Dreaded scale..

danibodani

How often do you guys & gals 'check in' with your scale? At the moment I am getting too excited and wanting to do it every morning, but I know that is a bad bad habit.

LoraF83

It can be a bad habit or a good one - depending on much emotion you tie to the number.

I go through periods where I weigh myself every day. I like to see how different changes with my routine affect the scale. But I also don't lock myself in my bedroom with a pint of B&J's if the number is higher than I expect. I know what I'm doing is working, so even if the scale bounces up due to water retention, I deal with it and move on.

red_road

every two days. longer if ive been bad. I like digital scales because they show 0.2 loss or gains. With an old fashioned scale i would weigh in once a week, perhaps because im so tall i wouldnt be able to see a difference in anything but full pounds.

Burghaus

I like every morning and have seen a lot of posts of people on MFP that also do so.

There is a theory about weekly because your weight fluctuates each day and you will get depressed with the highs and lows. But does once a week really tell you anything. For example, if you weigh in on Friday at 135 lbs and that weight is down a little because of dehydration and your real weight is 136. Come the next Friday, let’s say the scales says 137 but a pound high due to excess in your system. You have not changed weight but it appears as though you have gained two lbs. You could have the reverse affect as well.

What I would think would be cool and used to do via spreadsheet is a 5 day average. If you could compare your average weight for the past 5 days to that of yesterdays prior 5 day average, you may get a better idea of where you are head. It has some latency but would at least take out some of the variance.

MyChocolateDiet

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LLT57

I weigh myself everyday to remind me not to overeat. When I don't weigh myself I just let myself get of control. It's part of my whole regime thing.

anytime15642

I do it daily because it helps to motivate me. Also, I've read that studies have shown that it aids in maintaining weight loss. I try not to be disappointed with my numbers, it helps to guide me, especially with what I eat that day.

christinazaia

i weigh in once a week.......................i think its not so good to weigh myself everyday because if i see the scale going up i get discouraged
but some people like to weigh every day to make sure they dont gain....but really people gain weight from muscle too

christinazaia

how long hav u been weighing daily for .....do u feel its a good thing

GnosisGnosis

Water weight, glycogen stores, intestinal capacity, etc. ensures that weighing every day is useless.

cmcollins001

The only "bad" part about weighing everyday is if you give too much credence to the numbers. You can't trust something that says you will lose 1/2 lb brushing your teeth or gain 1/2 lb after you pee.

I weigh everyday because I like the data points, but I know that it's the long term trending not the day to day fluctuations that mirror the success.

ETA: The only time I actually "check in" and record a weight on MFP is every time I get a new low. I keep the ups and downs recorded separately elsewhere.

dizy17

once a week.

malk2651

I weigh myself several times a week to watch for trends, but I only log my weight once a week at the same time on the same day. Some days its higher, some days its lower, but log day is when it counts for me.

hilaryhill

I weigh every day. I have a digital scale.

When I record my weight, the first time I get down to the next lower weight, I record it on here.

JulesAlloggio

I step on mine every morning before I do anything... I also keep track of my numbers but numbers on the scale will jump around like crazy so I don't rely on them. I also take progress pictures..you can see better results with that.

GURLEY_GIRL3

I weigh every morning before I get ready for work. It helps keep me in check..really! If your get discouraged easily I do not recommend this at all. It will go up and down daily. I only record loss, not the gains so my ticker always has exactly what i have lost since started this in Jan.

horrorstory

I weight daily when i first wake up, but I only log it on Mondays. Seeing it everyday keeps me accountable and make me want to work harder. Also I like to see how it changes through the week. Its all a personal choice though.

MyChocolateDiet

i weigh in once a week.......................i think its not so good to weigh myself everyday because if i see the scale going up i get discouraged
but some people like to weigh every day to make sure they dont gain....but really people gain weight from muscle too

^this

seltzermint555

I check the scale every morning. Like someone else said...it's part of my regime and a great reminder at the start of every day what I am doing for myself!

But I don't log a weight loss until it is maintained for 4 days at least. I usually update any change on Monday mornings.

For example, I've "lost" 2.2 lb this week and I would love to see my ticker change, but not until Monday morning will I consider it "official" hehe

FTR, I never owned a scale until March 25 when I joined MFP. When I was a teenager, my stepmom kept a scale in the house and I would get too discouraged because when my weight never changed even if I felt like I'd been eating better and become more active. It did not motivate me. I was scale-phobic in a way, for almost 15 years.

I like having a scale, it makes me feel in control. It is challenging to not get too 'down' if I see a 1 lb gain but I just keep reminding myself it's probably sodium/water and it always comes off.

