Weigh in frequency
cparkhurst7cp
Posts: 3 Member
I see that you can update your weight in the app. How often do members recommend weighing themselves to avoid getting discouraged? Once a week, a couple times a week? Thoughts?
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Replies
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You know yourself best.
I weigh myself daily, and record the result . . . and have done that for literally years, even long before starting to lose weight. (I'm not weight obsessed, I'm a data geek in this and other ways.)
What I like about it is that it's helped me to understand how my weight fluctuates from day to day (from water retention and waste in transit, mostly, in the short run), what causes upticks or downticks, how long they're going to last, etc. However, I'm completely unemotional about one day's result: It's just one data point, a momentary snapshot of my body's relationship with gravity, not relevant to my total worth as a human being.
Some people do get excited, or discouraged, or ashamed, or feel guilty, or have other emotional reactions to their scale weight. Some of those people may be better served by weighing less often, if they can't get past those kinds of unpleasant reactions.
I don't even think I have a "true weight". I have a current range that bounces around a few pounds in the short run. In the long run, that range tends to be lower (if I'm losing weight), higher (if gaining), or about the same (maintaining). It's that longer-term trend I care about. If the first week of last month I was bouncing around between 128 and 132 pounds, and the first week of this month I'm bouncing around up and down with extremes of 125 and 129 pounds, I figure I'm losing fat, which is what I'd want in that scenario.5 -
I have a "Smart" scale that hooks into iOS's Apple Health. Part of my morning routine is stepping on the scale after I let out our dog and before I get my morning coffee. If it's not part of a routine for me it will never happen. I try not to look at the number too frequently. I try just to look at the quarterly trend line to make sure I haven't stalled or started loosing weight too fast.
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You know yourself best.
I weigh myself daily, and record the result . . . and have done that for literally years, even long before starting to lose weight. (I'm not weight obsessed, I'm a data geek in this and other ways.)
What I like about it is that it's helped me to understand how my weight fluctuates from day to day (from water retention and waste in transit, mostly, in the short run), what causes upticks or downticks, how long they're going to last, etc. However, I'm completely unemotional about one day's result: It's just one data point, a momentary snapshot of my body's relationship with gravity, not relevant to my total worth as a human being.
Some people do get excited, or discouraged, or ashamed, or feel guilty, or have other emotional reactions to their scale weight. Some of those people may be better served by weighing less often, if they can't get past those kinds of unpleasant reactions.
I'll second that.
I weigh daily and look at the longer term trend (in the Libra app and my own spreadsheet). I like to have the data and weighing daily also keeps my head in the game.
I'm very analytical about my weigh-ins though, individual weigh-ins don't disturb me. At this point in my journey, even my Libra weight trend spikes upwards occasionally, but after 2 years I trust the process.1 -
everybody does what works best for them, their goals, and their mental health (sometimes that last one is the BIG one).
personally, I weigh daily, log it in happy scale daily (a trending app), and on MFP weekly. on a daily basis, i forget the number as soon as its logged. often, i forget the number from the time it takes me to walk from the bathroom back to my phone and have to go back to the scale LOL
if daily fluctuations bother you, i suggest weighing LESS frequently.1 -
Thanks for everyone's thoughts. The mental part of it with the ups and downs really bother me. Along as I see progress I'm happy and more apt to sticking with my diet. I think I'll try twice a week. Thanks again.4
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I have my clients weigh-in every 4 days. This smooths things out, yet gives enough frequency to react to a stall.
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I weight daily, doctor's...strong recommendation. But I'm also fully aware that I don't eat exactly the same things in the same amounts every day, and there will be variations day to day. And I'm not prone to freaking out over one day's bad number.1
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cparkhurst7cp wrote: »Thanks for everyone's thoughts. The mental part of it with the ups and downs really bother me. Along as I see progress I'm happy and more apt to sticking with my diet. I think I'll try twice a week. Thanks again.
Do what works for you, but weighing daily and logging it into the Happy Scale trending app helps me with the natural fluctuations.
I log into MFP when I remember.1 -
I way weekly so that I don't have to worry or even think about those odd fluctuations that happen day to day. As others have said, you gotta do what works for you. I only want to see the number go down, and by weighing weekly I either see it go down, or a I see a stall and know to pay closer attention over the next week, but the random fluctuations are not so much an issue.1
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I just do it whenever I've managed to get up, and go to the loo before drinking/eating anything! Because I do this my weight seems to stay pretty consistent! I have been in maintenance more or less for about 5-6 years now.2
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I weigh every three or four days, first thing in the morning, when I think of it.
But…. Here’s my tip for not getting discouraged: If I gain, or remain static? I don’t log it.
This works best for me, because I don’t have to look at any of those annoying fluctuations that always happen. My graph is downwards. Sometimes a gentle slope, sometimes a steep slope. But always downward.
It’s a silly trick. But it works for me.3 -
That's an awesome tip. I'm very visual so seeing the graph go down would be an incentive for me too. Thank you2
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I'm not trying to talk you out of your planned schedule, but just pointing out a possibility to be aware of.
As I mentioned, I weigh daily.
Pretty much all through weight loss, I can pick out periods of a week (sometimes longer) where if I'd happened to weigh in on just the wrong day, I'd think I'd not lost, or even had gained, when the whole pattern shows pretty clearly that overall loss is happening on average. Getting a lowish normal day as the baseline, then a highish normal day as the subsequent weigh-in, is what gets one that result. (There can have been weights lower than either, in between.)
