How often do you weigh yourself?

budgiejnr

Daily, weekly or every couple of days?

I weigh myself on a Friday at 9am weekly

AmberlyMarlene

Daily (every morning before consuming anything) even though I know it's frowned upon. I never take it too seriously as it is daily and bloat and whatnot isn't always consistent, but I've seen a steady decline overall. It also keeps my head in the game by reminding me my goals and to stick to them at the start of every day.

caity_cakes_

Same - I know it’s frowned upon but weighing myself each day helps keep me on track. I find seeing the numbers slowly go down highly motivating and know not to let myself get upset when they go up a little - that’s just part of the process.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Once a day in the morning after toilet. If you average your weekly measurements (which I do by eye), you can get a pretty accurate trend.

Sometimes I weigh myself before bed, out of curiosity. You can lose more than a pound overnight through pee, sweat, and breathing out CO2!

riffraff2112

I never used to weigh myself because it was deflating to not see progress everyday. No matter how many times I read/heard that 'weight loss is not linear', I got super frustrated with not seeing the numbers drop. Especially when my weight rose, following a period of a few days of 'perfect' discipline. I knew my ego was too fragile to get that feedback so I used the mirror, how my clothes fit and progress in the gym/ or my cardio sessions, as my metrics.

I now weigh myself daily (and sometimes more) because I have a healthier relationship with my 'weight' and the scale. I like seeing how my body reacts to certain workout regiments, or meals. Now I expect a weight gain after a long run, or a super intense workout. For me it is just another metric now, and together with all the other measurements one can use, is one way to see progress and/or set goals.

Fit_Happens_2021

Usually weekly on a Friday. If I know I had a crappy week I don't weigh myself, but I rarely go more than 2 weeks without a weigh-in.

L1zardQueen

Everyday.

Chef_Barbell

It fluctuates from daily to every 2 weeks... if I go past 2 weeks without weighing in, I know I'm avoiding it and probably not working out or logging food and need to get back on track.

4Phoenix

Without fail...nude first thing in the am every day. I've learned a lot about my body and how it responds to certain food. It keeps me accountable as well as motivated. I've learned how to accommodate my food for a healthy body and the scale is just one tool. Like everything about weight loss, there is no right or wrong way. It is a journey of what works for you and fosters health/well-being. My lifestyle gives me joy.

SModa61

When I actually care, it is daily, first thing after bathroom. I even travel with a scale at times just to keep my head in the game. To me it is no different than tracking my food. It is data. I have had this habit for enough time (minus my avoidance stretches than invariably resulted in weight gains) that most of the time I can predict scale outcome, even if calories are perfect. By weighing daily, I am seeing the non-body-fat impact yesterday's food choices can have on the scale and be OK with that. If I did not weigh daily, I would not have that learned association. If I were weighing less often and got an "up" then is that actually fat gain, or a temporary response to preceding day. Anyhow, that is me and each person need to do what supports them best for making healthy changes.

KatyP86

Every single day! But I log my weight only on the 1st and 15th of every month.

kgirlhart

I weigh daily. I don't think it is frowned upon. I think you get a better average if you have more data points. And I look at the overall trend. I think each person should do what works for them. If the day to day fluctuations mess with your head then daily weighing is probably not for you.

AnnPT77

I've weighed myself daily, and noted the result, for probably over a decade, even before I started trying to lose weight. I'm not scale-obsessed in any problematic way, just generally a bit of a data geek, in this and other respects. It doesn't stress me if I get out of routine and miss a day at home, and I don't weigh myself when I'm away from home overnight.

These days, I put the daily weight in Libra weight trending app. In maintenance (or ultra-slow loss, as I've been pursuing lately) even Libra's trend is misleading sometimes, with its default settings, i.e., it will say I'm gaining or maintaining when I'm actually not (from unusual water weight triggers, for example). But it's 100% true - speaking as someone who's spent some time as a *paid professional* data geek 😉 - that more frequent data points will generally show trends more quickly and correctly.

The right answer about weigh-in schedule is individual. From an abstract data quality standpoint, daily under consistent conditions is best, IMO. But people who are very stressed by scale fluctuations may be better off weighing infrequently, perhaps even never (relying instead on fit of clothing, say, or occasional tape measure).

For me, my daily weight is just a snapshot of my body's momentary relationship with gravity, not a metric for my success or value as a human being. I learn a lot from seeing what causes my person random fluctuations, and for me that's been a calming thing.

Oishii

I weigh daily, and at some point I read that in countries where that is the advice (I remember they mentioned France and Japan) people tend to be better at keeping the weight off.

If I stop weighing that’s when my weight can soar.

Luke_rabbit

I weigh daily and have for over a year and a half. Like someone mentioned above, I have developed a much healthier relationship with my scale (and food) from the many wise folks here on MFP.

I do not have hormone effects on my weight, and, to be honest, have never really been able to pinpoint the reasons for my weight fluctuations*, but they don't bother me.

Here's a screenshot of my Libra recently (each dot represents a weigh-in):



* For example, I might have an increase and think "that's because we ordered Chipotle yesterday" BUT, I can go back to 3-4 months ago when we last ordered the same thing and my weight dropped the next day. My daily weight is a true mystery to me! 😁

corinasue1143

Probably 5 days a week. Daily, but I forget often, and don’t bother if I’ve already eaten.

