The Scale Debate

Tacklewasher

Daily as well. It works for me but doesn't for everyone. Find what works for you.

tinkerbellang83

I weigh daily and add it to MFP, I have turned the automatic weight updates off as I'm not looking at it daily to see that I'm losing weight, I am using it as a tool to understand what happens to my body in terms of water retention when I eat certain foods, how my monthly cycle affects me, etc. It has helped me stop freaking out about fluctuations. For my weight loss I refer to my Friday weigh in, which I record in the weigh in group and refer to the excel sheets/charts that I post up monthly showing everyone's progress.

elisa123gal

I've been on both sides of this debate.. and now I weigh myself every day. Why? because i lie to myself.. waste weeks and months of "dieting" and "working out" without results. How am i ever going to learn what is working for me if I don't weigh myself. I'm doing it every day and it is a real slap in the face.. .but i think it will lead me to success in the long run.

PrincessMel72

I used to weigh every week. I've tried every day but that drove me insane. Now I'm once a month on the first day, first thing in the morning before I step into the shower. I'll log that weight on my app and go from there.

AnnPT77

BDonjon wrote: »

As you've noticed there are 3 camps here:
1. Every day (my preference): Good because you can log your weight daily, and see the daily changes. You can also make a 'science' out of it, so you have a better idea how your body reacts to certain factors from the day before. Bad if you let the number on the scale affect your mood every day.

2. Weekly: Good because, since you're weighing less often, you're more likely to see consistent losses. I honestly can't think of any negatives.

3. Never: Good because you can "feel" progress, independent of the scale. You come to rely on the way your clothes fit, compliments you receive from others, reduced body measurements (which I definitely recommend if you don't weigh yourself). Remember though: non-scale victories (NSVs) are great, but I wouldn't sell the scale short if your goal is weight loss.

Great post!

If one weighs weekly because it's too stressful to weigh daily, I think one potential downside is that without the insight into routine daily fluctuations, one could accidentally hit a higher weight fluctuation day for a weigh-in, and be even more distressed about being up a couple of pounds. If you know you routinely fluctuate that much and more, it wouldn't be as stressful.

Personally, I think one of the underlying problems is that people somehow believe they have "one true weight". We don't.

Drink some water, go up a pound immediately. Eat some extra salt, go up a pound the next day. Get in a sweaty workout, go down half a pound. Eat some large amount of high-fiber low-cal food, be up half a pound for literally days until it processes out of our digestive tract. And that's all independent of the "big deal" issues we're focusing on, fat loss and possibly muscle gain (slow, slow muscle gain ).

Even in a calorie deficit, our bodies are using and storing fat routinely during a day, storing and losing water, taking on and excreting food and food residue. We have, at best, an approximate weight. We can take a snapshot at any given time, and see a number.

But what's important to us when we're losing weight is not the view in a snapshot . . . what's important is the plot of the movie: Are we on a losing trend, a gaining trend, or holding steady, over a period of time?

midpath

I would either shoot for weighing once a day so you could record fluctuations...or maybe once every two weeks. I have friends who weigh once a month even because you can definitely see if there's been progress.

PAV8888

midpath wrote: »

I would either shoot for weighing once a day so you could record fluctuations...or maybe once every two weeks. I have friends who weigh once a month even because you can definitely see if there's been progress.

Nope, you can't *definitely* see progress.

Pretend you are achieving 250 Cal a day.

This comes to just over 2lbs in a month.

Now considered how many situations can result in a 2lb or greater water weight change on an overnight basis.

Whether mentally someone can handle daily weigh ins recorded in a weight trend app remains an open question.

What is not an open question is that daily weigh ins under "identical" conditions recorded in a weight trend app paint a more accurate picture of what your weight is doing.

And it still doesn't tell you what that weight change consists off :-)

inertiastrength

I like weighing every day because you see the normal fluctuations. Over time you will see a downward trend on your mfp graph but as daily weighers realize, it's not linear and it helps me personally to see the proof of that. What if on week 2 or 3 you are holding 3lbs of water and it looks like you've done nothing? I prefer data. I'm a data junkie but I don't obsess over the numbers day to day.

fitmom4lifemfp

quitquit14 wrote: »

I understand that having a scale at home can be handy for weighing in regularly and staying on top of weight loss/gaining goals. But having a home scale also opens the door for "number obsession". I am considering buying one to help me stay focused on reaching my weight loss goal, any of you pals got ideas or input for me?

I weigh every single morning. Have done so since 2004. I need it for discipline. Others don't. I can't imagine not having a scale in my home though.