I am going to be a bit picky. I find everyone's stated weights of items a bit on the optimistic side. For example, I have the Tarptent Moment single wall, single door (theoretically should weight slightly less than the double wall) and when it all gets put together (6 stakes really needed to be storm worthy and longer strings needed if you tie down the side tabs) it weighs about 2 pounds 4 oz. I know they say you can set it up with two stakes, but good luck in a wind storm. And the Kelty. I have re-worked my Kelty- striped it down and sewed a light as can be bag, and it weighs 3.5 pounds, so a 3 pound Kelty "pack" does not seem right to me. I weigh everything on a postal scale. I find that almost all manufacturer's stated weights are at least a few ounces off. Medium size is the standard - if you are bigger the stuff will weigh more (clothing, that is).

The thing to do to get an absolute accurate weight is to put on clothes, take EVERYTHING you will have (less water, food and fuel) but you have to have the water bottles and food bags. Use trekking poles? hang on to those too. Step on a good quality bathroom scale. Then step on that same scale, stark naked. Subtract the two. That is your base weight. And do not cheat - fill your pockets with whatever you carry.

For shorter trips, at least for me, the difference between say 18 pounds and 20 is hardly noticeable. Everyone has a break point, over which carrying a pack gets painful after a day's travel. That is what I pay attention to. So for a weekend, I can throw in some goodies. For a 12-day trip, I have to really scale back to absolute necessities.