When do YOU log a loss?

suibhne

I weigh in every day because I like having the data. I log every datapoint. What matters to me is the long-run moving average, not the number on any individual day, and I've seen enough of my body's patterns that I think weighing in once a week would give me a much less accurate picture of what's going on. That is, weighing every day gives me enough granularity that I can extract a meaningful pattern with a week or two of data, sometimes less; I imagine I'd need more than that to feel confident with any pattern I perceived with 1/7 as many datapoints.

The important thing is to figure out what makes the most sense for your situation.

livedb

Every morning when I get up. I think the small up's and downs are part of the process, so why hide it? It also gives me motivation to put those numbers behind me.

jim9097

Not sure how I would log it; I have only gained since starting on here...

debralekicsummers

i weigh ever Monday. If i have a slight gain i don't log,only if it goes over 1 kg (2.2lbs) but don't let it discourage you, just use it as a guideline.

escloflowneCHANGED

I check every week but only log it into MFP once a month!

ltgarrow

after a poop

Absolutely understandable.

amwoidyla

I weight myself everytime I go to the gym (4-5 times/wk) since I don't have a scale at home. I only log when I've seen the same loss for 3 weigh-ins, which could be over the course of a week.

Ennaelangels

I get round this by having a weigh day!, once a week on the same day at same time off day i weigh myself in same clothes, closest you can get

Me too.. that way I won't become obsessive and there is consistency in the information.

NovemberJune

I log my weight every day but I also turn off the auto update so my friends don't have to see my weight fluctuations every other day

MexicanOsmosis

I weigh myself every Friday and log the weight be it up or down.

Mine is Monday morning. I also log it whether it's up or down.

sandra80

i log every day no matter what the change is.

55in13

I get round this by having a weigh day!, once a week on the same day at same time off day i weigh myself in same clothes, closest you can get

Me too.. that way I won't become obsessive and there is consistency in the information.

I weigh every day and sometimes more out of curiosity (how much did that meal put on or that run take off?). I hate to break it to you, but the only consistent thing you will get is the day and time. I have seen swings that I can offer no logical explanation for. Had I only weighed once a week, I would have been fooled into thinking my weight was up or down when it may stable or the opposite. In the long run, it all works out. I have lost over 50 pounds and while I have seen rare swings of 6 pounds, most are under 4. So within a few weeks the swings could not overlap any more. But weekly weigh ins can cause you to be depressed for a week or two for no reason.

jgetzler

I get round this by having a weigh day!, once a week on the same day at same time off day i weigh myself in same clothes, closest you can get

Me too.. that way I won't become obsessive and there is consistency in the information.

I do the same!

itsscottwilder

I log daily

sweetpea129

I log whenever i see a loss, that first day. I don't log if my scale goes up. Reason being that i never eat above maintenance so any "gain" on the scale is water and i know will come off.

toothpastechica

I log every time I step on the scale...some weeks that's once, some weeks that's every day. I like seeing the fluctuations both good and bad so that its easy to track the damages certain events, meals, habits have as well as the successes. if I only logged once a week or when there were losses I feel I wouldn't be as likely to hold myself accountable every day in what I choose to eat or do with my day every day.

SarahIluvatariel

I have issues in this department - related to water consumption/weight.

I used to log every day (for about 4 months --all the ups and downs). But I found that I was getting too stressed out about how much water I drank the night before ("A pint's a pound, the world around" --a pint of water weights one pound at sea level). I'm always thirsty at night, and often feel like drinking at least a pint. But I would find myself skimping on my nightly water consumption to try to help me hit my next goal, sometimes. Finally I decided that getting more water is probably more important than losing weight --especially since I rarely go over my calorie goal.

So now I make myself log whatever I see on Wednesday mornings (whether it's up or down), and the rest of the week, I usually log each loss, but don't stress myself out the night before by avoiding water in order to actually achieve the hoped-for loss. This way, I can happily drink a pint and a half of water before bed (1.5 lbs!) if I'm thirsty for it, and not really care. (Except for on Tuesday nights... lol I can't win!)

My secret hope is that drinking MORE water helps me actually lose more fat while I sleep. But who knows.

maybeazure

I log a loss the second I see it on the scale. Or at least I do if both of my scales agree on it. Yeah I have two...right next to each other. On the other hand, I don't log a gain until a week has gone by. This means of course that I have far fewer gains than losses recorded, but I figure that's the best part of MFP. I get to do it my way.

DesdemonaRose

I weigh every morning when I first wake up, but only log a drop now. I use to log whatever showed, but, I couldn't find any food + weight patterns worth noting and was tired of it saying, "yay you lost weight!" when it was just a fluctuation. I sometimes weigh myself during the day because I have a weird number fascination (it goes way beyond just weight loss and I don't freak out when it ups a little) and this last weekend I had a big weight drop after doing homework for a few hours. Apparently I was burning something, ha. It was really unexpected.

stephaniemejia1671

after a poop

Nope, not weird.