DiscusTank5

I like to weigh myself every morning, first thing. It takes a lot of pressure off, oddly enough. Weighing only once a week (what I did years ago with Weight Watchers) stresses me.

142jmh

I weigh daily as I find I can see the trends a lot more accurately: which foods cause water retention (and how much), how hormonal cycles affect my weight, all that stuff. Its so much easier to keep calm about going up a few pounds when I know its because I ate fish and chips the night before, and in another day, the water retention will have resolved itself. The more knowledge, the better!

ExpressoLove11

I weigh most days, daily if I can, and always first thing after my morning tinkle. I like seeing the data and it keeps me on track.

SummerSkier

I care but I do not weigh frequently anymore (maintaining almost 3 and half years). I am more focused on my energy and fitness. I keep an eye on clothes and rings and my intake but putting the scale into hibernation mid last year was very freeing.

The only times in my lifeI have done that before were when I did not give a kitten but this time it was a very calculated move with other metrics firmly in place to make sure I was not kidding myself.

Summerthemisfitinthisgroupobviously

Gisel2015

When I remember and that is not very often, so maybe once a week. In maintenance going to 11 years, so I go this .

spiriteagle99

I've been in maintenance for several years as well. I weigh myself about twice a week. Because I log my food, I know which way my weight ought to be going based on how I've been eating. I check to see if I am losing or gaining beyond what I expect. If the gain or loss is more than I expect, I'll do it again the next day to see if it's valid. I don't weigh after hard workouts or salty meals or if I've been constipated for a couple of days. No point in torturing myself.

durhammfp

Every day, and like some others on this forum I keep track of it all on Libra.

HungryTraveler

I tried every day and it didn't work for me (I still let the scale get to me even though I know it's just data) so I'm back to once a week. Wednesday is my day, morning, after pee before coffee

mwilcox10

The theory that you shouldn't weigh yourself daily because your weight fluctuates is total garbage in that what if it fluctuates up on the Friday weigh in. Now you have gone a whole week and Nada. Where as if you weigh yourself daily you will see new lows that keep you motivated and if it goes up one day no big deal (That's a fluctuation) you could be back to a new low the next day.

chikadeedoo

I weigh daily. However, I will change this habit, because it really frustrates me to see the 2-pound fluctuations.Three weeks ago, I've started a sustainable healthy eating diet with much lower calorie intake than I used to eat before and regular daily HIIT exercises (running uphill for 40 mins, intensive aerobic for one hour every other day) and initially my weight dropped two pounds. Right now it is not going down, and some days it's back up to the original starting number! I'll skip the weighing daily and instead do it once a week at the same time.

brenn24179

I weigh daily, I know alot of people think you shouldn't. I have had to watch my weight since I was 16 and not until this past year did I start weighing daily. I would weigh once a week or go 3-4 weeks or more. I got tired of 20 lbs showing up so I said I am now weighing every day so I dont get shocked.

rosebarnalice

I go through phases of once a day or once a week.

Sometimes I weight almost every morning (I'm doing that now).

Sometimes when I'm not feeling good about myself (weight-wise or otherwise). I only weigh once a week because even though I know from long experience that weight fluctuates daily, when I'm not in a good place I know that one morning's uptick will put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day . . .so I just don't subject myself to that torture.

When I don't want to step on the scale at least once a week, that's a red flag to me that I'm not in a good place with food. So I NEED to weigh at least once a week to keep square with my relationship with food.

mylittlerainbow

So I am very different from most people here. I have fluctuations and swings if I weigh daily - based on salt intake, hydration, and lots of other things. They seem to dampen/average out if I let a week go by between weighings. And that interval does seem to keep me adequately accountable, since I do also log my food and exercise. So I weigh weekly on Sunday mornings (since that's when I started.) I admit that I do die of impatience if the scale has ticked up a bit, though, and can't always wait an entire week in those cases!

AnnPT77

mylittlerainbow wrote: »

So I am very different from most people here. I have fluctuations and swings if I weigh daily - based on salt intake, hydration, and lots of other things. They seem to dampen/average out if I let a week go by between weighings. And that interval does seem to keep me adequately accountable, since I do also log my food and exercise. So I weigh weekly on Sunday mornings (since that's when I started.) I admit that I do die of impatience if the scale has ticked up a bit, though, and can't always wait an entire week in those cases!

You may be different from some of us in terms of preferences (which I'm not questioning or criticizing), but not so different from all of us in daily swings and fluctuations. This is what my last few months looked like in Libra: The vertical lines connect daily weights to the bumpy, solid, horizontal-ish trend line. (I do weigh daily; if you don't see a weight for 30-ish days each month, it's because some were too near the trend line to show up distinctly.) My weight jumps all over the place, especially through the holidays when eating/exercise habits vary a bit. 🤣



Personally, I don't think there's a universal "should/shouldn't" about weighing frequency. Objectively, different approaches may have pros/cons that we can discuss . . . but a lot of what's going to work best for an individual is the subjective part: What provides the most helpful guidance for that person, without being annoying or stressful in some way.

reversemigration

Over the first couple of years of loss and maintenance I weighed daily. This not only helped to keep me on track, but it was great data to help me sort out signal from noise - what events and foods might cause my weight to spike (or drop), for instance.

I still weigh myself fairly frequently, as it keeps me honest. There may be a time where I slack off and go by other metrics, but I don't quite trust myself enough yet.