tracking my weight daily

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Seigla
Seigla Posts: 172 Member
edited May 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

Two days ago I started tracking my weight again (I did this earlier for a year or so). I weigh myself every morning and just note that in an app. It creates a nice graph that goes up and down all the time, but after some time you notice a general trend (upwards, flat or downwards). Very simple method to keep me motivated; I like to see these little fluctuations, creates a pretty graph ;). I hear a lot of people saying they don't weigh daily because of these fluctuations, that these frustrate them.

How about you? Do you track your weight and do you do it daily, (bi) weekly or just occasionally and why?

cheers,
jack

Replies

  • cha97shelley
    cha97shelley Posts: 17 Member
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    I've been weighing daily for the past couple of months as I discovered a site called trendweight.com which links to my fitbit scales and does the nice curved line showing me where I really am. Its helped me be much more aware of fluctuations due to slight changes in calories or fibre or hormones. It seems to be really working for me seeing it this way and not getting downhearted by the little blips you get on the scales.
  • 198cmahmwsi
    198cmahmwsi Posts: 7 Member
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    Daily. I then plot a graph and look at the line of best fit. Lines of best fit are always more accurate with more data points.
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
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    I weigh most days, but not all. Friday is my 'official' weigh day and that's the weight that gets logged in MFP, but I like to weigh in between.

    My weight fluctuates within a couple of pounds due to varying amounts of water retention each day. If I only weighed once a week, I might see a stay-the-same or gain of a pound compared to the week before, but sometimes I know I've weighed less than that every other day during the week, so don't sweat it.

    More frequent weighing gives me a better feel for the trend. This worked for me because I was only aiming for slow loss (set MFP to 1lb a week).
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Weekly. I see no point in collecting data I'm not going to use.
  • 198cmahmwsi
    198cmahmwsi Posts: 7 Member
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    For the sake of interest, here's a graph of my daily weight:
    n22f4kybnclw.png
    And here's what the graph might look like if I weighed every once-in-a-while:
    ec2xyyxrafiv.png
    (All I have done is remove some data - No weights have been changed)

    Graph 1 is motivating, graph 2 would be very demotivating. This is why I weigh daily.

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Yes I use trendweight.com and find it invaluable in terms of anticipating and being calm about water weight fluctuations due to DOMS or hormones

    I have about 6 months of data .. and I'm currently on a hormonal and DOMS induced 4lb increase but am calm about it as I know it will flush out within the week
  • juleszephyr
    juleszephyr Posts: 442 Member
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    Yes I track my weight on an app on my phone daily and watch the overall trend... I only record on MFP once a week or at the start of an exercise cycle (Monday 4 weekly).
  • Seigla
    Seigla Posts: 172 Member
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    Interesting that many of you also prefer to weigh daily! trendweight.com looks useful as well.

    iswmhamc891 - great illustration; from a nice downward trend if you weigh daily to a slightly upward trend. That's exactly why I prefer to weigh daily.

    Rabbitjb - indeed, if you look to the general trend you know you can ignore the fluctuations. I often know why they occur; I ate a lot of salt, did heavy exercise the day before (DOMS), etc. Knowing that I also stay calm. Just measure my weight, put it in the app and move on with my day. Takes less than a minute of my time.
  • isulo_kura
    isulo_kura Posts: 818 Member
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    I weigh when I remember. When I first started losing weight (130 pounds ago) it was important. I weighed weekly. Now though as much as I still have some weight to lose overall fitness is more important so as long as I'm sticking within my calorie/macro goals I know I'm still losing. I'm no longer too worried about the number on the scales. I don't think I've weighed myself for a couple of months. Thinking about it I may weigh tomorrow.
  • twinklemcgee
    twinklemcgee Posts: 32 Member
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    I'm glad I cam across this thread, as I've been wondering recently if there would be some benefit to weighing myself daily. Previously I've weighed myself weekly or fortnightly, but recently I've not been very motivated and therefore have stopped weighing myself all together - not good!

    Can anyone recommend an app for tracking weight - I do like a pretty graph!
  • Seigla
    Seigla Posts: 172 Member
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    Good to hear! :) I use the "Simple Weight Recorder" app on my Android phone. It's free and it does the job!
  • RosieRose7673
    RosieRose7673 Posts: 438 Member
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    On iPhone, I use an app called Happy Scale. It's free! It shows you the trend and it can track either your actual weights and tell you data on that or it can track your trend weight. I like it!
  • yogeshvaraom
    yogeshvaraom Posts: 45 Member
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    I just looked over my daily morning weights for the last two months. My biggest daily gain was 3.5 lbs and my biggest daily loss 2.5. Over the period i lost 18 pounds so there were lots more loss days than gain days usually half a pound to a pound. Though it does bother me I take a gain day to mean I am losing so fast my body is fighting back a bit by retaining so I just need to continue to let my head (and mouth) make the decisions and eventually I will see a good result. Somehow i find knowing motivating even if the big gain days unsettle me a bit. Looking over time I see those days aleays followed by a series of loss days. In fact since I have been doing this I havent had two gain days in a row....

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