To weigh or not to weigh

thingal12

In the past, my most successful weight loss happened when I didn't weigh myself regularly. Somehow, internally, I did better food-wise and actually stuck with my "diet". When I did weigh myself, I found myself "falling off the wagon" a lot faster (within a month). I like how you are having your co-worker measure you, you can always go back to that if you cared to later on.

gobonas99

I weigh daily. I like to be able to see how what I did, or what I ate the day before (or TOM!) effects my body (ie I'm up slightly 2 days after I lift, because my DOMS are worse that day and I'm retaining more water...I'm always down the day after a 3 hour bike ride).

I don't worry about the actual number, as long as the overall trend is going down. I log my daily weigh-ins on trendweight.com, which automatically creates that trendline for you. It's great!

I'd hate to go a week between weigh-ins, and then unknowingly be logging a "high" day, which could show no loss or even a gain, when in actuality, my weight HAS been going down, just that ONE day was abnormally high (ie the trifecta of day 2 DOMS, high sodium the day before and pre-TOM).

It's become especially important for me to log my daily weigh-ins as I get closer to my goal weight. My weigh-ins are ALL over the place (up, down, up, down, up, down), but having that trendline shows me that I'm still going down overall, even if I can't readily see that in the individual daily numbers.

jrline

I lost 100lbs I only weighed myself one or two times a month. I have been in Maintenance for 8 months and been weighing once a month with no issues. I still track daily. Good Luck on your journey.

Kenda2427

I weigh and log daily but Thursdays are my official weigh in days. This way I can see the week over week trend as well as the daily fluctuations which help keep me accountable.

emmacken

I've been weighing in first thing in the morning for the last four months. I like this consistency and it has been interesting to see how my body has loses weight. I've learned that consuming meals high in sodium mean that my weight appears to stay the same for a few days. I've also learned that my hormones and stress levels seem to affect my weight loss. It also feels rewarding to now have the data to use the report function this site offers. I'm a pretty visual person and it feels great to see the graph of my weight going down.

47to27

I weigh daily, too, first thing in the morning. I'm objective about it, though, since I do realize that multiple things can cause a fluctuance. As far as logging it on here, I'm still a newbie, not quite 2 weeks, so I'm thinking I'll try to log the "check in" weight once weekly... at least that's what I'm figuring I'll do.

sagy1cor

Mrs_Brigham wrote: »

Hi!
I weigh daily. If I don't weigh, I don't feel accountable to myself, and more eating while ignoring the consequences is not what I need right now. When I first started weighing, I only did it weekly, and if I didn't see a loss, I would get really upset, and I would fall off my eating plan for a week (or two).
So for me, weighing daily has made me more understanding of the natural fluctuations of my weight, and this has made me happier overall. Your results may vary, so do what works for you.
Jess

I agree with you! Although I do get frustrated with the fluctuations that I am starting to see. Last week I lost 6 lbs and this week I gained 3 of those lbs back, without doing anything different. Its hard to know if you are eating too much or too little without weighing yourself daily and experimenting with your calorie intake.

karenlwashburn

I haven't weighed myself in a long time because I know how much I weight per dress size. Once I'm in a size 6 I'm around 120 -ish. I'm in a size 8 now so I'm in between sizes. I find its mentally better not to have a number as the pant size is enough pressure for me frankly when I'm pudgy. I decided last week I'm going to hit a thrift store once I hit a size 6 comfortably to make 100% sure I'm at 120. I started out a size 10-12.

SethosTBG

General rule about weighing in. Weigh yourself first thing in the morning after a bowel movement, naked, before you ingest anything. That will be your baseline. Every week for the first month at the same time, same day, same conditions weigh yourself again. After a month cut the weighing down to 2x a month. Biggest to indicators are How does your clothes fit and how do you feel, the numbers on the scale may not reflect it because if you incorporate resistance training, HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training), you will gain muscle which weighs more than fat.

kcd1961

I have weighed daily in the past, which helped me understand the range of weight fluctuations, day to day. It is also worth, at least once, weighing several times a day (say hourly) to learn what that looks like. Having done that, I just weigh weekly now, although if I get a particularly bad number, I might weigh again the next day to compare (and usually I find the bad number was just noise).

Having said that, part of this journey is facing the truth about yourself - until you do that, it's hard (not impossible) to succeed. I daresay all of us here at some stage have had a bit of a crisis of personal honesty.

But how you face the truth - be it daily, weekly, the mirror, clothes, measurements, doesn't really matter, as long as we do it, and adjust our program according to the results. And that "motivation" factor is critical. Some people are motivated by frequent feedback (and are better able to tolerate the random noise involved) - whereas for others, the random noise is harder to discount and can set you up for failure - hence longer period measurements are less likely to give you bad news, but when they do, it's a long wait for better news.

Do what works for you. But be honest.

veronakings

the only time I weigh myself is at my annual physical or other doctors visits (I try not to look). if you have ever had any body issues or eating disorders a great way to relapse is with the scale. be careful. it's just a number. maybe instead of saying you want to lose 50 lbs you could set some fitness goals for yourself or healthy living goals.

Lounmoun

I weigh myself once a week. I take measurements and pictures of myself once a month. I look in the mirror every day. I notice my clothing fitting differently. I feel exercises getting easier the more often I do them. These are all different ways I am measuring progress. I'm sure I'd lose weight without weighing myself as long as I keep up logging my food and exercising.

A scale is one type of way you can keep track of progress. If you don't want to weigh yourself often, or at all, then you might want to choose another measure of progress to work toward like a clothing size or an exercise goal.

gothchiq

Weighing every week or two is fine with me. I'm at goal and I log food daily; I expect no change at this point, or very minimal change. I tape measure myself every once in a while. If my size 8 pants are comfy that is also a sign that I am staying where I intend to be.

brynnsmom

sweetdixie92 wrote: »

I rarely weigh myself. I can just TELL when I'm packing on too much - clothing getting too tight, feeling like a pile of crap, not liking what I see in the mirror. That's what I go by.

Yep, same here. The scale never surprises me, just confirms what I already know.

BCDon

Ooooo, I just read that someone has a WiFi Scale. I think I may need to get one of those. In any case, I weigh daily. If you are concerned about daily fluctuations then weigh daily and calculate a weekly average. The weekly average "should" tell you if you are heading in the right direction. You could also use a "rolling 7 day" average but then you'd really have to compare results from 1 week apart anyway. Another way that might work for some folks is to average your weight from Monday through Sunday. Then, on the current week, create your average each day. As you get close to the weekend (where we tend to screw up the most), you'll know where you are at.

PeachyCarol

I think it all depends on how much of an issue the scale is for you. For me, avoiding it allowed my weight to get out of hand, so I'm weighing daily now, and learning the fluctuations are natural. I plan to continue weighing daily on into the future to stay on track for life and will no longer ignore my way into the situation I'm in now.

If you've had issues where you've obsessed over the scale in the past, then daily weighing might not be the best thing for you.

ukaryote

Whatever works for you.

Logging consistently, whatever you log, works for most people. It is the daily logging, the daily self-awareness, that starts and enforces the good behaviors.

Virkati

I weigh daily. It's the best way I've found, so far. I restarted trying to get healthy again just over a month ago and weighing daily keeps me accountable and motivated. Helps me see that if I ate something I feel like I shouldn't, that it doesn't automatically mean I'm a failure, and it shows me that working out is helping me make positive progress towards my goal. Minor fluctuations aren't as upsetting as regular momentum in the wrong direction. But then, that's what helps me know that changes are necessary and they are needed immediately. You'll find what works for you

Unknown

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