on the scales

GillianSmith2

How often would people recommend they weigh themselves.? I used to weigh myself all the time, I'm trying every few days now.

SuperheroSadie

I try for once a week. But in reality I do it almost every day because I have one of those old fashioned slider scales and enjoy inching the smaller weight over bit by bit

juggernaut1974

Doesn't particularly matter, as long as you are able to ignore the "change" in the scale between specific readings and examine your weight loss as a long-term trend..

MarcyKirkton

I'm still in diet mode,so I weigh every morning. I've found it to be incredible for helping me reconnect with my body. For example, I ate Mongolian barbecue yesterday out. I did my best to log it, but calories just didn't seem enough. Surr e ough, I gained a smidge.

Matt200goal

I don't think there is a right answer, only what is right for you.

I weigh everyday - same time, same conditions & record it. I try not to focus on the daily ups & downs (the saying "Weight Loss Isn't Linear" is absolutely true for me), but rather focus on the trend line.

Seeing it daily helps me keep routine things routine as well as understand how my body reacts under different conditions. It also helps me "not freak out" about having a bad day -meh, I over ate today, weight may go up a little (for a multitude of reasons - water weight, exercise, sodium, "it just does sometimes," etc.), but I know I didn't just gain 3lbs from eating a couple of Oreos & I'll do better tomorrow...

GillianSmith2

So would it be better to weigh every day and log it so I can see the pattern? As I do tend to get discouraged if my weight goes up and I'm not sure why. Ive always been a yoyo dieter because of this

Matt200goal

Gillian - I'm a "data geek" and like seeing it + have learned to "emotionally disconnect" from one day's particular number and focus on the long-term.

Commit for the long-term, lifestyle change and then just try it a few different ways and see what works best for you.

PinkPixiexox

If you go with daily weighing, prepare to see fluctuations and make sure you read up about them beforehand as people can get quite disheartened when they see the numbers rise (me!) when logically, you aren't 'gaining weight'! I personally weigh every couple of weeks but I am in maintenance. When I was losing, I weighed in weekly (always on the same day, same time, same scale!)

OhMsDiva

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

Doesn't particularly matter, as long as you are able to ignore the "change" in the scale between specific readings and examine your weight loss as a long-term trend..

That's what I have finally figured out. I only weigh myself once a week, but I dont freak out now if I don't see the number on the scale that I was expecting. I look at the overall for the month and judge by that.

GillianSmith2

Thanks for the advice guys

LosingLaurensWay

You can weigh yourself everyday or once a week, but if the scale starts to turn on you it can really deflate your drive. Personally, if I'm on a weight loss streak I will weigh myself almost everyday, but as a plateau hits I start to weigh myself less and focus on my diet and exercise to find out what needs tweaking.

You need to keep in mind that if you do weight yourself everyday that the number can fluctuate like crazy! If that is the case try to think of your weight more like an average than a hard number.

MissAbbee

I weigh every day and log it on an app called 'Happy Scale' that evens it all out, but I take my official weigh in on a Saturday, and log that one on here

ZeroDelta

I weight daily and use http://www.trendweight.com to pull the readings out of my scale and smooth the curve.

SergeantSausage

I weigh daily, and record weekly. Gotta have some historical data, right?

CoffeeNCardio

GillianSmith2 wrote: »

So would it be better to weigh every day and log it so I can see the pattern? As I do tend to get discouraged if my weight goes up and I'm not sure why. Ive always been a yoyo dieter because of this

If it discourages you, (note this advice only works for women) I would suggest you weigh in in a pattern WITH your monthly cycle. Females in particular gain and lose weight really weird and loopy throughout the month. For me, I like to weigh in on the last day of my TOM, because for me (it may be different for you) i am consistently the lightest and visually thinnest I am all month on that day. So then I can use that measurement to gauge against any other measurement I take throughout the month, including like a waist tape measure check in (bloating). It may help you to identify when in your cycle you find you are visually the smallest as well as weigh the least (gotta love that hormone-driven water weight amiright) and weigh in then, every month at the same time, and then if you weigh in in the middle of the month or something, you can look at that number and know for sure it's probably just water and then you won't feel so insecure about it. It helps me a lot to do it this way, and for us girls, weight fluctuates so dramatically due to hormones I feel like it's (that once a month number) the only weigh in you can really trust anyway.

ETA: As long as this months "important" number is lower than last months (based on your weekly weight loss goal), you'll know you're losing, and if it's not, you will know it's time to check out the last months diary and make adjustments as needed

CoffeeNCardio

As an example, I have gone from weighing 162 first thing in the morning during 'that' week, to 167 12 hours later when I'm about to go to bed. Sometimes we just can't trust the scale so we need to work around it.

GillianSmith2

clgaram720 wrote: »

GillianSmith2 wrote: »

So would it be better to weigh every day and log it so I can see the pattern? As I do tend to get discouraged if my weight goes up and I'm not sure why. Ive always been a yoyo dieter because of this

If it discourages you, (note this advice only works for women) I would suggest you weigh in in a pattern WITH your monthly cycle. Females in particular gain and lose weight really weird and loopy throughout the month. For me, I like to weigh in on the last day of my TOM, because for me (it may be different for you) i am consistently the lightest and visually thinnest I am all month on that day. So then I can use that measurement to gauge against any other measurement I take throughout the month, including like a waist tape measure check in (bloating). It may help you to identify when in your cycle you find you are visually the smallest as well as weigh the least (gotta love that hormone-driven water weight amiright) and weigh in then, every month at the same time, and then if you weigh in in the middle of the month or something, you can look at that number and know for sure it's probably just water and then you won't feel so insecure about it. It helps me a lot to do it this way, and for us girls, weight fluctuates so dramatically due to hormones I feel like it's (that once a month number) the only weigh in you can really trust anyway.

ETA: As long as this months "important" number is lower than last months (based on your weekly weight loss goal), you'll know you're losing, and if it's not, you will know it's time to check out the last months diary and make adjustments as needed

This is great advice and I think the one I will follow as it sounds just like me. Thank you so much.