Weigh daily or weekly?

Clddleopard

I'm within ten pounds of my goal weight. So far, I've been weighing myself weekly. I changed my loss rate from 1 pound a week to half a pound per week (I read that's a better rate when you're within ten pounds of goal), but now my weekly weigh ins aren't consistently going down the way they used to. So, my question is, would weighing daily using one of those trending apps help psychologically? The weigh in used to be exciting but now it's a disappointment as often as it's a victory. I guess I'm looking for pros and cons of weighing daily versus weekly at this point in my weight loss. Thanks for any input!

kshama2001

Clddleopard wrote: »

I'm within ten pounds of my goal weight. So far, I've been weighing myself weekly. I changed my loss rate from 1 pound a week to half a pound per week (I read that's a better rate when you're within ten pounds of goal), but now my weekly weigh ins aren't consistently going down the way they used to. So, my question is, would weighing daily using one of those trending apps help psychologically? The weigh in used to be exciting but now it's a disappointment as often as it's a victory. I guess I'm looking for pros and cons of weighing daily versus weekly at this point in my weight loss. Thanks for any input!

Yes

Lietchi

I weigh daily because it gives me more data than weekly weigh-ins, to determine my weight trend.

This is what it looks like for me the past 3 months, at a show rate of loss:

freda666

There is only one answer to this question and that is to do what works for you as what works for other people is irrelevant.

AnnPT77

Clddleopard wrote: »

I'm within ten pounds of my goal weight. So far, I've been weighing myself weekly. I changed my loss rate from 1 pound a week to half a pound per week (I read that's a better rate when you're within ten pounds of goal), but now my weekly weigh ins aren't consistently going down the way they used to. So, my question is, would weighing daily using one of those trending apps help psychologically? The weigh in used to be exciting but now it's a disappointment as often as it's a victory. I guess I'm looking for pros and cons of weighing daily versus weekly at this point in my weight loss. Thanks for any input!

I prefer daily weighing plus a trending app, but everyone's psychology is different. Some people have stronger emotions, even worries, at watching weight bounce up and down daily . . . which it almost certainly will. For me, it can be up to a couple of pounds over 24 hours (at 125ish pounds bodyweight), without any major change in eating or activity, and I'm in menopause so I don't have the backdrop of hormonal water fluctuations making that more extreme as younger women possibly will.

A thing to realize, as you consider how this would work for you, is that even a trending app can be misled at times, especially when losing very slowly. I think of it this way: If my weight can randomly fluctuate for no (obvious) reason by 2 pounds daily, but I'm losing half a pound of fat a week, it could take over a month, possibly even up to two months, for the scale weight to *clearly* show that loss, because 1/2 a pound a week could *possibly* take 8 weeks to outpace the 2 pound random fluctuations. (In practice, it probably won't take that long without an obvious reason like new exercise or a head cold or something, but the math suggests that theoretically, it could.)

Losing slower than that on purpose (more like a quarter pound a week), at one point I had a Libra trend for several weeks that looked like I was *gaining*. (I'd restarted regular strength training.) This didn't cause me stress, because I knew it was incorrect. How did I know that? I've been logging/tracking for well over 5 years now, weighing daily much longer. I know my calorie needs under various conditions, I know how my body handles fluctuations and why, and (most importantly) I trust my logging/counting process. Sure enough, by the next month, the trendline reconnected with reality, and showed loss.

At some point, you'll need to find an alternative to the reward of seeing the scale drop. In maintenance, it just meanders around, y'know . . . but it's good to pay attention to avoid regain. Maybe start thinking now about what rewards are meaningful to you beyond the scale drop, and start giving those more mindshare? Figuring out how to trust the process - whatever process you use - is really useful for calm and happy weight maintenance, too.

But sure, if you don't think it will be stressful, daily weighing and a trending app can be helpful. Personally, I think daily weighing alone is pretty helpful, as it helped me understand my body's weight behavior, and (over time) took all the stress out of fluctuations.

Alongside a trending app, or instead, you could consider averaging your daily weigh-ins for the past 7 days as of a particular day of the week, and comparing those averages. That may sometimes show ongoing loss when a trending app won't, for various reasons.

It'll be good to be thinking now about how you plan to manage maintenance, too.

lgfrie

I've done both. I prefer daily weighing for accountability and have weighed in every day for 600 days. Weekly weighing tends to lead me to a lot more missing of my calorie target. If my weigh in is Saturday, I just don't feel the incentive on Monday to not have that extra 75 calories worth of cheese, whereas knowing a weigh in is coming Tuesday morning tends to keep me right on track (not always, of course).

Trending apps are pretty helpful, psychologically speaking. I don't use one anymore, but when I did, it really did help with the "I haven't lost any weight this week!" mindset.

wunderkindking

Truthfully, once I dropped my loss to .5lbs, I stopped weighing more than once every month or so. I also have my calorie allowance set to maintain and just eat 'less than' that and keep an eye on my WEEKLY report (under reports in MFP) and make sure I stay +/- 20 of 1750 (which would be the weekly deficit for losing .5lb.)

It just isn't worth the stress for me to watch my weight do apparently nothing but bounce around for weeks, and then abruptly drop 3 lbs just after my period ends. If I just get on the scale at that point I see the 2-3lb loss and feel good.

But if you need the accountability I get it and a trend app may work.

Clddleopard

Thank you for your input! I think I'll try daily weighing and just see how it feels. Any Android app recommendations? I don't see Happy Scale in the Play store, so I'm guessing it's iOS only?

AnnPT77

Clddleopard wrote: »

Thank you for your input! I think I'll try daily weighing and just see how it feels. Any Android app recommendations? I don't see Happy Scale in the Play store, so I'm guessing it's iOS only?

Yes, Happy Scale is iOS only. Libra is a similar Android app that I use, but there's also Trendweight on the web (requires a free Fitbit account, as I understand it, but not a device), and I believe Weightgrapher is also web-based. There are probably others.