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MyFitnessPal Community

Help! How often do you weigh yourself and why?

DaniellaaLouise

I weigh myself every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times. I've been so down since Sunday because I haven't lost anything. Should I try and weigh myself less? Also my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight. Is it better to have mechanical scales? Thanks

Replies

NikkyT30

I only weigh once a week in Thursday mornings after the bathroom. I used to obsessively weigh myself and it drove me crazy!

cwolfman13

you do understand that if you weigh yourself throughout the day, you're also weighing everything you've ingested throughout the day right?

angerelle

I weigh myself once a day, but I know that my weight will go up, down or stay the same depending on what I've eaten, whether I've got sore muscles, what time I last ate, when I went to the toilet and a million other factors so I use TrendWeight, which smooths out the bumps. There's no point in weighing yourself more than once a day, if it's stressing you out, then weigh less frequently than you are.

CoffeeNCardio

I have weighed multiple times daily and skipped weighing for weeks. It doesn't make any difference to me. As long as I can measure, with a measuring tape, a change, that's what I focus on. Women carry to much water weight due to hormones to really trust the scale anyway IMO. I use the scale as a tool to make sure MFP gives me the right calorie goal. That's the only point of the scale. You wouldn't care how much you weighed if you had a supermodel's body would you? Of course not. Focus on other victories, pay attention to all the other wins you're having, like fewer inches, or clothes that suddenly fit better. If nothing is changing for you over a month or so, follow this chart.

Clobern80

Saturday morning, after I wake and use the restroom, completely naked. I weigh twice to make sure it gives me the same result. That's the only time I touch the scale. The only way to test how accurate it is, is to weigh things that you know the exact weight for on it and see if it is right. As long as it isn't a clunker, it should not matter whether it is mechanical or digital.

What do you mean "...my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight"?

emmycantbemeeko

I do it every morning because it keeps me in the habit (I'm very good at 'forgetting' to weigh myself if I'm not keeping myself on a daily schedule), because I am more motivated by seeing the occasional low than disheartened by seeing the occasional high, because I like a lot of data points to track trends, and because I would put a lot more emotional weight (and potentially be disappointed by) a disappointing reading if I were only weighing once a week or month or what have you- and as a small woman I know it's totally possible for things like time of the month and hydration level to result in a freak high reading that might be misleading if I didn't have more data to compare it to.

That said, weighing multiple times a day is pointless, especially if you're upset by the readings. The fluctuations you see between morning and midday aren't fat loss or gain, they're water/food/stool. If this is upsetting you, you should definitely cut back on frequency. Daily is pretty much the maximum frequency at which you're getting useful information, and even that should be considered as part of a trend over time, not taken as gospel to determine fat loss on a daily basis.

level3tjg

I weigh once a day. Always when I first wake up in the morning. If I lose weight I'm like YES! If I don't lose weight I'm like... I'm going to lose some tomorrow... YES! heh

srecupid

Monday whenever I wake up. Just to log it and see how I did for the week

angerelle

If it helps, here's my weight graph, if you look over the long term, it's consistently going down, but I stay the same for many days in a row and quite often bounce up and down - https://trendweight.com/u/e0e97f94f81540/

misskarne

I weigh every morning, naked, after using the bathroom, just because I like to observe the fluctuations. My formal "weigh-in" is every Saturday morning.

Honestly, OP, your post is throwing up some red flags for me. Perhaps you should speak to your doctor about this?

lisacarraway

I only weigh once a week early in morning. My coworkers and I are now trying to lose weight so we are weighing once a week also.

AnnPT77

I've weighed myself daily, first thing in the morning, for years and recorded the result - even when not trying to lose.

I feel that it's given me a very good understanding of my weight fluctuations - what kinds of things cause water weight, how soon it's likely to drop off, etc. But I'm not the kind of person who gets anxious or upset about every little up-tick. Those who can't be calm about fluctuation may be better off weighing less often.

+1 to the idea of using a weight-trending app like Trendweight, Happy Scale, Libra, or others. It uses statistical techniques to smooth out the ups & downs and predict your overall long-term weight direction. Not perfect, but a useful tool.

kandell

I weigh every morning and log it in the app Libra. It records my weight and gives me a trend, and projects if I'll lose/gain/maintain, and even shows me when I can expect to hit goal weights if I stay consistent.

samchez0

My official weigh days are Sunday am just after I wake up. But I weigh myself usually 2 other times throughout the week cause I have no self control. I'm pretty realistic about weight fluctuations though and don't let them get me down

lizadams09

My trend is linked below, it's a pretty dramatic up and down. I weigh pretty much every day apart from when away from home. Shows weight loss is definitely not consistent. Sometimes on my strictest weeks I lose nothing and then two weeks later having had a few blips a few pounds will disappear? My October drop was pretty dramatic! Don't worry, if you're logging accurately and at a deficit.... it'll drop soon

https://trendweight.com/u/6c17ca205faf47/chart/1y.png

DaniellaaLouise

clobern80 wrote: »

Saturday morning, after I wake and use the restroom, completely naked. I weigh twice to make sure it gives me the same result. That's the only time I touch the scale. The only way to test how accurate it is, is to weigh things that you know the exact weight for on it and see if it is right. As long as it isn't a clunker, it should not matter whether it is mechanical or digital.

What do you mean "...my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight"?