How likely that misleading result is will vary somewhat with loss rate, and its more likely to be an issue with adult women who aren't in menopause yet. I've seen other women say they only reach a new low weight once a month (because of hormonal cycles). Personally, I've had period of multiple weeks, up to a month, when losing *slowly*, that even my weight trending app thought I was maintaining or even gaining weight, when I knew (from longtime tracking experience) that I was actually still slowly losing fat. Eventually, the expected loss showed up in scale weight.
Again, not trying to get you to change your planned schedule or approach. Just wanting to encourage you to keep going with a sensible plan, even if you see some result that's temporarily discouraging.
Bodies are weird. Sometimes scale results are misleading as to fat loss success. Don't give up!
If you've been losing well at a given calorie level and activity level, you'll keep losing. If you don't have major changes in eating or activity, no relevant medical problem, the fat loss will show up eventually. If you actually *do* approach maintenance calories while behaving consistently with eating/activity, it will tend to be a gradual slow-down in loss, not a sudden stop.
Don't let it fool you. Don't give up.3 -
I weigh myself almost* daily. First thing in the morning (or afternoon, when I'm on night shift), roll out of bed, hit the loo, brush my teeth (because when I first wake up, that simply can't be procrastinated, yuck), then step on the scale.
*once in awhile, usually when I'm beyond sleep-deprived or in a huge rush or some combination of the two, I'll start getting dressed and then realize I've forgotten to weigh in. Not gonna undress just to weigh, so I say F it and skip a day, not a big deal.1 -
I use to weigh myself daily. But i found- (with just me personally), if i didnt see a loss after really staying on track the day before, id lose my motivation, get all bumbed out and end up sabotaging the whole day..even slipping into a full week or more with negative self talk and giveing up on healthy anything.. but thats just where my mind goes.
This time around though im staying away from the scale on the daily basis and only checking in once a week.
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You should pick something that works for you. Some ppl weigh themselves each week -- and it doesn't bother them if the scale goes up or stays the same. If it bothers you that the scale has not gone down....then do not weigh yourself every week. Simply bc weight loss is not a perfectly straight downward trend. It will fluctuate and go up/down. You want the TREND to go down if you're trying to lose weight and that is based on lots of data points over time.
I think every 3-4 weeks is good....it's long enough to probably to actually be able to use the information to inform if you should make any adjustments.1 -
I'm not trying to talk you out of your planned schedule, but just pointing out a possibility to be aware of.
As I mentioned, I weigh daily.
Pretty much all through weight loss, I can pick out periods of a week (sometimes longer) where if I'd happened to weigh in on just the wrong day, I'd think I'd not lost, or even had gained, when the whole pattern shows pretty clearly that overall loss is happening on average. Getting a lowish normal day as the baseline, then a highish normal day as the subsequent weigh-in, is what gets one that result. (There can have been weights lower than either, in between.)
How likely that misleading result is will vary somewhat with loss rate, and its more likely to be an issue with adult women who aren't in menopause yet. I've seen other women say they only reach a new low weight once a month (because of hormonal cycles). Personally, I've had period of multiple weeks, up to a month, when losing *slowly*, that even my weight trending app thought I was maintaining or even gaining weight, when I knew (from longtime tracking experience) that I was actually still slowly losing fat. Eventually, the expected loss showed up in scale weight.
Again, not trying to get you to change your planned schedule or approach. Just wanting to encourage you to keep going with a sensible plan, even if you see some result that's temporarily discouraging.
Bodies are weird. Sometimes scale results are misleading as to fat loss success. Don't give up!
If you've been losing well at a given calorie level and activity level, you'll keep losing. If you don't have major changes in eating or activity, no relevant medical problem, the fat loss will show up eventually. If you actually *do* approach maintenance calories while behaving consistently with eating/activity, it will tend to be a gradual slow-down in loss, not a sudden stop.
Don't let it fool you. Don't give up.
This is super important to be aware of. LOW FLUCTUATIONS HAPPEN.
8-1 I weighed 136.9.
8-8 I weighed 134.2 <-- This is a fake low.
8-9 I weighed 135.5
If I only weighed once a week and I happened to catch that 134.2 I would think I GAINED nearly a pound and a half of fat the previous week.
That would be false.
All that actually happened was that I started my period and was a little dehydrated and had no food in my system due to feeling crappy. My weight bounced back up to something 'real' as soon as I got hydrated and ate some food.
Absolutely do watch your trend and absolutely weigh as frequently as works - I don't weigh all that often - but DO be aware that DIPS can be part of the fluctuation, not just spikes.
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Once a week is probably often enough, for me. However, I sometimes do it twice a week. I tend to get discouraged if I'm not seeing any progress, so if I know I'm losing, I will weigh a couple of times a week to keep the motivation going.2
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westrich20940 wrote: »You should pick something that works for you. Some ppl weigh themselves each week -- and it doesn't bother them if the scale goes up or stays the same. If it bothers you that the scale has not gone down....then do not weigh yourself every week. Simply bc weight loss is not a perfectly straight downward trend. It will fluctuate and go up/down. You want the TREND to go down if you're trying to lose weight and that is based on lots of data points over time.
I think every 3-4 weeks is good....it's long enough to probably to actually be able to use the information to inform if you should make any adjustments.
This is what I plan to do personally when I get closer to maintenance and weight loss is slower. It would be too difficult/tedious to track a quarter or half a pound weekly.. Currently if I don't see weight loss for one week, I try not to let it bother me, but at my weight (270) I should see something weekly.
I don't think there is a right or wrong way, but personally weighing daily made me feel crappy in the past so I won't do it. I wish my BF would stop too. She just lets it get to her when she sees it go up, even though she knows that is normal.2
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