TribeHokie

I'm still trying to figure that one out. When I started I didn't check my beginning weight, so when I finally stepped on the scale two weeks later and saw a weight four lbs higher than I thought my starting weight was I had a mini freakout. I then consulted the forums and weighed the pros and cons of each method (daily/weekly/monthly/not at all). I weighed myself every day for two weeks to get a better understanding of all the shizz that goes on and definitely saw some interesting things happen. I am currently hiding the scale for five weeks because I want to work on doing good things for my body regardless of the numbers and I am in the middle of the 30 day shred so I know there will be some muscle gain involved that will offset fat loss.

Really, it is whatever you feel comfortable with. My advice though would be to consider other things as well, like how your clothes are fitting.

Msnevergiveup70

I sure know about the dangers of a scale so I now weigh myself on a Monday at my Doctors office. She has been working with me on weight loss. This is the first time I have worked with a doctor on this problem.
About eight years ago a joined a calorie counting group and we met once a week. I went down to my goal weight in 14 months however I became addicted to the scale. When I quit smoking I started to put the weight back on and I panicked. I did every thing wrong. I found myself weighing in several times a day. I got so bad when I first started another diet I would even weigh myself during the night. It was a silly thing to do as weight fluctuates with water retention as we all know. Anyway I just got more depressed. Then I did the best thing I could do. I threw those scales away and now the only way I can weigh myself is on my Wii Fit and that takes planning as you have to put on the TV and turn everything on, not something you just do on the spur of the moment. The good thing with this method is my Wii just says if I gained or lost since the last time so if the number is different from the doctors scale it does not matter too much. One more tip is to put your scale on another floor or in a storage closet so you have to make the effort to bring it out.
Hope this helped you.

cici1028

I used to weigh myself every day. That worked for me when I was working on losing weight, but that stopped working for me when I got into maintenance. I had gotten to attached to the number that I would let it dictate my day. I might think I looked cute when I woke up but if I got on that scale and saw any deviation I would instantly see myself as large and overweight and have a 'bad day'. So one scale got tossed and now I weight in maybe once a week and make sure my muscle mass/fat% are in check!

NoeHead

I do an "official" weigh in every saturday morning but I like to weigh every day just because i like to see how low the numbers go and see if i hit that number on my weigh in. For some reason I like seeing the difference also after i go to the bathroom, i know it's useless but for some reason it amuses me.

timbrom

If you can emotionally deal with the daily weight swings, which can include some fairly surprising weight increases from day to day, then weighing yourself daily and tracking a running average of the last week or two is the most accurate way to get a real idea of what your actual weight is doing. It smooths out those daily fluctuations quite nicely.

joanfudala

Do not worry about the weight on the scale! Here is proof: before I started boot camp, I weighed 149.6 pounds and had 29% body fat and 106.3 pounds of lean weight. Now I weigh 148.6 pounds and have 20.3% body fat and 118.5 pounds lean weight. I have also lost 20.75 inches. This is with calipers, so I trust the accuracy.

danibodani

Thanks for the replies guys.

I was having a hard time for the past month and a bit as I was working out and didn't really see much weight loss in numbers on the scale. I put it down to building muscle. I knew that I must be losing something as my clothes began to feel looser.

I think because this is a new challenge for me I am feeling I like I am excited to weigh everyday to keep a hold of that motivation and see if what I am doing is working. Seeing even a slight decrease motivates me further.

I am also going to have an 'official' Saturday weigh-in whether I lose of not. I know that if those numbers go up it's just going to light an even bigger fire under my *kitten* to shift the weight.

257_Lag

Water weight, glycogen stores, intestinal capacity, etc. ensures that weighing every day is useless.

Unless you would like to learn about things like Water weight, glycogen stores, intestinal capacity, the effects of sodium, hot weather, a change in exercise. Then it's pretty darn useful!

Daily weigher here! First thing. Chart it, learn from it.

No right or wrong answer here.

Alwayssohungry

How often do you guys & gals 'check in' with your scale? At the moment I am getting too excited and wanting to do it every morning, but I know that is a bad bad habit.

why is it a bad habit ?

danibodani

why is it a bad habit ?

Maybe that was an incorrect statement, or I had worded it incorrectly. But it is just what I have read before, and what people had told me. Apparently if I focused on the numbers, and they happen to go up, I'd get de-motivated. So it's better to focus on how I felt and how my clothes fit... blablabla

I have heard and read a lot of conflicting ideals. Hence asking on here with people who are actually trying to attain the same goal as me how they feel about the scale...

jwdieter

If you have a sophisticated approach, weighing several times/day would provide useful information.

If you freak out, give up, and grab a bucket of ice cream whenever you see a number go up, then weighing may be a bad idea.

danibodani

If you freak out, give up, and grab a bucket of ice cream whenever you see a number go up, then weighing may be a bad idea.

Fully agree!