I started weighing twice a day and like it

OAS5
OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I'm down 76 pounds with about 15 more to go. Very happy, but not satisfied, that is how I say it to keep motivated. Anyway about a month ago I started weighing twice a day and now I like it. In the morning after going to the bathroom when I first wake up the recommended way. Then when I get home from work at 3:30. I mean I jump in the shower as soon as I get home from work anyway so I'm naked anyway so I thought why not give a quick weigh in. The funny thing is I am either lower weight or the same exact weight as the morning. Its about 50/50 split between lower and the same which surprised me a bit. I have an extremely physical job, 10,000 steps by 10 AM sometimes. I also drink a ton, ton of water at work. Being lower or the same in the afternoon, is that surprising or not so much?

Replies

  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    If you’ve been doing this for a month, it’s a trend at the moment for you. Probably not usual for most people. You’ve lost quite a bit of weight already, so you know what’s best and works for you.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
    Weight can fluctuate quite a bit during the day, both up and down. I'd guess that since your job is very physical, you may be losing some water during the day, even though you are drinking a lot as well. Drinking a lot of water also helps to flush out waste in your system, so it's not totally surprising that you might weigh the same or less after your work day.

    As long as you are doing this as a curiosity and to get more data points, I don't think it's a problem if you want to weigh twice a day. Just always bear in mind that fluctuations happen every day, sometimes for unknown reasons. The important thing is your trend over time...as long as your general trend continues in the right direction, you don't have to worry about the daily ups and downs.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,839 Member
    Yes, the electronic scale rounding function can give you the illusion your weight is staying exactly the same when it really isn't. Then, when it can no longer justify the same weight it will leap to the new weight. To prove this to yourself, try weighing before you poo and after. Your poo weighed something but the scale may well not show any loss at all. Since our weight varies so much in any 24 hour period it helps to remember the scale is only a reasonable approximation and you are looking for long term trends. It helps me to click on reports and look at 90 or 180 days. There I can see the slow downward trend glaring out of the daily ups, downs, and plateaus.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    cerad2 wrote: »
    Quite a few electronic scales have a rounding sort of function in order to generate the illusion of producing consistent results. Next time you do a 3:30 weigh in, weigh yourself with and without an artificial weight. Such as a half a gallon of water perhaps.

    i just found out about this - it explained why i wasn't seeing small, expected drops in weight. i bought one the manufacturer said doesn't have that feature, and now i'm happy.

  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    I only do it because the scale it there and I'm already getting in the shower so I'm without clothes. It's just curiosity, 100% curiosity. Interesting data though.
    I was at maintenance for about a year. When I started weighing a second time I started my cut of calories again to lose the last 15 or so pounds. It's all in conjunction.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Most people don't do 10,000 steps by 10am so not surprising that your results aren't like most people's.
    I can weigh significantly less after a long or hot cycle ride due to dehydration despite drinking constantly, maybe your job is having the same effect?
    (The weigh in after a ride is to approximate how much rehydration is required.)

    A recurring exact weight does sound more suspicious than a lower weight though and I'd also be inclined to check the scales for false consistency with/without a light weight. Not a heavy weight as that would be more likely to trigger a display change.

    Mine don't BTW and I can simply rest a finger on a window sill to see variations down to a tenth of a pound.
  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    My scale to be honest seems to be very accurate and consistent. I know when it needs batteries because it'll give wild swings of weight right in a row or in a short period of time.
  • Courtscan2
    Courtscan2 Posts: 499 Member
    cerad2 wrote: »
    Quite a few electronic scales have a rounding sort of function in order to generate the illusion of producing consistent results. Next time you do a 3:30 weigh in, weigh yourself with and without an artificial weight. Such as a half a gallon of water perhaps.

    I suspected they did something like this, but good to know I wasn't just being paranoid!! Sometimes I do give it an artificial weight (by hanging on to railing) to see if the follow up reading will have changed at all. Became suspicious when my reading was EXACTLY 64.3kg for 10 days in a row. Just seems unlikely....
  • imminatotaro
    imminatotaro Posts: 13 Member
    I just can say that in the day the weight fluctuate to much , so for don`t became a slave to the scale use every week , during just do your plan or work out , so when you will see the difference, and remember not always you body change on weight , sometime he change on size or energye
  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    imminatotaro wrote: »
    I just can say that in the day the weight fluctuate to much , so for don`t became a slave to the scale use every week , during just do your plan or work out , so when you will see the difference, and remember not always you body change on weight , sometime he change on size or energye

    Yeah definitely have to guard against getting hung up on the number on the scale. I have at times gotten extremely annoyed at the immediate number on that day and that is the worst thing you can do. Most of the time, 95% of the time I take it all in stride. Also yes just stick to doing the right thing, to the plan and nothing bad can happen. For most of the first 65 pounds I had absolutely no worries stepping on the scale, none. When I upped my calories I wasn't worried but knew that today was not gonna be a drop day. Now that I am back to a strict plan I have absolutely no worries in the morning stepping on that scale.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,102 Member
    My routine is first thing in the morning daily weigh ins, but I'll step on the scale randomly now and then. It's fairly consistent for me to be at my lightest weight of the day sometime in the late afternoon/early evening, from what I've seen. Sometimes that's the same weight as my morning weight, more often it's a bit lower. (I've tested my scale. It's not one that "remembers" the last weight. I'm an old software gal, so I'm good at testing things. 😉)

    This weight pattern is not a big mystery to me, about me. I often eat dinner late, not long before bed, and (trying to avoid TMI here) the commonest timing of my disgestive cycle results in a lighter weight in the afternoon. If I add a lightly-hydrated workout in there, it'll be even moreso, because I'm a champ at sweating, even during light workouts.

    I think the seeming trend in this thread to imply that it must be a problem with your scale, is wrong. It might be, but it need not be. Bodies and daily routines are not all cookie-cutter identical, across people. Think about what times of day you eat the most physical weight/volume, when you drink, when you sweat, etc. It may be completely logical, even though "lightest in the AM" is a more common pattern.

    If you're not obsessed, stressed or emotional about weighing more than once a day, there's no reason not to do it, IMO. Also IMO, no particular pattern is pathologically weird. It's just a random factoid about our body's constantly-changing relationship with gravity. 😆

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