ll eventually see visual differences in the mirror, feel them throughout the day, and get compliments from strangers, but the scale doesn’t lie: It’s the absolute best way to tell if you’re on the right track
But if you don’t belong to a traditional gym (or don’t go frequently), and don’t own a scale, how the heck are you supposed to know if your diet is working?
Without further ado, here’s how to weigh yourself without a scale at home, why these methods won’t work, and what you should do instead:
Measure your water displacement in the bathtub
Attach known weights to a seesaw or fulcrum
Find a place to weigh yourself for free
Buy your own scale
Method 1: ‘Weigh’ yourself in the bathtub
In the water displacement method, you’ll submerge yourself completely in the bathtub, naked, while a third-party marks the level of the water with a marker
You’ll return to the tub after some period of time and submerge yourself again, comparing the difference in the volume you’re taking up in the water
I could give a very sciencey explanation of how to actually calculate your volume and use it to determine weight loss, but…
It’s going to be enormously difficult to do this with any accuracy
Your best bet will be to “weigh” yourself via water displacement once every few weeks and take note of whether the water line is going up or down by any noticeable margin, not to actually calculate your weight this way
Still, there are far too many variables and much too much margin for error here for this to be a reliable way of weighing yourself without a scale
Method 2: ‘Weigh’ yourself with a see-saw
The see-saw (or fulcrum) method is slightly more practical than water displacement, but not by much, and still has way too many pitfalls and far too much room for error
In this one, the idea is to sit at one end of a lever, or see-saw, while loading a number of known weights at the other end
Most articles recommend paint cans which have a relatively fixed weight of about 8 pounds
When the see-saw reaches equilibrium, simply count the weight on the other side
If you weigh 180 pounds, you’ll have to load over 20 full cans of paint on a public see-saw
If you can afford that much paint, you can afford a scale
Not to mention, this method offers very little way for you to track minor weight gains or losses and is far too imprecise
(And by the way, if losing weight is what you’re interested in, check out my top recommended workout and nutrition program for rapid fat loss )
How to weigh yourself on your phone: Don’t
You know you’re wondering: Is there an app for that?
There are apps and pieces of code that claim to use your phone’s pressure-sensing technology to detect accurate weights
They’re best used to weigh fruits and other small objects
What to do instead: Weigh yourself for free (or cheap)
If you don’t belong to a gym, or don’t feel like paying your doctor a visit, there should be plenty of options near you where you can weigh yourself for free or very cheap
Public restrooms (may have coin-operated scales)
Go to Target, Walmart, or Bed, Bath & Beyond and “test drive” their scales
Ask a friend (you probably know someone with a scale)
Get a free tour of a gym and weigh yourself there
One thing to keep in mind is that all scales are calibrated slightly differently
You may know you’re roughly 180 pounds, but when tracking weight loss, there is a big difference between the scale that says you’re 1796 and the one that weighs you in at 1804
Use the same scale each time you weigh in, and try to do it at the same time every day (either empty stomach in morning, or full stomach later in the day)
In closing: Get a scale
A home workout routine and a proper diet can more than make up for the lack of a gym membership, but having your own scale to use day in and day out is a necessity if you’re tracking your weight
But whatever you choose, you’ll know you’re getting a good read on your progress
(Here’s my favorite scale on Amazon)
(And pssst, if you’re interested in bringing that scale number down, definitely check out my absolute favorite fat loss program for men and women )
Weighing Yourself FAQ
Are there any good ways to weigh yourself without using a scale?
Even if you could, say, weigh yourself in the bathtub using water displacement calculations, it’d be highly difficult to replicate the results every couple of days with enough precision to track weight loss or gain
The best way to save yourself a lot of trouble is buy a scale online from Amazon, or go use a free scale from a store like Target or Bed, Bath & Beyond
How to weigh yourself with a scale
How to weigh yourself with a scale
How to weigh yourself with a scale
So let’s say you do have a scale, or you just broke down and bought one, and you want to weigh yourself properly
There are a few key places to go wrong here that many people screw up, which makes tracking your weight loss progress a lot more difficult:
Step One: Weigh yourself at the same time of day…
Most often it is best to weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you’ve digested your food (preferably after a morning poop) and you haven’t had anything new to eat or drink
Alternatively, if that’s not feasible, you can just aim for some kind of consistency with the time… Maybe you weigh yourself right after lunch or right before bed a few times per week
Step Two: Weigh yourself naked or with consistent clothes…
There’s a big difference between the weight of nothing, or just underwear, vs sweatpants, shoes, and a hoody
You want to avoid big swings in weight due to your clothing choices, so the best way to do it is to weigh yourself naked or in your underwear whenever possible
If that’s not feasible, just try to make sure you’re wearing relatively the same kind of clothing each time
I weigh myself at the gym in workout shoes, a tank top, and sweatpants, usually
Step Three: Don’t weigh yourself every day
Your weight can fluctuate up and down by a pound or more (or way more for women) mostly due to water retention and food fullness
You’ll drive yourself crazy reading the scale every day and wondering why you’re suddenly a pound and a half heavier
Weigh yourself a few times per week, that’s plenty
And don’t worry so much about the exact number, rather what I like to do is keep a rolling average of my last 3 weigh-ins
That helps you pay attention to whether you’re trending up, down, or about the same, and it takes unpredictable water retention out of the equation to some degree