How often to weight myself?

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nathashasingh90
nathashasingh90 Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How often do I have to weigh myself?
I have been doing a weekly weigh in. But recently the weighing scale shows weight gain. But I feel much toner, and stronger. I don't want to be discouraged. So the question is should I still do a weekly weigh in?

Replies

  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
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    Yes. Just record the number and move on. If you are not overeating and are in a deficit then it could be water retention. If you gain two weeks or more in a row look at your logging and eating pattern. Eat less exercise calories, use a food scale, etc. Not weighing myself was how I put on about 60 lbs. Not saying that would happen to you, but now I know I need to keep track of my weight to know what's going on.
  • Jadub729
    Jadub729 Posts: 135 Member
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    I weigh myself every morning and log it.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited May 2018
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    At the end of the day it doesn't matter how often you weigh yourself but that each month on month you are gradually seeing your weight come down.

    I'm a daily weigher even in maintenance, the scale fluctuates a lot for all of us and that's normal, my lowest weigh in day is usually a Saturday, my highest a Monday. But overall the trend is I'm maintaining my weight which is what I want so its all good.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    This question comes up quite often it seems. It really depends on you and your situation. The more confident you are that you are logging correctly and eating at a deficit the more liberty you can take with your weigh in schedules I think. The exception is probably when/if you are losing .5 a week and you only have 250 calories a day between deficit and maintenance and then you might need to stick to at least weekly.

    The popular trends here are daily and weekly but you just decide what is best for you. I, personally, have not weighed for over a month because I do what is best for me.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
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    Take measurements and use those for comparison. You don't have to weigh in at all, though most of us find it helpful. It's more important that you are weighing and carefully logging your food than yourself.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
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    nathashasingh90 wrote: »
    How often do I have to weigh myself?
    I have been doing a weekly weigh in. But recently the weighing scale shows weight gain. But I feel much toner, and stronger. I don't want to be discouraged. So the question is should I still do a weekly weigh in?
    1 weekly fluctuation isn't necessarily a bad thing, and doesn't necessarily mean you're not at a deficit and losing fat.
    LyssaRonnell wrote: »
    Maybe you're seeing a bigger number on the scale because you've gained muscle. Muscle weights more than fat, so maybe track your progress by measuring inches lost.
    But unless you're eating at a surplus you're not going to gain weight. And you're not going to gain enough muscle over a week to affect scale weight.

    Unless you're a teenage boy, or you're stacking Test.
  • mazcor536
    mazcor536 Posts: 115 Member
    edited May 2018
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    I weigh daily but look at my weekly average weight for progress purposes. Day by day your weight can fluctuate wildly, and if you only measure once a week you risk catching yourself on a high day which can make it seem like you’re not making progress. It’s entirely up to you how often you weigh, but make sure you’re looking at trends/averages over time rather than individual weigh-ins.
    To illustrate my point, I’m in a group chat with friends who are all trying to lose weight. We check in every Monday with our weight. Last Monday I posted 12 stone 5.2, and today I posted 11 stone 12.4 (almost a full 7lb loss in a week!!). BUT, my average weight for the first week was 12 stone 3.8, and the past week was 12 stone 1.8 (2 lb loss for the week). Sodium and hormones played havoc with my daily weigh ins and if I’d only weighed on Monday’s I wouldn’t have seen the bigger picture.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
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    You may actually do better weighing daily than weekly. Weight fluctuates and you may have missed a low day, hit a high day.

    buinhikpw2q6.jpg
  • MrsRachaelFisk1
    MrsRachaelFisk1 Posts: 37 Member
    edited May 2018
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    Period? Ovulation?

    I gain water weight when it's my time of the month... up to 5lbs on the first day of menstruation.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
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    serindipte wrote: »
    You may actually do better weighing daily than weekly. Weight fluctuates and you may have missed a low day, hit a high day.

    buinhikpw2q6.jpg

    Getting in touch with your weekly, daily, and monthly fluctuations can help you calm down if you're prepared to seek understanding of the impact of hydration and feeding and voiding and hormones on your scale weight(which isn't a 1:1 to your BF%)
  • EatLikeAHuman
    EatLikeAHuman Posts: 30 Member
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    I weigh daily because I like the data. I find weekly more discouraging because if you had a bad night the night before, or are going through lady times, or maybe have water weight, or whatever, that sometimes that weekly number can make it feel like you went way off track, when it's really just a normal fluctuation.

    When it's daily I find it's easier to see the fluctuations and that your highest highs are lower than they used to be. Rather than just "Oh my god I gained two lbs this week even though I was measuring my damn spices to the gram" it becomes "yesterday I was one and a half lbs lighter so obviously this isn't just fat gained."

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