If I weigh myself 3 times in a row or something I can be three different weights, also I moved my scale slightly (just to a different part of my bathroom floor) and my weight changed by 5lbs! They're relatively new and weren't cheap so I can't understand it

cwolfman13

DaniellaaLouise wrote: »

clobern80 wrote: »

Saturday morning, after I wake and use the restroom, completely naked. I weigh twice to make sure it gives me the same result. That's the only time I touch the scale. The only way to test how accurate it is, is to weigh things that you know the exact weight for on it and see if it is right. As long as it isn't a clunker, it should not matter whether it is mechanical or digital.

What do you mean "...my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight"?

If I weigh myself 3 times in a row or something I can be three different weights, also I moved my scale slightly (just to a different part of my bathroom floor) and my weight changed by 5lbs! They're relatively new and weren't cheap so I can't understand it

You need to step away from the scale. You need to understand that body weight isn't a static figure...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs. You need to understand that weight loss and weight management in general is about trends over time, not weigh in to weigh in.

If you don't/can't understand any of that, you're going to have a *kitten* of a time.

DaniellaaLouise

misskarne wrote: »

I weigh every morning, naked, after using the bathroom, just because I like to observe the fluctuations. My formal "weigh-in" is every Saturday morning.

Honestly, OP, your post is throwing up some red flags for me. Perhaps you should speak to your doctor about this?

I normally just take my Monday morning weigh in to account, I don't know if it's normal or just my scales but sometimes my weight can fluctuate by around 5lbs each week! I don't think I need to speak to a doctor in all honesty, I just want to know if my weight should go up and down the way it does or if I need some new scales. Thanks though

DaniellaaLouise

lizadams09 wrote: »

My trend is linked below, it's a pretty dramatic up and down. I weigh pretty much every day apart from when away from home. Shows weight loss is definitely not consistent. Sometimes on my strictest weeks I lose nothing and then two weeks later having had a few blips a few pounds will disappear? My October drop was pretty dramatic! Don't worry, if you're logging accurately and at a deficit.... it'll drop soon

https://trendweight.com/u/6c17ca205faf47/chart/1y.png

Ah thank you! I may have to look at one of these, is it just an app you can install?

DaniellaaLouise

cwolfman13 wrote: »

DaniellaaLouise wrote: »

clobern80 wrote: »

Saturday morning, after I wake and use the restroom, completely naked. I weigh twice to make sure it gives me the same result. That's the only time I touch the scale. The only way to test how accurate it is, is to weigh things that you know the exact weight for on it and see if it is right. As long as it isn't a clunker, it should not matter whether it is mechanical or digital.

What do you mean "...my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight"?

If I weigh myself 3 times in a row or something I can be three different weights, also I moved my scale slightly (just to a different part of my bathroom floor) and my weight changed by 5lbs! They're relatively new and weren't cheap so I can't understand it

You need to step away from the scale. You need to understand that body weight isn't a static figure...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs. You need to understand that weight loss and weight management in general is about trends over time, not weigh in to weigh in.

If you don't/can't understand any of that, you're going to have a *kitten* of a time.

Thank you for your ever so polite comment

the point I'm trying to establish is whether or not my scales are working correctly, not whether I have an issue with weighing myself too much. I had a suspicion that they weren't showing my weight correctly, so I decided to weigh myself a couple of times in a row, and what do you know? 3 different weights. I just wanted to know if this had happened to anyone else or it was just my scales.

Asher_Ethan

It's a constant struggle between my love of data, and my anxiety from daily fluctuations. I weigh myself once a week right now but for the month of February I'm going to weigh myself every day so I can get a cool looking graph.
I've even considered weighing myself everyday and making my husband log it so I don't have to look and still have that cool graph.

DaniellaaLouise

Asher_Ethan wrote: »

It's a constant struggle between my love of data, and my anxiety from daily fluctuations. I weigh myself once a week right now but for the month of February I'm going to weigh myself every day so I can get a cool looking graph.
I've even considered weighing myself everyday and making my husband log it so I don't have to look and still have that cool graph.

I feel exactly the same! I'm thinking of starting one of the graphs, just to see that no matter how much the weight fluctuates throughout the month, the line is still going down! Good luck

cwolfman13

DaniellaaLouise wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

DaniellaaLouise wrote: »

clobern80 wrote: »

Saturday morning, after I wake and use the restroom, completely naked. I weigh twice to make sure it gives me the same result. That's the only time I touch the scale. The only way to test how accurate it is, is to weigh things that you know the exact weight for on it and see if it is right. As long as it isn't a clunker, it should not matter whether it is mechanical or digital.

What do you mean "...my digital scales seem to be telling me I'm the wrong weight"?

If I weigh myself 3 times in a row or something I can be three different weights, also I moved my scale slightly (just to a different part of my bathroom floor) and my weight changed by 5lbs! They're relatively new and weren't cheap so I can't understand it

You need to step away from the scale. You need to understand that body weight isn't a static figure...nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs. You need to understand that weight loss and weight management in general is about trends over time, not weigh in to weigh in.

If you don't/can't understand any of that, you're going to have a *kitten* of a time.

Thank you for your ever so polite comment the point I'm trying to establish is whether or not my scales are working correctly, not whether I have an issue with weighing myself too much. I had a suspicion that they weren't showing my weight correctly, so I decided to weigh myself a couple of times in a row, and what do you know? 3 different weights. I just wanted to know if this had happened to anyone else or it was just my scales.

again...body weight isn't a static number...you, and nobody else weighs exactly XXX Lbs...so yes...normal.

heat, humidity, etc are all going to impact what you see on the scale as well...and yeah, if you move it around it's going to effect it too...all normal.