I can't figure out what I really weigh due to fluctuations ... What do you recommend?

alg324

The first week of April, I could tell I had gained weight. I could see it in my face and feel it in my clothes. Plus I had pneumonia in March and had very poor stamina as a result.

So I weighed myself and didn't like the number. I really started to fix what I was eating. Cut the junk and fast food. No soda. No sweet tea. portion control. Before this, I didn't think about it much, other than not going crazy. I started with the tracking app "Lose It" but just this week came back to My Fitness Pal because I think it provides better and more accurate info. Also started walking , because I sit at a desk all day.

Lose It had me weigh every morning, so I did. Best I could tell, I may have lost 3 pounds since April 1st... But I can't be sure. Some days my weight can go nearly up to what it was in the beginning (147 was my highest). My lowest logged weight so far was 142.

My "comfortable" weight over the last couple of years has been 137-138, and I have usually been able to easily get to that with portion control. Not this time, but I guess age is taking its toll and I need to be more patient. But I can't say that I have ever seen my weight fluctuate so much day to day.

Should I just quit weighing myself daily? And how do I know what I REALLY weigh?

alyssa_rest

I weigh myself once every two weeks or so! I get obsessive with the scale and get too down on myself when I see it fluctuate as well so I had to make myself stop. I also never weigh myself during that special time of the month as I tend to gain upwards of 5lbs of bloat. Every two weeks seems to show me a steady loss, but I know a lot of people who also do every week. It's all in how you feel about it!

dawnemjh

Day to day you will fluctuate due to water, salt etc. You can weigh yourself everyday if you like to trend the numbers, but I would pick one day per week and use that as a weigh in day and every week use the same day to track. Then look at the trend over time, like a month.
For me I know that I not only fluctuate every day, but every week. 2-3 weeks before my period my weight can go up 5lbs easy and stay up for a week or 2, sometimes even longer. Then usually right before I am due I will have a whoosh down....so I do check almost everyday, but I have to look at the trend over time, and even week to week is not a good scale for me....I look at month to month...Keep up the good work!

nordlead2005

I weigh every day and use trendweight. However, if you ask me what I weigh, I'll tell you whatever I weighed myself this morning rounded to the closest lb. Honestly it doesn't really matter, as you said there are flucations so why drive yourself crazy trying to extract accuracy out of something that isn't that accurate.

Robo_mooh

I weigh daily and use trendweight synced to my fitbit to average my loss. There are also phone apps which work too - happy scale (apple) and libra (android) are two which I hear mentioned a lot!

Ninkyou

I use Libra which gives me a trend weight. However, if someone asks me, I tell them my lowest weight.

Nikion901

Weight fluctuates daily because of many reasons ... including the scale and your body that moment. It's your call on how often you weigh yourself or even if you do, there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer here.

richln

I prefer to weigh myself every day and use an app that keeps a running average of my weight (I use Libra). I fluctuate a lot every day, so just looking a single day's weight is pretty useless for me. Weighing once every week is also pretty useless for me because I don't know if that particular day will be a high day or a low day.

kshama2001

I weigh myself daily (naked, first thing in the AM) and try to not get annoyed at the normal fluctuations. Like right now I'm up three pounds from last week due to ovulation. Lyle McDonald says women with menstrual cycles should compare their weight to that point in the previous month. And when I do that, I see I weigh 4.4 pounds less than I did last time I ovulated, and feel much better. If I didn't weigh daily, I wouldn't have this data.

Best frequency of weighing for you depends on which type of person you are: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/how-often-should-you-weigh-yourself/

Here's the Lyle McDonald video. It's long; I watched it while doing yoga warmups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6846ZTBu08k&index=4&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr

As for my official weight, I use my lowest monthly weight, which happens a week after my period starts.

Machka9

I weigh daily and watch the trend. A single number is not all that important.

Methynks

I'd say it depends on how you feel about daily weighing, some people are shocked by the daily fluctuations, others (like me - it helps me personally to stay accountable during the day to know that I will step onto those scales tomorrow morning again) just like to keep track.

Its important that you weigh yourself at the same time of day with the same clothes (i.e. after getting up, after the morning pee ;-) only in your underwear) so that you have the least fluctuation through drinking/eating during the day.

If you want to stick to daily weighing, I would recommend having one weekly weighing day that you count (every Wednesday for me) or just to add them all up and do an average (or if you are creating a graph - add a trend line. That way you eliminate the daily fluctuations and you can see that you are on the right track and are indeed losing weight. I am not sure there is actually a "true weight" - our body is adjusting constantly to input/output. Unless you "declare" your morning weight as your "true weight"

Or if you would rather weigh every two weeks, you can still do the same trend line - just over a longer period of time. You have to find out what suits you.

AND please bear in mind that the scale is just a number, eating healthier and moving more and feeling better in your clothes and in yourself is what this is all about! not just a pesky number

kcjchang

I do a weekly weight in and monitor the rolling averages (a period of 7) for tends.

hypodonthaveme

I weigh daily to monitor my water retention. But I only mark my weight on the 1st of the month and the day to day weigh ins I don't stress over it.

newheavensearth

I weigh daily and use Libra to look at the trend. Fluctuations are normal, but if it trends upward, it's time to get back in action.

cwolfman13

You don't really weigh XXX Lbs...nobody does...body weight isn't static...weight management, including weight loss is about trends and averages, not the actual number...this is why it's ridiculous to put so much focus and attention on a particular number or achieving some exact number...body weight isn't static.

Toribeth23

Just throwing my 2 cents to agree with using an app that tracks trends. I use Libra on my phone and do weigh myself daily. My weight fluctuations, like yours, are always super crazy. Yesterday morning my weight was 195, this morning it was 192.3. If I weigh myself this afternoon or evening I can bet it will be somewhere around 197... You'll make yourself crazy looking at it all day long... I know I do. lol. The BEST thing that helped me is using a weight tracking app. With Libra, you put in your weight every day and it will tell you how much you're actually losing per day/week/month and give you a trend, or average, weight to go by. (It also estimates how long it will take to reach your goals with your current trend, which is pretty cool.)

To me using the average/trend weight as my "actual" weight feels more honest than saying I weigh whatever I saw on the scale this morning.

Jruzer

Here's an analogy:

How much money do you really have? Do you have what's in your checking and savings account each time that you check them? Do they constantly fluctuate as checks are cleared, deposits made, and interest earned? Or do you have some general notion that you've got a certain amount of wealth based on your income and expenses?