What people here don't seem to realize is that a doctors' scale or measuring tapes are not used for precision measurements anyway. If the doctor sees the patie

What people here don't seem to realize is that a doctors' scale or measuring tapes are not used for precision measurements anyway. If the doctor sees the patient only every few months, individual variations (kids will grow, adults will gain (or, sometimes, hopefully) loose weight)) in body height or weight will exceed the precision you can get even out of the cheapest scale or measurement tape. And as for the purpose of the measurements: The doctor will use the values acquired from the tools to categorize patients in categories: E.g. a obese person has a higher risk of cardiac arrest, someone looking quite anorexic will have other problems with his blood chemistry... And here a few kilograms/centimeters don't influence the general statement at all.