How often do you weigh yourself?

graphicsdiva21

Just curious, how often do you weigh yourself? Everyday, once a week? I have been doing it daily but my weight goes up and down so much that I get discouraged and frustrated. Is it better to do it once a week?

Willbenchforcupcakes

Depends on how close to a competition I am. Two plus months out, once or twice a week. The frequency increases as I get closer. Right now I'm 29 days out and weighing almost daily.

But, it's just a number. It has no bearing on how I feel about myself. It doesn't make or break my day. It's a data point to use to adjust my planning so that I'm sure of making weight on competition day.

morricms

Don't do it daily. Once a week is better, but try to make it the same time each weigh in. The up and down of a daily weigh in is mostly normal bodily changes.

Smallc10

I weigh myself every day, but I don't record it until Friday morning. I consider that my most accurate weight because we usually eat out Friday night

malibu927

If the fluctuations hamper your motivation, then by all means cut back to once a week or less. I weigh every weekday morning and use a tracking application to ignore the fluctuations and see how the downward trend looks. It's more important to make sure your setting is consistent (same time, same amount of clothing, generally after using the bathroom and before eating) than how often it's done.

RSavage83

I weigh every Monday morning and log it. I check sometimes on Friday to see how I'm doing. So many things can affect a weigh-in though... I don't obsess over the numbers and pay more attention to how I look/feel. I tried doing it daily and the numbers didn't make sense, so I stopped and am much happier.

anapplefortheteacher

I'd suggest weighing in as often as is right for you.

I weigh in every morning because my weight can fluctuate a lot depending on how many carbs I eat. Daily weighing helps me to keep myself in check and not to put such a focus on the scale because of the constant changes.

I'd also suggest using a number of ways to measure success. I measure body fat percent, inches, weight, and gym gains.

MelaniaTrump

Studies show that those that weigh themselves daily lose more weight.
http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/keeping-weight-off
For me, it teaches me that things in high salt, alcohol, or time of the month can cause fluctuations. I learn.

Nikki10129

I weigh myself daily because I like to see the trends, I don't expect to see losses day to day, but I like seeing the overall trend in weight

graphicsdiva21

Thanks everyone! This really helps!

lotusmoonrise

never!

faidwen

I weigh myself twice a day. Once early in the morning before the first trip to the gym, and then AGAIN later in the day, just before lunch.

It makes for a positive experience!!!

seltzermint555

Everyone is different when it comes to this! I do it DAILY. When I don't weigh daily, I start to play all sorts of horrible games with myself and if I'm up a few pounds I'll be in denial about it for ages. I know a lot of people say "DON'T WEIGH DAILY" but for me it's been one of my best tools to get from 300+ to the range of 160-170s...so of course my opinion is the opposite on this.

I do think it's important to relax and identify trends, like today I ate a lot more salt than is typical for me and I worked like a dog helping with a big move (lugging heavy boxes and furniture for 4 hrs). So the scale is probably gonna be up 2 lb in the morning...and then down again in a couple of days, perhaps lower than before... Also fluctuations with my menstrual cycle. Stuff like that is just part of the overall trend though and not to be viewed as "OMG I went on a run and gained 5 lb so I'm never running again" or "Yesterday I ate a lot of citrus fruit and the scale moved down so oranges and lemons equal weight loss!" haha

Oh, also for me in the past before I got serious about changing my life and weight, I NEVER owned a scale. I only weighed on very rare occasions and at the doctor. I have realized after getting over my "fear" of even knowing how much I weigh exactly, it's kind of nice to be completely comfortable especially going to the doctor and it might be up or down 3 lb from what I had on the scale at home...instead of being there and finding out I gained 20 lb in the past year (which happened to me more than once in the past).

I've also thought many times that if I weighed just once a week I might be getting the highest OR the lowest reading of the week, which isn't too helpful to me at staying on track. It does work out great for others though. Do what works for you.

amberclarinet

I used to weigh myself once a day (or more!). I had to put the scale away under the sink to prevent me from stepping on it so often. We'll see how results pan out in the morning...

ErikaAurelia

I used to step on the scale every day before, I'm not sure why (did not do anything to try lose weight at that point), guess I thought it was fun.

Now... well I don't have a scale anymore, but I will sometimes weigh myself when I am at my parents home, so once a month perhaps?

20months

First thing ever morning for me.

Stanley1903

I weigh about once every two weeks. Sometimes it's once a week. Once I get to maintenance I may weigh twice a week or closer to daily. For now, I know I'm doing what I need to do to move the scale downward.

PrePosthumous

graphicsdiva21 wrote: »

Just curious, how often do you weigh yourself? Everyday, once a week? I have been doing it daily but my weight goes up and down so much that I get discouraged and frustrated. Is it better to do it once a week?

