To weigh or not to weigh...

FloridaSparky

Hi folks - only on my third day of tracking (in conjunction with a program that calls for high protein/low carbs to start) and I am feeling great. I am wondering about how often folks weigh themselves. On one hand, if I step on the scale every 2 days or so and see a decrease, that will motivate me. But if I see anything else, I will be pissed! Anyone got any words of wisdom?

dfranch

I weigh every day. Some day up, some days down. The up & down bothered me at first, but I realized as long as the long term trend is down, it's all good, plus then you learn what foods, drinks activities make you go up or down. Eat some chicken wings, boom, 2-4 lbs water retention.

maillemaker

I have a wifi scale that automatically uploads my weight, body fat percentage, heart rate, and more. I weigh every day as soon as I get out of the shower. I enjoy the granularity in the data. You have to look for trends.

jaga13

Some say daily so they can look for an overall trend. Some stick to weekly or even monthly because they don't like seeing fluctuations. It's really whatever you prefer. If you can handle the daily fluctuations in exchange for more data, then weigh often.

I only weigh myself on Saturdays because it is the only day of the week I get to sleep in and use the bathroom without my small children disturbing me. Have I mentioned how much I love Saturdays?!

bpetrosky

It depends how you use the information. Some people weigh once a week and are fine with that. Others like to weigh daily. When you do weigh yourself more you get a better sense of your body's response, but if you're the type to get discouraged by any "negative" change, it might not benefit you as much. Also, weight change is never steady and linear, so frequent measurements may show a lot of "noise" as your body responds.

If you do weigh and track, it's best to do it at a consistent time of day, such as first thing in the morning. That way you minimzie the effect of your daily eating and elimination habits.

For me, I weigh daily first thing in the morning and keep a running log, so I can look a the trend over time. I don't worry about "gaining" a day or two, especially if I know I've had some extra salt, alcohol, or if I've indulged a bit.

I also measure body dimensions (neck, waist, chest, etc) once a week. I've seen periods where the scale doesn't move much, but there's some change still going on in the measurements.

farfromthetree

I have done daily for so long the ups and downs don't phase me anymore. I tried waiting a week but missed it. It's become such a habit.

sambor2

I do not weigh I take measurements daily. The scale is not always accurate

daaaaaanielle

I weigh myself every two weeks. I'm not sure why people think that weighing every day shows you the general trend. It doesn't. Basic statistics (also financial stuff too I guess). You get an idea of the general trend of looking at the change over time. Having lots of individual data points doesn't change the total movement - all it does is stress you out when you see the inevitable little fluctuations. Weighing weekly or fortnightly dodges a lot of those fluctuations by showing you your total progress over one week or two. Same principle as with investments. If you watch your long-term investments every single day, you'll see them go up and down and it stresses you out, but if you only look at them once every 6 months or once a year, you see what direction they've gone overall.

If you want to see your progress in general terms, I vote for weighing no more than weekly. I prefer when I weigh myself to see a drop of at least 1lb.

If you can deal with feeling potentially disheartened when you wake up and find your weight to be slightly higher than yesterday (for reasons that could be simple water retention, as opposed to actual fat, which your scale cannot distinguish between) then daily might work for you.

198cmahmwsi

Weigh daily. Look at long term trend (on the scale of a few weeks at the very least). Adjust calories accordingly. Don't panic about fluctuations. Repeat until goal weight is attained. Simples.

DaveAkeman

I weigh daily because I'm a numbers person, and like lots and lots of data.

One thing the daily weighing has taught me that I wouldn't otherwise have seen is that my weight change is very dependent on the day of the week. Over the past 3 months, my average loss from Saturday morning to Sunday morning is more than a pound and a half. However, my average loss from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning is very nearly zero. This does not appear to be due to a difference in calories (either eaten or sweated) between the days. I'm trying to figure out if it has something to do with carb/protein/salt intake. This is the kind of drilling down that you can't do with weekly measurement.

My wife, on the other hand, measures weekly. She doesn't want all the numbers, and weighing each day would be too emotionally trying.

So, yeah - what others have said. It depends on your personality.

heyspearsy

I weigh daily and track a rolling 7 day average.

snickerscharlie

Once a week - Sunday morning.

FloridaSparky

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses. I'm going to think this through a little more, but it is nice to hear how others feel about it.

CockneyLady2014

I weigh morning and night every day and I can cope with it. My official weigh in day is Friday

BostonBill99

Once a week, Monday morning. I find that the pending weigh-in helps me through the weekend. When I first started many years ago, I used to weigh in every day. Result: stupid. Some days I had weight fluctuations of 3-4 LBS. Down days were great, but then I would think, well, I am doing soooo good, I can cheat a little. Up days sucked, and I would get depressed and say Doesn't matter, might as well cheat. Moral of the story is: set a reasonable goal that you can reach in 30-45 days time, plan your meals ahead of time, eat your plan, and stay away from the damn scale except for your once a week visit. This is a lifestyle change, not a get thin quick scheme.

ashleyfowler110

Lol ... I had to take the scale out of my house. I got to the point to where I had to weigh myself each time that I ate. Addict much? Anyway, now I use the scale that we have at work and I weigh in every Monday morning. What I have noticed is that I behave myself on the weekends much more knowing that I have a meeting with Mr. Scale every Monday morning

joepratt503

FloridaSparky wrote: »

Hi folks - only on my third day of tracking (in conjunction with a program that calls for high protein/low carbs to start) and I am feeling great. I am wondering about how often folks weigh themselves. On one hand, if I step on the scale every 2 days or so and see a decrease, that will motivate me. But if I see anything else, I will be pissed! Anyone got any words of wisdom?

Only way to know you are going the right direction is to weigh every day. If you are doing things right...the scale will move every day (or every two). If you weight the same 3-4 days in a row and are doing the things you think should be working, they aint working.

FitForL1fe

I weigh in every seven days, in the evening, wearing basically the same clothes. That's probably overkill...biweekly or monthly is sufficient, I'm sure.

JMC3Terp

Hi, so i've been doing this for 62 days now and I weigh in everyday. Alot of days I see a minor decrease. Some days I see no results and some days I see an increase. But I LOVE IT! When you get that positive feedback (weight loss), you feel great and want to keep at it. And atleast for me, when i get negative feedback (no change or a gain), I want to work even harder to see good results. I think it really depends on you though and how you handle seeing disappointing results.

Also for me, weighing myself every day has helped me determine what daily foods to cut out. Counting calories isn't always enough and somedays I realize that what I ate my body just doesn't like even if it was fine calorie-wise.

Bshmerlie

I weigh everyday. I just love it when I see a pound lost. If I gain a pound it makes me not want to cheat. So it's a win win.

msty112

I weigh first thing every morning but only track once a week. I like the visual reminder to start the day.

SarahMarie0224

I am THE SAME EXACT WAY! Today I got on the scale and was a pound up and I almost lost my marbles! I want to get used to seeing my weight fluctuate because it is one of my weaknesses to giving up. Not anymore! I hope you can find something that works for you!