How often should I be weighing myself?

pharmouth

I don't want to end up becoming obsessed with the scale, but I'm also not sure how often I should be weighing myself (seeing as I don't even have a scale at home.) Do I just log my weight whenever I go to the doctors? Should I buy a digital scale?

TeresaWJ

I never weigh until I go for check-in with the doctor. And I actually do have a digital scale at home, but I won't use it. I'm one of those people who get disheartened if I think I've lost weight, then find that I have not, and tend to just give up. So I don't overly obsess about the weight. I can always tell, however, when I'm losing weight because of the way my clothes fit differently. That being said -- you do you. If you feel uncomfortable not weighing, say once a week, go buy you a digital scale and weigh away! Don't know what other health issues you might have, but I have pre-diabetes and my focus is on managing carbs for sugar control -- the weight loss is secondary. I have lost weight, as I expected would happen, but it isn't the main goal.

chris_in_cal

Everyday. Only once, at the same time of day wearing the same (or no) clothes.

Let a single moment on the scale become meaningless. You'll see weekly or monthly trends that you will appreciate.

Ll0ydD0bler

I weigh every day, first thing in the morning after doing my business to drop that last water weight. I only count Saturday morning as my "official" weigh in for long term tracking and goal achievement. I will get a little obsessive and weigh myself at other times for prediction's sake and for knowledge. For example, I've learned that I generally drop about 4 lb overnight with some variation depending on how much I've had to drink and when I ate dinner.

Also if your scale varies a little depending on how you stand on it, just make sure you do the same thing every day. I've found that I can make mine read low by putting more weight on my left foot. Dumb I know, but I got annoyed with the variation so now I basically stand in the way that gets me the lowest reading, and since I can't make it go lower I accept that number. But in the end it doesn't matter, the point is a large change over time. I really don't care whether I've lost 105 or 102 or 107 lb, the point is that I've been at this for a year and I've lost over 100 lb!

The other thing to learn is that there can be a huge time lag between your actions and the results. Don't expect to eat light on Monday and see a couple pound drop on Tuesday. It might be the following week that you see the numbers coming down. And in my case, if I cheat and blow my calorie limit for a couple days, it's not till the next week where I find I'm in a plateau.

Lietchi

You should weight as often as you find helpful, which varies from person to person.

I'm a data driven person, so I prefer weighing daily (more data points to establish my weight trend). I enter my weigh-ins in Libra, which helps me see the trend beyond the daily fluctuations.
I'm not emotionally invested in single weigh-ins and I find it interesting to see how for example a high sodium meal can impact the scale.
It works for me, but we're all different!

FairryDust

I weigh weekly at work on an analogue scale. It's a brief enough time span for me to see and track progress without becoming obsessed with a number. No scale in my home as a boundary to keep from that obsession as well. I have a friend, who struggles with an eating disorder, who only weighs when she visits her doctor. She pays attention to how her clothes fit and how she feels physically and mentally.

If you don't want to bring a scale into your home and want to weigh regularly, ask a local doctor's office, walk-in clinic, hospital, or health department if you can use their scales for weighing. (Some pharmacies even have scales.) Most will be happy to let you use their scales and support your journey toward better health.

Some basic guidelines for regular weighing: use the same scale, naked or same clothes as much as possible (shoes, if on, are a big part of this), same time of day as much as possible.

I think the most important thing is that you do what works best for you physically and mentally. The scale is just one wellness tool that provides feedback that can be used alongside other tools.

yirara

Daily weigher here. Always after getting up and to the loo. I'm a data-person and know very well that single higher or lower numbers mean nothing, and that water weight is rather fun sometimes. Actually, when I was still working 5 days in the office I noticed my weight would go up until Saturday, and on Sunday and Monday morning it was always lower. I guess a bit of oedema in my legs or elsewhere from sitting at a desk. I'm... a lot more creative when it comes to sitting in home office and I've since lost this pattern.

AnnPT77

I weigh daily, have for years even when not trying to lose weight. I've even recorded it the whole time, these days in a weight trending app. (Those would be things like Happy Scale for Apple/iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device), Weightgrapher, others.)

What you should do is whatever suits your needs.

Some people feel stressed or anxious about weighing. Some of them can break through that by weighing daily and desensitizing themselves, ultimately realizing it's just a momentary snapshot of one's body's relationship to gravity, and will change when they drink their next glass of calorie-free water, so NBD. Others can't shake the stress, or tend to become compulsive/obsessed.

It's probably good to have some metric you can use to figure out whether things are heading in your goal direction, but there are alternatives like a tape measure, the fit of a particular clothing item, periodic progress photos in the same pose/lighting and conforming but not compressing clothing.

If you want to get a scale, get one. An inexpensive one is fine. If you want to wait until you're at your doctor's that's fine, too.

No matter what, be aware that body weight changes up and down by multiple pounds from one hour to the next, one day to the next, even one week to the next . . . even when fat loss is creeping along nicely in the background. The big, quick shifts are changes in water retention and waste in the digestive tract, not fat. Those aren't worth worry, but they can hide fat loss on the scale for a surprisingly long time sometimes. (Plus with the doctor's office option, changes in clothing will make a big difference, too.)

What works for you is the right solution.

8cfhn94bwm

Hi so I’ve been in a calorie deficit for almost a year now. Having a scale at home did help me a lot. I do weigh myself everyday but I only focus on my weekly weight. If I’m losing weight weekly I’m doing my job if I’m not losing weight weekly I’ll try to change something.