If the ups and downs cause you discouragement and frustration than just do it infrequently. Once a month is fine if you just want to be sure your making progress. Trust the process. If you are faithfully tracking your food every day and are hitting a calorie target that is under the maintenance level of your current weight than you will lose fat. You don't even have to question it. You will see short term weight increases due to water retention, hormone changes, and unexpelled waste. But those are normal fluctuations and the fat is still disappearing. Just make sure your keeping your calories low enough and you never need stress over short term fluctuations.

smilesunshinexo

I weigh first thing every morning. It keeps me in the right mindset, because if I only weigh once a week I become less motivated.

Sometimes it is frustrating to see daily fluctuations, but I try keep focused on the weekly or monthly trends rather than the day-to-day.

carriesheph

Interesting question since I just read an article in Daily Mail this morning. Article states dieters should weigh themselves everyday if they want to keep the pounds off.
I have always weighed myself daily, every morning and I can honestly say it has made me crazy a few more times than I would like to fess up too.
I am overly sensitive to sodium and I can eat a can of processed soup and guarantee I'm 5 pounds heavier. Those pounds are water weight but when I step on the scale the next day and it's gone up I go crazy, my mind knows it's only water weight but my irrational side tells me differently.
This AAHAA moment only occurred to me over the past 2 years. I had to learn to take note what my body was doing and learn to take a breath. I have finally realized the scale is a tool to keep me on track and not let little obstacles get me worked up.
I guess what I should say to you is do what's best for you. If it makes you crazy everyday than do what others do and maybe weekly. I would just figure out how your body responds to foods and than make adjustments.

Annr

I get on it naked every morning. It just a nice starting point. I refuse to let it define my day though. I think of it as just a tool like anything else. Some days I am pleasantly surprised, other days its, wow I ate those 5 cookies and I am still the same, and other days its up so I switch something up. Maybe I eat a bigger healthy breakfast, have a really light lunch and dinner, and kick up the water. Your body is always influx and changing. Sometimes I view the scale as my body's "heart beat".

ObsidianMist

I just got a scale and I plan to weight myself once a week. first thing in the morning, naked, after going to the bathroom and before showering. that'll get you the most accurate reading.

xLyric

I weigh daily because I like to chart it. I like watching the ups and downs because I can see that over all I'm on a downward trend and the ups are probably things like water retention. I really like charts though, haha.

amusedmonkey

I do it daily to establish a trend. I enter my exact number in my fitbit account which connects automatically to https://trendweight.com and creates a trend.

muscleandbeard

Every Monday at 8am.

PAV8888

Daily, after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking.

I push the info via a free fitbit.com account (no band required) to both www.trendweight.com and www.weightgrapher.com (weightgrapher accepts manual input too),

This allows me to differentiate water weight variations from my underlying weight trend.

You can also use Happy Scale for iPhone and Libra for Android.

jasmineruth

I weigh myself every morning at the same time. This gives me a good idea of how my weight fluctuates. Also because I am in maintenence I don't necessarily track my calories unless I notice a change in my weight above and beyond the normal fluctuations.

Annr

xLyric wrote: »

I weigh daily because I like to chart it. I like watching the ups and downs because I can see that over all I'm on a downward trend and the ups are probably things like water retention. I really like charts though, haha.

I feel the same way. I do realize that with the "liking of the charts", for me, that in itself can carry a stress of its own. I have to continuously tell myself, "its just a tool, stop thinking like such a tool'..hahaha

KittyHeaven74

When I was in my early 20s, I had an eating disorder. I weighed myself 2-3 times DAILY. So for a long time, even after I gained back the weight and then some, even when I got to a point where I needed to lose weight in a healthy way ... I avoided the scale. I was afraid I would become obsessive and unhealthy again.

Now I have pretty much conquered the eating disorder demon. I have no desire to ever starve myself again. When I see weight loss because I didn't eat enough one day, I remind myself that I can't keep doing that because it's not healthy. It's not a hard choice now.

And for that reason, I've gone back to weighing myself daily in the morning, after I've done my business but before I've eaten. I track it in MFP and then move on. My official weight, though, is whatever shows up on the scale on Sunday morning. I only just started doing this a week ago, but so far I'm liking the process. I am using it primarily to keep myself motivated and to track fluctuations - I like to see if something I ate (or water I didn't drink enough of) affected my weight. It helps me to stay accountable and not "forget" the good habits I'm trying to develop.

I've had two days in a row now where my weight was up. I wasn't happy about it, but decided that since fluctuations are normal, I'm going to change nothing in my diet and just add more water as I know I haven't had enough lately.

Someone on another thread had recommended the Happy Scale phone app, and I've just downloaded it. It looks great for averaging out fluctuations so you don't get discouraged when you are up.

simplycidalia

No more than once a week. Usually a lot less.

robburry_85

Every Friday morning me