Hi @Gentmat
Did you see this tutorial I did on using the FSR to sense a coffee pot?
I used a 1k resistor with the sensor in the Maker kit and that gave me a good range. You are not going to get an accurate scale with one of these but you can detect changes and I was easily able to a full coffee pot from an empty one.
The load sensor is a different animal so an instrumentation amp (a kind of op-amp) is pretty much required.