What's with daily weigh-ins?

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  • Mavrick_RN
    Mavrick_RN Posts: 439 Member
    edited February 2016
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    I weigh less when I stand straight up vs. hunching over to see the numbers fluctuate.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    I have weighed daily since I started, takes the power away from the scale for me. In the last month I've finally started tracking with Happy Scale because I'll be closing in on goal in a few months and the nuances will become more important to me.
  • yourhiddengem
    yourhiddengem Posts: 171 Member
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    I used to weigh daily until I realized weighing myself daily was making me go crazy even though I realized it was just fluctuations. So now I weigh once a week and I'm less obsessed.
  • maidengirl_
    maidengirl_ Posts: 283 Member
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    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.
  • yourhiddengem
    yourhiddengem Posts: 171 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    A lot of people are going to disagree with you on this just to let you know because daily weigh ins are pretty popular on this site.

    I think if daily weigh ins work for people to help them track their trends or get more data then that's great.

    However I do also think that for some people, such as myself, daily weigh ins are a horrible idea and lead to obsession and self loathing.

    I have found that for people off of this site, weighing in daily would strike a large majority of them as unhealthy. However just because someone weighs themselves daily doesn't mean it's actually unhealthy for them if that makes sense.

    Pretty much you do you. If weighing in daily works for you that's good, but if it doesn't work for you that's good to realize that.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    Not everyone is trying to lose weight though. I'm actually trying to maintain my weight now and by weighing in daily and looking at my trendweight graph, I learned I need to eat even more than suggested because I'm still losing weight when I don't want to anymore.

    It's overkill and unhealthy for people who can't handle fluctuations or think a few days of no loss is a plateau, not people who like data or want to get a better look at the way their body works daily.

    All I have to do every morning is wake up, step on a scale for ten seconds, step off and go about my day. My scale syncs to Fitbit, MFP, and Trendweight with no effort on my part.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    If the fluctuations bother you then it's probably good to not weigh daily. Likewise if it becomes something that decides if you will have a good day or bad. I look at it as additional data. Makes no difference when I suddenly gain 3lbs because I know it's water retention for one reason or another. If I couldn't weigh tomorrow morning, it wouldn't upset me. I like the numbers, the trends, the averages.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    Almost anything can be unhealthy if it is approached unhealthily...
    To each his or her own. Rest assured I'm completely healthy!
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    Why? Everyone has given completely valid and sensible reasons for doing so.

    Some people probably shouldn't do it because they can't handle the fluctuations. But after all the sensible responses here, I don't understand why you think it's not healthy.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    I weigh daily and use a trending app, like many others here. I've done so for over two years. Before that, I only weighed once or twice a year (at doctor's office). I didn't even own a scale. Neither way is healthier or unhealthier. I just choose to have another set of data in addition to the mirror and clothing fit.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    I'm the only one I know who does this but sometimes I weigh and don't even look at the scale. It gets logged wirelessly to trendweight.com and I can check it later, not daily, and look at only at the long term moving average.

    Also I like to weigh daily just because I do better with daily habits than with weekly, if it's a 5-second thing.
  • NaturalNancy
    NaturalNancy Posts: 1,093 Member
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    I like to weigh everyday, once in the morning, helps keep me on track.
    I like it.
  • wrenak
    wrenak Posts: 144 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    When the numbers on the scale dictated how I felt about myself and if I was going to give up or keep going, it was a bad idea. Once that number didn't dictate my self-worth, it actually became quite helpful to see the daily numbers. If I'm up on my official MFP weekly weigh-in, or the same, seeing the daily fluctuations and patterns helps me not go, "But I did everything right! All week I ate within my calories, I exercised, what's wrong with me? What's the point of even trying?" Plus I like seeing all that data turned into a when I'm likely to reach my goal based on how things have been going. Right now it shows my birthday this year being when I hit goal. Will I for sure? Probably not. But as I go along I can see the expected date and adjust my expectations.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
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    I love daily weigh-ins because you get to learn how your weight changes based off what you've eaten, hormonal changes and toilet habits. If I weigh in once a week and that happens to be two "high" days, it looks like i've made no progress!
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    Some of us like data and don't freak out about daily variations. If I had a way to weigh myself continuously I would like that even better - I think it would be cool to see the variations and how they correlate with my eating and exercise patterns.

    If you weigh infrequently you're still subject to daily variations but don't have enough information to put it in context. It's possible for someone to weigh weekly or even monthly, and because of the natural variations not see any weight loss when in fact they are losing weight just fine. Look at all the threads on this forum where posters are freaking out about an upcoming weigh-in; the daily weighing takes the power away from this event. It's just another data point.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    Knowledge is power. Data is power. Collecting a daily weight is knowledge and data. For me it improves the accuracy and likelihood of hitting my goal because I can see where I might need to tweak things by looking at the collated data. Without that the guessing and experimenting factor would be a lot higher.

    I'm going away for a couple of days this week, I won't be able to weigh and that's fine. That, to me, shows I don't have an unhealthy attachment to the scales, it's just a tool I'm using to hit my goals effectively.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I weigh every morning then sync my weight in Trendweight. It smooths out the fluctuations, and lets me see exactly how I'm doing.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,136 Member
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    maidengirl_ wrote: »
    Daily weigh ins just seem like overkill to me and not healthy at all.

    So don't weigh-in daily?
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
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    I weigh daily and take an average if there's any question (I'm in maintenance). When I lost, it was at such a slow rate that I wanted as many data points as possible, and I used the weekly average as my weight each week. Now it's just habit, I think. It doesn't worry me at all or anything.

    I have enough high days from fluctuations that I'm sure half of them would fall on weigh-in day if I picked one day of the week. That could get demotivating.
  • Panda_brat
    Panda_brat Posts: 291 Member
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    cafeaulait7 wrote: »
    I weigh daily and take an average if there's any question (I'm in maintenance). When I lost, it was at such a slow rate that I wanted as many data points as possible, and I used the weekly average as my weight each week. Now it's just habit, I think. It doesn't worry me at all or anything.

    I have enough high days from fluctuations that I'm sure half of them would fall on weigh-in day if I picked one day of the week. That could get demotivating.

    That is why I love the iphones health app. it automatically gives my average weight for the past week, month and year.

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