How to Read Ounces on a Digital Scale

Most digital scale manufacturers measure ounces in 0.2-pound increments.
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Today's digital kitchen scales are invaluable weight-loss management tools. Reading digital scales allows you to accurately measure your weight loss and maintenance, and digital kitchen scales allow you to be precise with cooking ingredients and portion control.

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Using a digital scale can help you measure weight in pounds and ounces, and many include metric measurements of grams and kilograms.

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Here, learn about kitchen scale tips and how to measure food in ounces on a digital scale.

With some basic rudimentary math, reading a digital scale ounces on a digital scale is simple.

Tip

Ounces are incredibly light units of weight, and the slightest movement can alter their reading on a digital scale, so be sure to stay perfectly still when weighing yourself on a digital scale that measures ounces.

What Are the Measurements on a Digital Scale?

Most scales measure ounces in 0.2 pound increments. So you'll need to do a little bit of math to get your final number in ounces. Every 0.2 pounds equals slightly more than 3 ounces. You can multiply the decimal points by 16 to get to this number. For example, 120.4 pounds roughly translates to 120 pounds and 6.4 ounces (0.4 times 16 is 6.4).

  1. Turn your digital scale on and wait until the reading is set to 0.0.
  2. Place whatever needs to be weighed on the scale, whether that's yourself or food on a kitchen scale. Stay still or don't touch the object until the weight reading is complete.
  3. Multiply whatever ounces represented as a decimal your scale shows by 16 for the total in pounds and ounces.

Tip

Many kitchen digital scales have a "tare" button, an invaluable feature when your contents can not easily lie on a scale's platform. Simply place the contents in a container, cup or bowl, and press the "tare" button to remove the weight of the container from the equation.

FAQ

Common Questions

How much does an ounce weigh on a digital scale?

If you're measuring out ingredients for cooking or baking, sometimes your recipe will list amounts in different units of measurements than your scale. One ounce is approximately 28.35 grams

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