Please help, I'm an idiot and can't count - can anyone work this out?

[Lauriefairycake]

Last Thursday I weighed 210 lbs - so I divided it by 14 to get it in stone - and got 15 stone.

Today I divided 208.5 by 14 to get it in stone and got 14 stone 9 lbs

That CAN'T be right - I've lost a pound and a half not 5 pounds.

HELP ME - I haven't had my first cup of coffee and already I feel daft.

It means you weigh 14.9stone, which is not 14 stone and 9 lbs.

1 stone = 14 pounds so if you've lost one and a half pounds you weigh 14 stone and 12 and a half pounds.

forgot to say well done for the weight loss

The confusion is that you are treating stones and pounds as SI (decimal) units, which they are not. 0.9 of a stone would only be 9 pounds if there were 10 pounds in a stone.

208.5 pounds = 14.9 stone

0.9 stone is (14x0.9)pounds = 12.6 pounds.

When you divide 208.5 by 14 you get 14.9 - this is 14 stone and 0.9 of a stone, rather than 14 stone and 9 lbs.

0.9 of a stone is 12.6 lbs so you weigh 14 stone and 12.6lbs so have indeed lost 1.5lbs.

Well done!

Thank you

hiya, when you start putting in decimals, the answer it going to be given to you as in 10ths, rather than pounds, because a decimal indicates parts of ten. iyswim.

have you got an electronic scale? mine has 3 settings luckily, for lbs, stones and kg.

I'm so happy now - I've easily lost 8lb in the last 4 weeks even though I went away last weekend (all the walking bought me more calories) and out for the day and a chinese meal in London yesterday (again more walking).

And I've lost 4 inches from round my waist (very little sugar and no processed food).